Notes on Mentorship- Developing an idea into a garment- Raised neckline with radiating darts … Part 2

In may last Notes on Mentorship post I talked about how I developed the pattern and I showed you the pictures of the ‘mini’ muslins that were just to bust and then one to the waist.

In this post I will show you the final muslin that I made to double check the overall fit and show you the final garment!

I LOVE these radiating darts!!

Get ready for lots of photos!

 

The last muslin that I made was one that was basically full length but left off the sleeves and the hem facing and just did the bodice front back and the front and back neck facing. Normally in mock ups or muslins I omit the facing and just mark the finished neckline. However, because this garment has so much focus on the neckline and the pattern pieces are so strange, I decided that It was worth adding the facing to just make sure everything went together perfectly.

Shoulder collapse without the sleeves inserted.

You will see in the muslin pictures that there seems to be some funkiness with the upper bodice fitting. Consulting with my mentor helped me to understand that because of the final pattern shapes that much of the upper bodice was on the bias and that without the sleeves in the muslin it was sort of collapsing a little bit in that area.

So glad this issue resolved when the sleeves were put in!

The final shaping for the neckline is controlled and determined by several factors. On the back- shaped center back neckline. At the very top of the seam it bows in, mimicking a fish eye dart. There is also a shaped neckline dart from about mid back shoulder area. You can clearly see the bottom third of the dart coming to the point it a normal dart shape. The rest of the dart has been carefully ‘shaped’ to give me the shape that I want.

Front neckline facing- cut on fold at CF

Front bodice with neckline darts and inverted or reverse pin tucks

The rest of the raised neckline shaping is done at the shoulder. You can see the ‘swoop’ of the shoulder line, this also acts as an area for shaping.

Back neckline facing

Back Bodice pattern

 

 

 

 

The fabric I am using for the final garment is from Fabrics and Fabrics in NYC. It is a solid texture cotton pique in lime green with a nice amount of body to it and perfect for holding this neckline. I used the wrong side of the fabric. I decided on this by playing with the fabric and folding in where the neck darks would be and the ‘lines’ or ‘striped’ side of the fabric was better. I’m the designer so I can use whatever side I want J I love this lime green color and this fabric washed up and dried beautifully! Another great high quality fabric from Fabrics and Fabrics!

For the facings and the turn back cuff and the pockets I used some Liberty of London lawn that I had left over from a shirt I made a couple of years ago. I used a fairly lightweight fusible interfacing for the facings. Just enough to give it a little bit of extra oomph but careful to not over interface. This was done with testing a fabric sandwich to check that it was enough.

Inside out - front

Inside out- side

The other factor that I had to take into account was that there are a bunch of darts and seams in the neckline which also help to o give it more body and hold the shape.

I am super excited with this garment. Being able to take the design from inspiration to sketch to pattern development and fit to final garment has been such a great and rewarding process. Especially with a design that is tricky.

No good pictures of me in it yet, just this one peek. I am waiting for some dark green ponte to arrive so that I can make a pair of leggings. Plus, I am not feeling so hot with my pancreas so not feeling like a photo shoot would be fun this week!