Monday, January 2, 2012

Making muslin dresses

My project over winter break was to try out the patterns that I liked by making mock wedding dresses out of muslin fabric. This turned out to be an epic project, but well worth the time put in. I had never made muslin copies of patterns before, but I really wanted to feel confident that I will get the wedding dress right the first time I sew it with the real fabric, since silk is kind of expensive! It took some imagination to picture what the dresses would look like if they weren't made out of muslin, which btw is the most ruff and boring fabric I have ever sewn with. I think everything will hang and drape in a much softer way when I am working with the real wedding dress fabric.





I found that I love the skirt of the Vogue 7387 pattern, but am not crazy about the bodice. I really like the geometric cuts in the mid-drift and skirt panels section, I think they are very flattering and so 1930's! I think I might want to make the train a bit longer though. I just worry about the train getting destroyed since the wedding is outside and all. I ended up making 5 different tops to find one that I liked best with this skirt. This part was actually a lot of fun, since I love the creativity of designing stuff from scratch! I think I am going to go with one that is similar to the Jenny Packham Aspen dress, only I don't want mine to be so low cut, and I can go without such puffy sleeves.
Below are the pictures of the original bodice on the vogue 7387 pattern. Any thoughts on the bodice?






I also found that I love the vogue 1174 reception dress pattern! I found a size that fits perfectly, and I think will be a lot of fun when made with nice fabric. BTW, if anyone else wants to try this pattern, I recommend cutting 3 to 4 sizes smaller than the measurement recommend. It is not sized correctly I guess. I really want to make several dresses with this pattern though, it just fits so nicely! I love the pockets, pleated skirt, and sweetheart neckline :)











And the muslin dress was well work the time! Both dresses fit wonderfully!