Gertie's Crepe Sew-Along: Final Muslin, Or How I Sew to Be Like Dr. Frankenstein

For those of you who don't know this, I am small. Quite small. About 5', just over 100 lbs. And none of that poundage is in my bust. I'm this little androgynous pixie that can rock the Justin Bieber look without even trying. And I like it that way. Except when it comes to adjusting patterns.

As stated in an earlier post, I knew that I'd have to do an SBA (Small Bust Adjustment), but that I wasn't sure of the approach that I wanted to take. Gertie's try-it-on-and-pinch-it-out method, or the flat-pattern method that Fit for Real People, Hungry Zombie, and Casey all discuss. And I had to decide when to do it: before the first fitting, or after.

I opted for after the first muslin. The first muslin looked alright, and I thought I had the fitting pretty well figured out, without even having to take out extra fabric. Silly me.  The second muslin was done in a thinner, more slippery fabric for me to get a better sense of the actual fit of my future dress. Verdict? Baggy as all get-out. I pinched out the excess fabric, thinking I knew what I needed to do: adjust the dart and take out some fabric from the middle. I did remember to adjust for my bust apex too.

I don't have pictures of what ensued, because it was obviously not going to work. Unless I had bigger boobs. (Where's my dad's mom when I need her?)

Back to the drawing board! (Sewing board?)

I think I spent a good hour or so fretting about how to go about this process. Even though I already have done an SBA for the Swing Dress Sew-Along. Anyway, to make a long story short: I did the pinch-out method that Gertie does to find out how much to take out, and it worked out all right. But in transferring the changes to the pattern, I followed the flat pattern methods mentioned above. The result? A much mangled pattern and a much better fit. It's at times like these, that I feel a mild kinship to Dr. Frankenstein. Start out with a giant monster, and eventually creating a similarly sewn together, but more approachable monster that is smaller and more feminine. Or androgynous, in my case, I suppose.

It's like a jigsaw puzzle meets modern art

Conclusion: anticipate the SBA and change it according to the flat-pattern method, generally taking about about an inch on the side and a half-inch on the bottom.Otherwise, it's a horror story in the making.