A Stitching Odyssey: One Pattern Seven Bloggers #2: Muslin

Week one of One Pattern Seven Bloggers has surprisingly already been and gone, which is scary considering there is now only three weeks to go until our big reveal...eeek!

I've still not finalised my fabric choice - and by that I mean I haven't a clue which I'm going to settle on – so I thought I'd tackle my muslin first. I'd heard from a lot of different people that fitting our chosen BurdaStyle pattern is a bit of a nightmare, so I was prepared for the worst, but to begin with I was lulled into a false sense of security

Firstly I cut out and sewed up my size, just to see what was what. As you can see, it was a few inches too small! I think this could be because I didn't realise I had to add a seam allowance to the pattern...oops!

Instead of cutting a brand new muslin, I decided to see if letting out some of the ample darts could fix my predicament. Such a simple adjustment seemed to work pretty well.

However, as you can see the back neckline gaped a little and the waistline sat too low down for my body shape...basically it sat too close to my muffin tops. To fix this, I put a couple of small darts at the back neckline and trimmed about two inches off the bottom of the bodice. Although I managed to fix the back neckline gape, I ended up with a baggy waistline.

So I went back to the drawing board and decided to take the front darts in again, after letting them out in the first place. This was successful, but it made me realise that had I gotten the length right in the first place, I probably wouldn't have had to fiddle about with the darts. Oh well, a good lesson learned!

I then used my much-amended muslin to trace out new pattern pieces, raising the front neckline at the same time and drafting my skirt pieces. And this is where the fairytale ends my friends, because just as I was beginning to think this sewing 'lark' was easy...I ended up with this:

It looks like all the tweaking I did was suddenly erased! Everything's too big, apart from the back bodice which looks a little tight. Even the front neckline doesn't sit as well as before and the sagging on the back neckline has re-appeared! I'm stumped and would love it if anyone could shed any light on how I can fix all this. Any help would be much appreciated!

So, in short, I have a lot more work to do and not much time to do it in, if this little number is to become wearable in any way. Fingers crossed it will!

Don't forget to check out how my fellow project-buddies are getting on:

Reana Louise is nicely pulling together her blue and gold theme - Curves, Patterns and Pins

Kat picked a lovely bold checked fabric - Petticoats & Peplums

Rachel shared her warm geometric fabric choice - My Messings

Jen has settled on a luscious forest green fabric - Pretty Little Pictures  

Amy had a successful go at her muslin - Sewing Through the Motions

Sam has found a lovely autumnal tartan fabric - All things quilty...and sewy