Wearable Muslins for the Win

Earlier this year I had thought about joining in on the Little White Dress Contest on Pattern Review... I had an interesting pattern to try out and thought it might be fun. Well, I also decided that I'd muslin this pattern, which I don't do very often, but I didn't want to cut into my fancy white fabric from the stash without testing out whether the dress design would look good on me first.

So I picked up some muslin-ing fabric, a deep red Martha Stewart sheet on sale at the local Goodwill. Once I washed it, it was more of a brick red -- a lot of the dye bled out, but thankfully, I'd washed it all by itself. And I started working on Vogue 8755. I never did enter the LWD contest, as I barely finished the muslin before the deadline. But I like it so much that I've been wearing it with great delight. The only issue I found is that it is a bit snug around the ribcage -- I'd like another half-inch in each side seam. Fortunately the fabric has enough give that it isn't uncomfortably snug, though. I guess the pre-cutting measurements weren't so bad!

I've worn it a couple of times now, and am pleased that even if I didn't get further than my muslin, at least the red muslin itself has become a fun dress, that works with a sweater and tights but will also work alone in summer.

With grey tights & sweater

I added pockets, of course

One of my better zips ever --
but you can notice that I haven't
sewn in the hook & eye at the top yet...

This was a fairly straightforward dress, with a few features that interested me -- the lined bodice (I just self-lined here) and the interesting seam lines in the bodice that match up with pleats on the skirt. One of my concerns was whether the pleats would accentuate the midsection too much; but I think the fabric here has enough body that the pleats are crisp and don't cling to me. I don't find that it is a problem at all.

The only thing that this pattern was missing was pockets, so of course I added some. Simple side seam pockets, there was lots of room for them and they are so useful to have. I used the same fabric for them, again, as I was just going to test it all out. This wearable muslin is a winner!