Two left sleeves

Moy gown, partially basted, front
Originally uploaded by Catrijn.

Well, it doesn't look too impressive at this stage, but my Moy gown is now cut and (mostly) basted into shape. There's a lot left unfinished - I haven't slipped the front sleeve gores in, or the front or back skirt gores, and the seams are either temporary or only pinned so far.

Some of the apparent fitting problems here are artifacts; most of the pulling at the bust goes away with the appropriate (lack of) undergarments. That and I need to start the gores about an inch or two higher. The one thing that I will need to correct shows in the back - those pulls across the shoulder piece. The y-shaped shoulder piece is currently eased into the gusset in that section - I need to see whether the problem is just the pins, in which case it would lay flat once it's sewn and distributed more evenly. Otherwise I'll trim the piece down and eliminate the ease; the fabric has enough give that it doesn't seem to need it anyway.

As for the post title, I forgot to check whether my sleeves were right sides together before I cut the slit for the front gore, the one part of the piece that's asymmetrical. And of course, they were both facing up and I ended up with two identical left sleeves. I had plenty of extra fabric to cut another sleeve, but it's just a silly waste that could have been easily avoided.

Small victories

The muslin for the Moy gown has been beaten into submission, more or less. After following the pattern instructions initially, to understand the spatial relationships of the pieces, it was easiest to make adjustments by ignoring them completely. I'll have to do most of the work again, since I wouldn't expect the wool twill I'm using for the real thing to behave the same way as cotton muslin, but I have a lot better idea of what needs to happen. The yoke/shoulder strap piece is one that I'll actually cut differently, as the initial one was much too long for me, but the others can mostly be massaged into place and trimmed down as needed.

Problem child

I cut pieces and assembled a muslin for a Moy gown tonight. On one hand, I'm glad I didn't do this with 'real' fabric. On the other hand, I'm sorry I didn't just study the line drawings and then drape/draft from scratch, since that's probably what I'm going to be doing next. I might pick apart the muslin and see if the pieces are salvageable if I come at the assembly differently, but what I've got now fits so badly that I can't even see how to start adjusting it.