Today, I learned several valuable sewing lessons working on the muslin of my 1940s skirt project:

❦ Never try to fit a waistband when you’re retaining water. I’m pretty sure my waist was an inch smaller three days ago. Ugh!

❦ Don’t bother to use pricey and quick-to-run out invisible marking pens on muslin. What was I thinking? A trusty No. 2 pencil does the trick.

❦ Put as much accuracy into joining the seams of the muslin as you would the actual garment. Otherwise, why am I bothering to use the muslin to check the fit? Lame!

I’m still trying to fit the muslin of this “simple” 1940s skirt. It has a yoke from waistband to hips with two front darts and two back darts. It was too small in the waist (expected for this size) but fit in the hips. To make the adjustment, I let the front darts out, which made the waist fit (well, three days ago anyway), but it turns out the abdomen was a smidge too small. I’ve remarked the darts a little smaller instead of opening them out entirely and widened the entire front yoke pattern, which will end up adding more fabric over the abdomen but leave the bottom yoke seam the same width so it will match the bottom skirt pieces. Once again, I’ve overthought my alterations. I should have probably left the darts alone and just added the width I needed in the waist to the entire depth of the yoke (and bottom skirt) front and back pieces evenly. Maybe I’ll go back and do that. It may be time to trace those pattern pieces again and start over.

If I were working on the actual fabric instead of the muslin, I’d be throwing in the towel right about now. As it is, I’ll be back in the sewing trenches tomorrow.

Tagged: 1940s, sewing, skirt, vintage, Vogue 1072