Belladone: the muslin, and helpful hints from the social sewing group

Having never made a proper muslin before (sorry all you proper sewists out there!) after my experience with the Belladone I have to admit that I'm a bit of a convert. Use bright thread that doesn't match at all? Sure! How about some purple thread in the bobbin? No problem. Wait.. let's get out the texta and write all over the dress. Yay! Wonky zip? Who cares!

In all seriousness I was really glad that I made a muslin as it has shown up a couple of fitting issues that I need to work out. I cut the 38 according to the measurements, knowing that this is the European size that I usually wear (I used to live in the UK), and reading somewhere that Deer and Doe patterns are drafted for a C cup.

Here is the muslin on Matilda (I have done the fitting on me but wasn't up to a picture this morning!).

And here is the fabric choice - a red denim/cotton for the dress and a brown polka dot for binding at the neck and arms.

 

After I went to the social sewing,  thanks to all the helpful tips from the talented SS ladies I made a few more adjustments so in total here are the changes:

 

• Took out 1cm from each of the back panels, tapering to nothing at the seam.
• Took out 1cm at the CF, tapering down to nothing at the seam, and adding a few mm to the side seams for some breathing room.
• Moved the side bust darts down and shortened the vertical ones by 1cm  2.5cm.
• Lengthened the bodice by 1cm using a French curve (thanks Claire)
• Took out 1cm from the top of the CB.

Rachel helped me transfer the changes to the pattern pieces which I used to to cut out my fabric. I learnt so much during this social sewing day and was so busy working on fit that I didn't get any actual sewing done apart from making some bias tape using the Collete Handbook method (not very good, won't be doing this again) and sewing 3 darts. Never mind. It was a really lovely day.

As well as all those great sewing tips there was also a great swap. I came away with some treasures... more on those later.

Thanks again ladies for a great day!