Why You Make a Muslin
The husband was working late on a job last night—sometimes he has to babysit the concrete until he knows it is setting properly—so I ran up a Laundry Day Tee to see what I thought. I don’t usually sew in the evenings because I tend to make stupid mistakes, but the potential for messing this up was minimal.
Eh. I am not sure this is the right pattern line for me, although I might give it one more shot. Here’s the issue: The pattern suggests choosing a size based on the high bust measurement and doing a full bust adjustment. One the face of it, that is sound advice. Because of the way clothing sizes are graded, if you choose a garment size based on the full bust measurement—your largest upper body circumference—you run the risk of having the shoulders be too large. I run into this all the time with RTW even though I have broad shoulders.
I made a size Large in the Laundry Day Tee based on my high bust measurement, and used the full bust piece for the front (the designer thoughtfully does the FBA for you). I had a sneaking suspicion going in that there might be issues, just because of the shape of the front pattern piece:
This piece has been modified by the designer with a dartless full bust adjustment. The original front bodice piece was slashed vertically from the hem to the bust apex and the side section rotated toward the armscye. (If you need a better explanation than the one I am giving here, search on “dartless FBA” and a bunch of sites will come up with better pics and descriptions.)
Two things happen as a result of this FBA:
Extra fabric gets added to the front bodice, which is what we want.
Rotating the side section toward the armscye closes the armsyce, which helps to minimize the gaping armhole that sometimes results when extra fabric is added to the front bodice.
I had two problems with the finished T-shirt. The first was that the shoulders of the size Large—which I chose based on my high bust measurement—are too narrow for me. Good to know. Choosing a size based on my high bust measurement may not always work.
The second problem was with the sleeves. Look at that armscye again. See how short it is vertically? I also thought the sleeve cap shaping was too tall. (I modified the sleeve cap on the pattern piece, so I can’t show you what it looked like originally.) Indeed, when I tried on the T-shirt, there was a little tent of fabric sticking up at the top of the sleeve.
It is one of those paradoxes of pattern drafting that a high, tight armhole actually gives better range of motion than a looser, lower armhole, because you’re not dragging all that excess fabric around. However, this pattern has a VERY high, tight armhole—higher and tighter than I think is comfortable for a T-shirt, especially with that FBA. I suspect the sleeve cap needs to be flattened a bit to better fit the armscye, too, although some of that may have to do with the shoulder width.
I’m not faulting the designer here. Human bodies vary SO MUCH in size and weight distribution that it is virtually impossible to design something to fit every body. And this pattern gets rave reviews all over the internet, so it must fit some people very well.
Making this muslin wasn’t a waste of time. I learned a few more things about fitting in general, and about fitting my body specifically. I do like the neckline on this top. It is a bit lower than I usually make for myself, but it looks good. And even things that don’t fit can be used as class samples.
Should I make another iteration of this pattern in a larger size, lowering the armscye a bit and flattening the sleeve cap? Or do I just go back to some of the other patterns I’ve drafted that don’t need so much tweaking? I’m undecided. I’ve been stocking up on clearance fabric from Joanns, so I don’t feel like I am wasting anything, but I don’t know how much more time I want to invest in this. I will say that making aprons is a welcome relief, because they don’t require as much fitting.
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I was a guest on the Quilt Gallery’s Tuesday morning Facebook Live video yesterday. I did a presentation on WonderFil threads. If you have a burning desire to listen to me talk about thread, click here and the video should pop up. You can also see me modeling the Renee ponte pants (they are so darn comfortable) and the Easton cowl.