Muslin time! McCall's M5890

After an armload of t-shirts, I was ready to get going with M5890 | Misses' Jackets, Top, Dresses and Pants In 2 Lengths | Nancy Zieman | McCall's Patterns. I planned to make the top first in order to get ready to make a dress version. I figure a jersey dress travels well, and I have some travel plans. (Woot!)

Last weekend I took some quick measurements (of my body, of my t-shirt pattern, and of the pattern tissue) in order to figure out what size I needed. I went with a 20, adjusting only the length (because I'm not fond of the short top - it just cuts me in two in a very unflattering way) and adding an inch and a half to from bust point to shoulder. I went ahead and made those changes on the front and the back guessing that I would need the symmetry. On my new tissue, the thing looked enormous. Erm, what happened there? Based on the measurements printed on the pattern and the measurements I took, it was supposed to be close, but whatever. First draft, and all.

I was very tempted to just go ahead and make it up out of a sweater knit remnant that I picked up around the time that I bought this pattern. My mom had visited, and when she held up the pieces, eyeballing the tissue against me, she thought it would be close. I decided to be a bit conservative and make a sample out of some very weird oatmeal jersey I picked up for experimentation purposes, and I'm glad I did.

Well, I'm not glad about the oatmeal jersey -- the pins keep falling out of its weird polyester-ness, and it's incredibly hot and sweaty for a tissue-weight knit -- but I am glad that I had some sacrificial fabric laying around to play with.

Anyway, here's the fit.

 

The back is too wide by about an inch, the front is too narrow by about an inch, and overall the thing is about 4 inches too big. I was right! The tissue was, indeed, enormous.

I thought I might be able to squeak by without a FBA. Why would I even think that in the first place? The sample indicates that I do need to make some pretty standard-for-me changes. (I'm a knits novice -- I'm still not sure which rules apply and which rules don't.) I need to reshape that front side piece (both a tuck at the top and a fisheye chunk under the bust curve). I'll need to make the front piece longer to match those changes. The armscye seems quite deep, but I think that part of that will be fixed if I make the front wider and the front side narrower at the side seam. Since I have to redraw the side front piece anyway, I'll keep that in mind.

Also, I discovered I didn't need the extra length for the back , so that's pinned out as well. So much for symmetry! I'm still unsure about the sleeve length. They're about where I would like them to be finished.

I'm going to stitch these pinned bits tomorrow when I have time and then sketch out the changes on the pattern pieces after I've tried that version on. We're close, people!

As a top, this is going to be good. I like this shape, and I'll like having another generic canvas (a princess seam pattern that works for knits). I'm going to take out the fullness at the sides only above the natural waist. That gives it a sort of peplum effect, and it allows me to flirt with peplum-dom without actually succumbing to the trend. I thought for a minute about doing a box pleat to deal with the extra fullness (that's sort of what it looks like when the extra is pinned out), but on second thought, that seemed awfully fussy.

Sweater knit is next!