Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Gaylen, Mamafitz, Emily, Becky, Elaina, Gwen, Faye Lewis, Sunny, Marianne, Summerset, Vicki and Amanda for talking back to my confession last Friday! I confessed that I rarely make muslins.

So, it turns out that no one reported making them ALL of the time and no one reported NEVER making them (although Elaina often substitutes flat measuring the pattern or pin fitting the pattern to her body). In general, people reported making them some of the time.

The big difference was in whether a person was satisfied with her policy of when to make a muslin or felt a bit guilty about not making them more often. It seemed like people were kind of evenly split on this. ;)

Gaylen captured why she makes muslins – without them she sometimes ends up with “…ill-fitting, unflattering garments that take all the wind out of my desire to create.” Several other commenters echoed this sentiment.

And Becky captured the reason that she doesn’t make them as often as she thinks she should – “…I’m too impatient and just want to sew.” Again, several other commenters came back with an ‘Amen, Sister!’ on that one! ;)

Emily had another reason for not making a lot of muslins – she is familiar enough with Vogue and BWOF patterns that she knows the standard adjustments that she needs to make for those patterns.

As you might imagine, there was a lot of agreement regarding when to make muslins:

- Expensive and/or limited amt of the real fabric (4 votes)
- Pants (4 votes)
- Fitted clothes (3 votes)
- Gowns (wedding, evening, etc.) (2 votes)
- Untried and/or unusual pattern (2 votes)
- Modifying a pattern (1 vote)
- Body changes (1 vote)

One last issue was whether or not people tried to make “wearable” muslins. Some people mentioned trying to make their muslins carefully enough that they have at least a chance of getting wearable garments out of them. I imagine that this makes the time and work feel less “wasted” in the short term.

Others, like Mamafitz, go to the opposite extreme and make really “quick & dirty” muslins (no hem allowances, mismatched threads, written on, etc.). She has no intentions of wearing it – just wants to learn what she needs to know (how it fits and what changes it needs) as quickly as possible.

Finally, both Mamafitz and Summerset mentioned that, for casual clothes, they don’t officially make muslins, but often think of the first version as a trial version. They use reasonably nice fabric and wear the garment. But they also note any changes that they’d like to implement the second time they make the pattern, and they aren’t deeply committed to that first one and will give it away if it just doesn’t suit.

Thanks again, everyone, for taking the time to tell me about your sewing habits! I love to read your stories and I learn so much from you!

Photo credit: Professor Hee Myung Han, FIT