WIP Wednesday

Things are progressing (if a little slower) on my Miette Cardigan :) I've almost finished on sleeve.

To confess - the reason I haven't gotten more done this week on the sweater is ... I've been sewing! Well, more like prepping for sewing :)

I suddenly had the urge to sew up this pattern ... so I went with it :) This is the first time that I started a project completely the correct way: with a muslin (which is a mock-up of the item sewn with different fabric to check the fit before making the real thing). And my first muslin looked like this:

This is why we make muslins, lol. Yeah, that wouldn't look so good. Not only was it was too big, but it was gaping like crazy at the top too, which is why that flap is pinned down the center. I drew that blue line to show the edge of that flap - crazy! It turns out I have what is called a "hollow chest", lol. Maybe that explains why I can be a little heartless (ba-zing!). Anyway, I tried a few different "tricks" I found online to fix it, with no real luck until I watched my Fast Track Fitting class on Craftsy and saw someone else asked about the same problem. The proper fix is to make a muslin, pin out the excess, and then treat that as your new center fold line. So finally on my third muslin, I got this:

Woo hoo! Much better :) To get to this point, I took out that big wedge from the center (almost 5" at the neckline!), added 1/2" just above the sleeve hole, and lengthened the bottom by 2 5/8".  After all these changes, I had to "true" my pattern at the shoulder and neck so that it would still work ok, and then I had to add 2 darts to the upper back too because apparently I'm a hunch back, lol, and I had to lengthen the other pieces to match that 2 5/8". Also I had to go 2 pattern sizes down from what I first cut out (which was the size the pattern said my measurements would be - they added 4 inches of ease into the bodice! Crazy!)So last night I made up my final pattern and it looks like this:

Just to show you, here is my new bodice front pattern piece next to the original one from the pattern:

Isn't that crazy? I feel like a narrow-fronted giant with no waist when I look at this picture, lol, but at least I know it will fit properly so that's all that matters. After all those nights of working on this, and tracing/altering the pattern pieces at least 5 or 6 times each, my poor sewing room is in shambles. Here is my chair:

My 3 muslins are draped on the top (all with zippers and everything), and my many pattern pieces are just piled in the chair. And check out the floor:

Yeah, I look like a total slob, I know, but once one piece didn't make it in the can, I just went with it. I'll be doing a full scale tidying tonight. But after that, I am ready to cut my real fabric! I'm so excited to have this pattern fitted - it's such a basic design I know I will be able to make many iterations of it in different fabrics. I'm still a little weary of it not fitting quite right, so my first dress will be made with some thrift store mint green gingham seer-sucker that I grabbed for 75¢ for all 3 yards. It may end up a little cutesy, but I like it and also I won't be heart broken if it doesn't work out great. I'm also using a white sheet set from the clearance section at Target that I got eons ago, so all in all a really cheap make :)

I'm excited to get this baby made up! I can't wait!

That's what I'm working on this week. Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others have in the works!