Jacket Muslin

I don't often do "real" muslins, more often a kind of possibly-wearable muslin, but for this Marfy jacket, I wanted to do it right, especially since I now have a couple of ideas of fabrics I'd like to use with it if I can get it just right.

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I made it to JoAnn's yesterday and bought a bolt of muslin (with my 40% off coupon of course) so there is no excuse now. I also got some very nice $2/yard cotton canvas type fabric for my coat muslin from the home-dec clearance they were having. Marji has convinced me that muslins are the way to go for at least tailored things, if not more.

I'm fairly pleased with my flat pattern alterations, all except one. When I do my FBA it also adds width to the lower part of the front piece. I don't necessarily need that, or not all of it, and so I used the method in Palmer/Pletsch's Fit for Real People to remove it. I thought the method seemed a little cavalier, and I don't remember doing it this way before, but I couldn't recall what I usually do, so thought I'd try it. Well, it was not a success.

They basically have you slice it off the side of the front piece at an angle from the bottom. Unsurprisingly, this causes the front piece to swing to the sides, making it look like it's much too small around. Since I left very wide SAs when I cut out, I'll just add it back in, and then remove the amount piecemeal from the other seams, and maybe some from this seam, but certainly not all of it. What was I thinking? Very little apparently. Perhaps hope springs eternal for the quick, easy fix.

I haven't put the sleeves in yet, but the collar and neckline is just lovely. I'm a little worried about over-fitting this if I start in to put a little more shape in it. It's really supposed to be fairly loose, at least for Marfy, but it should have some shape. Well, after I get the sleeves in, I'll be able to tell a little more.

The thing I'm really excited about now is that I think I have stumbled upon a group of fabrics that would be perfect for the June Capsule Collection at Stitcher's Guild. I had hoped to join in this, and then I became sure I wasn't going to be able to sew for a while yet. Suddenly, I am getting some sewing time in, and it's just great, but with all the fabric I have, I was stymied when I tried to figure out what to do right now, besides work on this muslin. I need some summer pants, and I want easy care over anything else. I just don't need going out and looking stylish clothes right now, although I wouldn't sneeze at them either.

I have 3 fabrics I bought within the last year that match beautifully. One is a reversible bottom-weight with a silvery taupe on one side and a dull aqua on the other. At the same time I bought an aqua jersey knit and a fine linen-look fabric. It could be linen, it was a mystery fabric. They look great together, but there was no "pop" to them. I was holding things against them, and tried the Green Multi Tweed from Nancy Erickson that I got this spring, and it's absolutely perfect! It just made my heart sing, and made me want to sew again right now. What a great find. I want a jacket of the tweed in the same Marfy pattern I'm working on now, pants from the bottom-weight (and there's enough of that for something else too), a tank top from the jersey, and a camp shirt from the linen. I love it when the decisions are made. Even if I change my mind later, it seems like once I have something to change it from it's so much easier to get down to it.

I can't decide whether or not to order the laminated wool fabric that is shown at the bottom of the last post. It's a lightweight sweater knit with no lengthwise stretch, but good crosswise stretch. I don't really know what to do with it. I really like it, and maybe just a knit top is what I should do rather than something more involved. I was thinking of a Burda WOF dress, but it's for 2-way stretch fabric, and I'm not sure this will work. I think it would, but I don't want to stop everything else right now to make a dress 'muslin' with a similar knit.

This is 103B from the 2-2008 issue.

The reviews I've read on this pattern are pretty positive, and I PM'd one of the reviewers who said she thought it ought to work with a one-way stretch knit. They both said the front skirt that underlaps should be full width, which I'd agree with, so then I'd have to figure how much extra fabric, and the skirt at least would need to be lined so it would slide rather than catch on itself. Oh decisions, decisions! Maybe I'll just wait and if the fabric sells out, it wasn't meant to be.

Birgitte just asked such a good question that I'm going to edit this post and add my response.

She's thinking of the same Burda dress pattern, but with silk jersey (yum!) and wonders "What kind of lining would you use?" I honestly hadn't thought it through, but was just thinking vaguely (like so much of my thinking) of a slick lining fabric so the top layer of skirt front would slide over the lower, but of course, it's going to have to stretch. Then a slip came to mind, but that still wouldn't help the top layer/lower layer bit, although I did think about attaching the underlap to a lining layer if I don't have enough fabric to get clear to the side seam. From the layout it looks like I should have no trouble, but you never know. Then I combined my ideas and came up with tricot. I think a very nice quality tricot, especially a satin tricot, such as you'd make a nice slip or lingerie from would be ideal for this. It would stretch, and it would be nice and slick. Nylon is not hot like polyester either. Of course for silk jersey, you might want another stretch silk, but either one would work. I have lots of really nice tricot in some good neutrals, so I think this is a plan!