Muslin No. 2

This time I chose a fabric more like the muted gold one that I’m going to use eventually: The Cerise 4 way Stretch Soft Touch Lycra Jersey from Tissu Fabrics. The key ingredient is of course spandex / lycra. This one is slightly more light weight and more drapy though. So not so great for very fitted top which would show any lumps and bumps that we acquire along the way. Unless you’re wearing Spanx of course. Anyway, not great look for ladies of certain age. But as this is a color that I’m not too sure about, I don’t mind using some up for making muslins.

As for the pattern…

The green lines are original size 34. The red lines are my adjustments.

I made a few more changes:

• Taken 3/4″ off front shoulder seam in the hope it’ll pull the upper back up and keep those sway-back wrinkles at bay. Let’s hope this won’t choke me in the front neck instead!
• Raised the underarm part of the arm scythe back up, and adjusted the arm scythe curves slightly.
• Narrowed the sleeve by removing 1/2″ from both sides. Actually, I compared the pattern to my most recent measurements for wrist, elbow, bicep, and high arm width (front crease to back crease). That’s how I determined I can comfortably remove 1″ from the sleeve along the whole length.
• Shortened the sleeve by 1″ and reduced the cap height by 1/2″. Adjusted the arm scythe curves by slide & pivot method, joining up my new width and height reference points.

Here’s how it sewed up – or hand-basted together…

Not bad, I can live with that.

White flag to sway back, I’ll have to live with that.

Note the bit of wrinkle at front underarm…

Underarm wrinkle visibily reduced & without the miracle cream!

OK I cheated again. The less wrinkly underarm side had additional adjustment:

• Lowered the underarm part of the arm scythe back down 1/2″.

It was too dark to take photos last night after my first basting. And I was too impatient to wait overnight before attacking that underarm wrinkle. As a compromise I only changed one side so you can see the before & after picture in one go. BTW it’s more visible in real life. Light condition is still not great for photo-taking, so it might not be so visible in the photo.

Final pattern for Burda 2012-09-123

Again, green is original size 34, red is my final pattern, orange is Muslin No. 2 take 1. The few final adjustments are:

• Shortened the sleeve a further 1″. Measurement-wise Muslin No. 2 should be correct. But maybe because this Cerise fabric is light-weight, drapy 4-way stretch, it succumbed to gravity and grew lengthwise.
• Redrew the shoulder piece seam line so that it’s more slanted. I’ve removed quite a bit from the front shoulder, so I was a bit worried that a short almost horizontal piece might emphasize my relatively broad shoulder.
• Widened bust area by 1″ total and sleeves underarm area by 1/2″ to match, so that I’d look less like a slightly over-stuffed and lumpy sausage. I also widened hip by 1/2″ total on the final copy of the pattern, but forgot to update this working copy.

And my Fitted T-shirt Block

Although the final Burda 2012-09-123 is almost basic as you can get, it nonetheless has one design feature left: The slightly widened and lowered neckline. I want my T-Shirt Block to be like a second skin, with the minimum ease necessary, so that I can base a variety of designs on it, including turtlenecks. So the final changes added are:

• Lengthen shoulder seam towards the neck by 3/8″.
• Lengthen CF upward towards the neck by 1/4″.

So there you are, T-Shirt Block done. And Dolce & Gabbana inspired Burda 2012-09-123 in muted gold ready to roll. Once Saffy the sewing machine comes home of course.

Now what do you think I should do with the Cerise Muslin No. 2? Unfortunately I only added 3/8″ for seam allowance, so I can’t make it much looser. One possibility I’m considering is cutting a new front and make it into Burda 2013-02-113…

The back hip might be slightly too narrow. But maybe the extra fabric in the front will loosen the fit and hide the bulges. Lengthwise the Muslin is long enough to reach my hip – I tucked it up in the photo to see how a high-hip length fitted T-shirt would look like.

If you have any other suggestion for this Muslin No. 2 please share! Muchas gracias 🙂

OK, let’s get down and dirty. First off…

Size Selection & Pattern Alteration

I used my TNT cowl T pattern McCall 6078 to compare the Burda sizes with. 34 came closest, though according to sizing chart I’d be between 36 & 38 by bust measurement. I think Fit for Real People mentioned Burda 34 is equivalent of Vogue size 8, which is what I’m now using as my go to size with FBA.

Overlaying size 34 Burda 2012-09-123 (translucent tracing paper) on my adjusted M6078 (opaque paper), I decided for the back pattern to follow the M6078 shoulder line and side seam, trace the neck and arm scythe seam lines but cut on the Burda pattern cut lines.

The front was harder to compare since M6078 is cowl neck. So bust up is probably wider than a standard T-shirt block would require. So the only change I made initially is to graded out to size 36 at the underarm to match M6078.

Muslin no. 1

OK, these aren’t the initial results. I forgot to take pictures. These are after I made some further tweaks:

• Lower CB neck slightly.
• 1/2″ sloping shoulder adjustment on front.
• Truing the side seams by adjusting the front side seam curve to match back side seam curve – making sure that CF and CB are parallel (front pattern is now about 1/2″ wider).
• Lowered underarm part of arm scythe by about 3/4″.

I thought I’d fit the bodice first.

Looks good…

Looks goodish…

Ugh, slight sway-back wrinkle still.

All in all I thought it fitted relatively well. I think I’m giving up on the sway-back adjustment for knit. I just can’t seem to completely get rid of those wrinkles in the lower back.

Then sleeves on. And what’s this?

Armhole grew, shoulder lengthened.

OMG bad case of wrinkles!

Readjusted for back photo.

And that sleeves, that over generous sleeves.

I can pinch ~1″ at upper arm.

And even at underarm.

They weren’t kidding about sleeves stretching things out were they? And I thought I was being clever fitting the bodice first to avoid any problem there throwing off the sleeves. Maybe that theory would work better with woven.

Part of problem might have been the wrong choice of fabric. This mid to hefty weight 100% cotton interlock jersey from Tissu Fabrics / Tia Knight stretches and stay stretched…Until the next time you wash it maybe. Then it’ll probably shrink on you. It is however quite lovely to touch and to sew with. The color range is also fabulously vibrant. Bright enough to need sunglasses.

But I don’t know. It’s not really me. I just can’t think of what to do with a fabric like this with little drape, a bit of heft, yet not stable enough for a light jacket or something.

I had used up some of the Turquoise for an earlier T-shirt Block attempt based on McCall 6612. I don’t feel chic in the result. So it’s only worn at home as a slob out top. Hence I’m not feeling motivated to use up what’s left of the Turquoise. I’m not even motivated to finish this first muslin.

And I still haven’t touched the 3 meters of the Bright Orange! This might be the rare occasion when I give away the fabric, send it to a better parent who know how to cultivate it to get the best out of it.

BTW the colors in the shop photos aren’t quite accurate. Even my Turquoise photos here look different from real life. It’s a bit duller and less blue. But the Bright Orange is brighter and not so yellowish and warm. That’s the peril of internet shopping. But I did read somewhere that Tissu Fabrics do send out swatches. Trouble is I’ve just never been patient enough to wait for swatches through the post!

Anyway, the pattern is now further adjusted and ready for Muslin no. 2. Stayed tuned.