Louise's First Fitting

Have I ever mentioned how important dress fittings are? If not, I'm doing it now. Fitting garments using a muslin is crucial if you want a garment that fits properly and is flattering. This is especially true if it is a fitted garment that will be less forgiving than something with more ease, or if you have made changes to the pattern.

I last sewed for Louise a year ago, and this is the same pattern, so you'd think it would fit exactly the same way that it did last year, wouldn't you?

Apparently not. Bodies change over time, and the assumptions we make about body shape are not always correct.

©Aspiring Threads

Here is the bodice muslin, after marking everything that I need to fix. It doesn't look very nice in this photograph, because I didn't press the seams since, after all, it's just a fitting muslin. Also, my dress form is smaller than Louise, so don't use it as a reference for fit. One of these days, my dress form will get her makeover, but not yet.

Louise asked for more room at the bust, so I did a 3/4" FBA at the fullest part of the bust (remember what I said about assumptions about body shape?) Unfortunately, this isn't where she needed the fullness, so I marked with chalk on the muslin where the fullness needs to be (the three horizontal lines). The FBA put the fullness above her bust, which simply isn't going to work, as it made the seams above the bust "tent". This tenting is marked with chalk above the bust. The tightness at the bust also led to the bottom of the bodice pulling upward, which interrupts the nice, smooth lines of the bodice over the tummy. Of course, the weight of the skirt will help keep this area smooth, but we don't want tightness or pulling in the finished dresses!

Also, I thought I'd redrawn the armscye on the pattern tissue, but perhaps I didn't, as I need to drop the armscye about 1 1/4". This is marked on the back of the muslin, which is why it is not visible in this photograph.

None of this is a really big deal, and I expect to be finished the second muslin tomorrow so that Louise can come back for another fitting whenever she's got time this week... but can you imagine what a disaster it would have been if I'd just cut into the fabric she bought without doing fittings first? She'd have ended up with two poorly fitted dresses, and I'd feel terrible!

Always do muslins. Always. Especially if you're sewing something fitted. You won't be sorry if you spend the time to do a fitting and everything is perfect, but you will be if you skip this step and there's something wrong, because you can't always fix it after the fabric has been cut.