Analyzing and Altering The Fitting Muslin

Today I want to pick apart and analyze the fit on the first few muslins that have been presented for fitting analysis.

Note: I've gotten individual permission from each participant to use their pics and draw all over them and use them as examples. I will not be doing this for every fitting muslin presented. This is to be an example of what to look at and look for in your own fitting muslin, and how to look at subsequent muslins presented here in order to adjust for a great fit. It's what distinguishes custom clothes from those off the rack—the fit.

First up: Melissa's Muslin

click on pic to make it larger

Anatomically, your waist is that indent just below your rib cage and just above the hip bone.
Your anatomical waist (not where you wear your pants), may be about 1" or 2.5cm above your belly button.

Making changes one at a time, I would first suggest:

1. You need to adjust your bodice length. The "waist" on this pattern is well below your waistline, as drawn on the photo above.
   
2. To gain more ease since this is too close-fitting, let out some in the princess seams, evenly, from upper chest to hem, front and back. I would start stitching at the hem, moving out .6cm (1/4") from your current seam, all the way up, tapering to nothing just before the armscye in the back and to nothing at the upper chest in the front. Even in the picture where you're standing straight, before you try to lift your arm, you've got all sorts of pulling across the chest.
3. Next, you don't have room for a shoulder pad, so you need to open up the stitching at the top of the sleeve cap for about 2.5cm (1") on either side of the shoulder seam, then…
4. Change the angle of stitching across the shoulder seam, tapering from nothing at the neck edge to between 3/8" and 1/2" at armscye edge, which will give you from 3/4" to 1" allowance which is room for the shoulder pad.
5. Now, you've made the armscye larger by the amount of your alteration at the shoulder. You need to make a corresponding change on the sleeve cap. Take your scissors and split the sleeve vertically shoulder to hem. This is muslin, you can split it and insert a piece underneath. You already know you're going to add girth to the sleeve. In the book you've looked at they have you split it vertically leaving a hinge at top and bottom and then pull it open, correct? Well, you'll be doing the same, except you won't be hinge-ing the top because you need to open it anyway. At the sleeve cap you only want to add the amount you'll need to match the amount you added at the shoulder. From there on down, you'll need to decide how much you want to add to the width of the sleeve, and if you want to make the split go all the way through the wrist or not. See Els' diagram below to get a better understanding of the sleeve cap alteration.
   
6. Measure the depth of your sleeve cap, per Els' diagram. If your armscye is either too high OR too low you'll get pulling when you try to lift your arm.
   

Photo and directions courtesy of Els.

Next Up: Lisette M's Muslin

click on pic to make it larger

Same issue—if that bib is supposed to end at the waist, this pattern is drafted with one long, long torso person in mind.

White line indicates the actual front closure line as it is now. It needs to be brought to parallel with the blue line I've drawn.

I've looked and looked at Lisette's pics. At first I thought maybe she had a high hip, but then I downloaded the pics and drew on them—and it's pretty clear she doesn't. What she does have is a body type that is sometimes referred to as "flattened oval-shaped torso"—in other words, wider than thick. This is as opposed to a body type that is Cylindrical-shaped torso—which may be characterized by large prominent bust and/or belly and/or buttocks.

What you're seeing in the pictures, that is really evident when I draw the lines, are rising lines at the (low) waist and hip from the Center Front rising out toward the side seams, and this gets even more pronounced at the hem. (You'll have to click on the pictures to see them full size or else this isn't evident at all.)

My recommendations:

1. Raise that waist line so that it's where it should be. I'm really thinking this is a pattern drafting error since both of you on the same pattern have the same issue and neither of you are short waisted.
2. Let out the side front princess seams just a hair.
3. Take a fisheye dart from the CF to the side seam. Since this is a double-breasted coat, you do not want to continue the angle of the fisheye past the CF—you want to straighten it out.
4. Your back neck appears to be climbing up past the top of your spine, onto your neck. Do you know how to do this adjustment?
5. Your vertical lines on the back are absolutely right on.
6. I think NancyK may be right in that you may need a forward shoulder adjustment. It's so hard to tell, unless someone stands on a ladder above you, and truly it's easier for you to determine if the seamline originates at your neck edge just under the back of your ear, and ends at your shoulder bone. If you do need this - (good eye NancyK), then go look at the adjustments I made to my muslin. I needed to bring my shoulder forward too, before I opened it up for shoulder pad. You've got plenty of room for shoulder pad here - you dont need to do the second part of what I did. ... oh, and this is the adjustment you want to make 1st, right along with the length at the waist adjustment, before you start making your fisheye darts at the waist and hem.
   

I think that the combo of opening up that princess seam just a bit above the waist, then the two fisheye darts, will bring the closure on the double breasted part parallel to CF and straighten out the hem lines. Once you get all that done, then put in your sleeves and update your fitting post. Then send me an email that it's been updated. Thanks.

information from the comments that may be of general interest:
Marji writes:
KayY, Thank you for the clarification on exactly where that bib front ends in relation to the waistline marking. It's still long on both of these coats, but it does help to know that it's supposed to be 2.5cm (1") below natural waist, and it's bourne out in the drawing I did across the markings and bib on Melissa's coat.
Melissa, since we're going to be thread tracing seam lines and the hem line, you can go ahead and cut your muslin at your desired finished length, and we'll add hem allowance when laying out and cutting. In any case, for a straight coat like this, Lisette is right, you can add your length at the hemline.
Lisette, before you adjust the back neck, you need to try it on and actually check where that seamline is in relation to the join of your neck and your spine. The alteration, if you need to make one, is the opposite of the alteration for dowagers hump.
So you'll need help, because you need a precise measurement on how high up your neck the seamline is, and you can't get that yourself, while wearing it.
On curved seams where a corresponding piece will be added, in this case a collar, I like to use slash-and-spread or tuck methods to alter, so that you don't change the curve of the seamline (neck edge) at all.
See this at Threads for an explanation of altering for "dowagers hump" aka high round neck.