Some Serious Muslin Making

Forgive the mosaic face. I wasn't about to let it go out on the web with apex buttons below. You should have heard my hub's comments!

I'd like to give you a pattern number but this, in the end will be a real mash-up. It's part  New Look, part Burda, a lot of my own angst and input and some retail copying. My inspiration is this outfit seen on Pinterest:




I know, nothing fancy,  but I just love it. It would be perfect for my work wear and also gives me a chance to paint another piece of clothing. I work with 4 little ADHD boys each day and they will just love it. My version will be a dark wash denim, no holes, and painted a bit differently. I don't like the horizontal endings to the painting on this garment, clearly the effect of reaching the end of a roller or such. My design will be a bit more fluid and diagonal. I hope to treat it like jeans with flat fell seaming and vivid topstitching.  What pattern do I use?

I had previously mentioned using the Rosy the Riveter coverall pattern but after taking it apart as well as searching out made versions, I found it's shape a little too Carhardt for me.  I like the loose triangle look of my inspiration. The pattern search continued until I found this one. Pattern changes did not intimidate me. I was more concerned with where the crotch would land and you can see in the inspo pic it looks pretty low. That's fine.  I found Burda 6408. It had the flow-y legs.  I could work with the strappy top and it looked feminine. 



My plan was to have a band across the top, deeply cut armholes and gathering at center front.  The way it stands was a little too cocktail-y for my tastes, even with the tee. 

Here you can see I rotated out the dart and moved it to the top of the jumper? overall? coverall? whatever it is, and planned to pleat that area like the original. Then I had one of those midnight Eureka sewing moments and went in a different direction. The first  muslin went thisaway:

I remembered I had a perfectly fitting sundress pattern and it would be much easier to just connect the Burda and New Look 6866.







Now it was down to business it must have been the right thing because everything just flowed with this effort. I connected the two waistlines and kept the grainlines matching. I rotated the dart again to the top of the neckline. Pretty much done. I sewed it up and tried it on. Let's see what we have here:

On this muslin, I did horizontal balance lines, grainlines and marked hip, waist and apexes (api?) This is how it turned out. 

Other than a small dip at the back waist , the balance lines are pretty good all around. The front hangs nicely.  Here is the side view:

The huge leg length is not helping things. And the back:

Mon Dieu! OK, let's assume from the knees down is the fault of the puddle on the floor. You can see that back waist dip here clearly. There is also extra width in the upper back. I have a narrow back. I've gone back and forth on whether to put in darts, but I am also leaning towards just wearing a belt or sash. 

What I have done to fix things. It doesn't show here but the shoulder blade area needed just a teeny bit more space. I let out the shoulders a 1/4 inch. I scooped out the front neck and there will be pleats for about 6 inches of the CF area. I dropped the armholes way down and opened them up to get the more strappy look I wanted.  I changed the back neckline profile to a scoop instead of a Vee. It now has the more strappy look of  the inspo jumper/overall. For the back waist dip I am on the fence. One little voice says to do a swayback adjustment there and call it a day. But another says to straighten the center back seam and take more curve out of the side seams. The side seams are straight on this pattern but the CB seam curves in Which you can see in the pic of the muslin with the balance lines laid out. Or, should I even do a combo of both? I have to sleep on that. Once that settles it will be cutting time and after that painting time, yay! 

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I asked my husband to take the muslin pics.  The minute he saw me in the muslin with it's apex markings, he said "Are you really going to wear that?" I then explained all about muslins! He got it. ...............Bunny