I do Believe the Muslin's Done !

That is, of course, unless someone looks at these pics and cringes because something is REALLY wrong.

Today's adjustment was the left armhole, had to take in the back at the bottom of the armhole - same adjustment I did last week on the right side. Both adjusted shoulders/armholes...

Front & Back

I started to fiddle with the waist line again, but on this pic, the waisline and the hemline are 'almost' straight.

The waist is comfortable as it is, so I'm going to hope that the weight of the wool flannel, the cotton flannel and the lining will all help this hang evenly. I think now feels like the right time to just 'go for it' and move on to the next step.

Coat - V8346 - What am I doing wrong ?

Here we go again - Sleeves had diagonal wrinkles - after checking instructions on the coat sewalong blog, I unpicked the sleeves and moved the shoulder dot forward about 1/2"

The pics show tonight's change first - compared against the same view(s) from my last post.

Back...

Right side...

Left Side...

Ideas, anyone ?

The Neck Fits !

Everything done on the last post had to be undone, except moving the right shoulder seam forward - I've also done a narrow shoulder adjustment - the shoulders were too far over mine and the neck was 'really' wide !

Then I just didn't quite understand the 'how to' instruction to make my neckline fit, BUT, I read (and re-read) all my books, searched the Net, and re-read the books again for making a neckline smaller. I'm not sure I followed 'proper' sewing tecniques but the neckline now fits alot better.

Those 1" seam allowances came in handy. I had already done a round back adj. and the CB was sitting ok on my neck. The long seams where the lapels will go had the 1" seam allowance. What I did was mark 3/4" on each shoulder seam seam allowance closer to the neck and just drew a line from CB to that mark, decreasing the neck width, and tapering back down the lapel to the original marking at the bottom. The S.A. on the back neckline was a tad short but it was just enough to get this basting stitch in .

How did I do ? and am I now ready to try the sleeves again ?

I've also noticed that although the line I drew from my ear to shoulder on each side matches up with its seam and looks ok, I only moved the shoulder seam forward on the RIGHT side. The seam on the left side is the original one which seems to have moved into place after adjusting for the high round neck and adding shoulder pads - is it possible to only have to move 'one' shoulder ?

V8346 - Muslin Adjustments

It's hard to believe but I've managed to to all the adjustments suggested on the coat sewalong :

1) High Round Back - I raised the neckline 1-1/4" (sliced the back just under the seam line at CB, lifted the CB up and basted muslin fabric into the wedges)

2) Bust Point too high - Low Bust Adjustment - I lowered the bust point 1-1/4" (too chicken to cut the pattern tissue, from the side back piece I traced the pattern of the bust onto tracing paper, used the grainline of the side back as placement, shifted the template down and traced the new lines onto the muslin, merging with the original seam lines just before the top of the side back piece and the waistline.

3) Waist too Tight - let out 1/4" at each side seam - total 1" gained ('may' need a bit more - once I try it on with a winter weight sweater). Edit - Yup, needed a little more room - let out 1/4" on all 4 princess seams as well - another 2" gained.

4) Waist too Low - raised the waist line 1" (traced a line 1" up and folded original waistline up to meet the new line, basted the seam). Edit - front waist still too high. Raised back 1-1/2" to the side seams. Raised front 1" at CF tapering up to 1-1/2" at side seams.

5) Since the waist was raised, the hem needs to be lowered by 1" (front) to 1-1/2" (back) as well.

6) Still have to set in the sleeves. Edit - V8346 is a 1-piece sleeve, will try to fit M5247 instead.

7) Marji suggested changing the angle of the shoulder seams to make room for the shoulder pads - I'll try it on first. Edit - I think they're ok, will confirm when I post the next pics.

We have company coming tomorrow - will only be able to continue on Saturday.

Coat - V8346, View A

I posted my first muslin for the coat sewalong yesterday -

Here goes, I cut a size 16, basted every line, and sewed it together. I didn't think it was too bad til I saw the pictures. The grainlines are straight, the shoulders are in the right place (I'm pretty sure).

Here are my 'I thinks'

1) I think the length of the shoulders and the width of the upper back are ok

2) I think the bust points are too high (or I'm too low LOL)

3a) I think the stitched waistline is too low - if it is meant to be at the natural indent of my waist (that's about 1-inch higher)

3b) but the waist is too tight when I match up the CF - so would fixing the height of the waistline also fix this ?

Now, I don't know how to fix any of these, so here are my pics and request for HELP ! :-)

Now - after a couple helpful comments from Cidell and Lisette M. (Thank you !) and a lot of reading of the few sewing books I have, I got up the nerve to try my very first pattern adjustment - a low bust adjustment - OMG, it worked ! - well it half worked - one side is done. I was way too nervous to cut into the pattern tissue so I traced the bust portion onto tracing paper and used it as a template, shifted it down 1-1/4", connected all the dots and resewed. So, one bust fits and the other is to be done this morning.

The waist on the muslin is about 1" below my natural waistline, so I measured the length on the muslin and asked DH to remeasure me to find out how much to raise the waistline. THEY WERE THE SAME - HELLO ??? Can we say 'confused' ?

I looked at the pictures again and tried on the muslin - the top of the neckline is sitting about 1" below that bump on your neck where you measure from.

Now that I think about it, the back waist is 1" too low, the neck line is 1" to low, the shoulders 'could' come forward about 1" and the bust is 1.25" too high.

If I could put the jacket on and make it sit 1" forward, I think the only line that would be off is the front waist line. But this is where the jacket sits on me naturally and shifting it forward makes it really uncomfortable. So I have to figure out how to fix it.

I'll work on it today. Vacation this week - lots of time to play with it.