The Perfect Fit

A few years ago my husband and I were invited to attend a wedding.  I remember thinking, "what on earth am I going to wear?"  I mean I have absolutely no formal wear whatsoever.  I'm just not the kind of girl that gets all gussed up.  I dreaded having to go to the mall and find a dress.  I know what you're thinking, "what woman doesn't love to shop?"  Well that's me, the abberration in the family. 

I always start off with fresh energy if not exactly excited to shop, pick out a ton of beautiful garments then head back to the dressing room with high hopes.  I take the time to get undressed and pull the first one on over my head only to stop half way on as it gets stuck around my hips.  No problem, I pull it off and try on the next one.  Nope that one I can't get my arms through.  Take it off, try on the next one but I can't zip up the back.  By the time I take this one off my hair is standing on end and flying into my face.  This is the part about shopping I hate.  Nothing ever fits and it ends up just being a hassle with no reward at the end. 

I get the bright idea that instead of trying on a bunch of great dresses that won't fit and finally settling on something that looks terrible I will just make my own dress.  Yes that's the ticket.  I spend hours, days really, sewing up this great dress with really gorgeous fabric, but guess what?  It doesn't fit right either.  The sleeves were a bit too tight, the bodice a bit too big, and little pooches where the darts are (okay that last bit was just because I'm not a very good seamstress yet).  All that time and money and it still turned out awful. 

So when I decided this year to make a dress for my niece's Halloween costume I wanted it to be perfect.  I looked to my best friend, Pinterest, for advice and was directed toward a blog on how to adjust your pattern for a perfect fit before you cut it out and sew it up.  Awesome, just what the doctor ordered.  The idea is to make a cheap copy of your dress or outfit using muslin.  That way you can make adjustments to the outfit without wasting precious fabric.

How to Make a Muslin

Step 1:  Cut out your pattern pieces just as you would with the fabric for the dress except you will be using the muslin instead.  Be sure to mark all the sewing instructions as well as the pattern details just as you would when making the dress.  In this case I just did the bodice as the dress has a flowing skirt that will not need adjustment.

Step 2:  Construct the bodice according to the directions, but use a basting stitch instead.  In my case the bodice was very small and I just used safety pins to put the bodice together to try on.  Add the closure, usually a zipper for dresses in the back of the bodice.

Step 3:  Have your subject try on the muslin piece and mark any adjustments that need to be made.  Luckily for me if fit perfectly as is and there was no need for me to make any adjustments.  Yay!  Okay I lied.  I did find out that the dress strap needs to be lengthened about a 1/4", but really this is easily done.  If you weren't so lucky you can follow this link for instructions on how to do some basic alterations such as change the length and width of the bodice. 

Some of you may think this was a waste of time and material, my mom just uses the tissue pattern pieces after all, but this was definitely easier to put on a squirming child (a bit of an exaggeration) and there was no danger of ripping the pattern.  Bonus, I've decided to save time and use the muslin pieces as the lining for the dress.  Not such a waste after all.  In fact, while reading more of this woman's blog the post following the two links above was on underlining a bodice.  Didn't even know what that was, but basically it sounds like you just add the muslin as the backing to your fabric instead of lining to protect the skin from scratchy materials.  Not sure if I will do that this time or not though.  I would like to look into it more first.

Let you know how it all turns out.  Wish me luck.