Saturday, June 14, 2008

First Fitting, B4915

Yesterday we had our first fitting of the Q&D muslin. I learned many things, such as the tissue fitting was an apparent waste of time and my original pattern alterations were - essentially - unnecessary.

Here's the front. Notable on the front is that her bust apex is approximately 1 inch lower than the apex marked on the pattern. One thing that is not apparent from this angle is that the front gaps away from her body a bit. I am not sure why. My first instinct is that she needs more bust room but she is only a B cup so I'm not sure. I am not sure if lowering the apex is critical with this design or not, since the fullness is coming from below the bust rather than from the side. I loosened the bodice pieces from the midriff and pulled the ends down about half an inch, which helped. Now I would say that it's not really gapping, but it does not fit snug up against her body.

The armscye is also to high and way too tight on the front. She tells me that she has this problem all the time with RTW and actually can't wear woven tops unless she goes up one size. Of course, my pattern alteration exacerbated this problem.








The back, on the other hand, fits beautifully with no gapping at all on the inside edges of the bodice. In the photo, you can see some pulling across the midriff. I may have pinned the sides too tight or it may be related to the problems with the armscye; not sure which.





Here is the back armhole. There is just the tiniest little gap here. I'm not even going to try to figure out how to fix this until it fits properly in the front and at the underarm.

That's pretty much it. I'm cutting a new muslin without the broad back adjustment. I'm scooping out about half an inch from the front and bottom of the armhole and adding about 1/2 inch of extra seam allowance under the arms to compensate for her developed lats. I'm hoping to have it ready for another fitting tomorrow.

7 comments:

goodworks1 said...

I think overall it looks pretty good. I'd definitely give her some extra room in the front armpit, but really it looks great on her. Good job!

Meg said...

Love to see this kind of mother-daughter collaboration. My DD just rejected a beach coverup I was working on for her, saying it made her shoulders look too "manly."

Paula Gardner said...

Yeah, well, what are you going to do? My youngest daughter's shoulders are so wide they never looky girly, that's for sure. But I think they're beautiful and would kill for them...you know...balance out the hips. Of course, she doesn't have any.

Sigrid said...

Coming out great, indeed just the little extra space for the arm, but for the rest it looks very good.

Bunny said...

This is looking lovely, Paula. I think with the tweaking you have in mind, it will be perfecto. Do you think maybe some of the gape in the front bodice is from the bias edges and perhaps some clear elastic stitched in the seam, cut a 1/4 inch shorter than the neckline, could help? Just a thought. Following this along closely.

Paula Gardner said...

Bunny, that's a good idea. My other thought was, since the bodice is fully lined, to go ahead and actually put a dart in the lining, then ease the bodice front to the lining. Do you thing that would work?

Marita said...

Paula,
I'm prolly a bit late with this tip: ease the edge and then loosen the easing off, it should leave ever so slight tightness there, it's the way I do it, has worked really well this far.
Marita