Tiramisu Adventures with My Musings Throw In

Hi Ya' All! 

 That's my Momma's hillbilly roots coming out in print... So hopefully this will makes some sense cause there's alot going on in my head right now! You are forewarned!

  First! Gushing!! How amazing is it that we have an amazing lady like StephC who takes the time to come up with an amazing pattern idea, makes the amazing pattern, then TEACHES us how to sew it! Pretty Amazing right?!! (ok I'm done with amazing now)

If you hadn't figured it out I'm talking about Tiramisu and the wonderful sew-a-long that's going on over at the Sewing Cake website. I can't decide if I like the 30 mins. a day since there's less pressure to get things done or if I'm going nuts cause I just want a dress already! One thing I have decided is I love the minute detail Steph goes into explaining each step and I'm loving all the amazingness in our Flickr group! Hurrah for all the new Tiramisu's! (and all the new fabric websites, like I need more fabric shopping options)

   So without more ado here's my muslin. I knew I wanted to make several of these so I took the time to make a muslin first since Steph has revolutionized the pattern making process.

Top Photo: My first try. I thought the binding was too loose and the bottom was bagging out. Someone mentioned overlapping the front bodices a bit more so without thinking that is what I did. 

Bottom Photo: Still baggy and now I have a pucker/pleat in my midriff band. I set it aside for the night and came back to it the next day.

Large Photo: The "girls" were a perfect fit in the bodice front I cut so I knew I didn't need to go down another size. I ripped the front apart again, reattached the binding and resewed the front. When I pinned the skirt I got the fit I was looking for!

One of the great things about the Tira pattern is the front binding is attached when the seams are open so you can control how much you stretch the binding. With this old knit I stretched that sucker and ended up taking off 4-5 inches. This fixed my problem.

Since this was my muslin I just wanted to see what the finished product would look like so I whipped the skirt on. Putting the whole thing together really helped me figure this out and I feel confident to cut into my good fabric and make myself some really amazing dresses.
A couple of tips or revelations I had while making this:
1. It all depends on the knit. Some knits stretch more than others so the fit will change depending on the knit I use. Some neck bindings will need more stretching than others.
2. The V-neck gets smaller with the weight of the skirt attached. While I was working on the fit of the top I was worried because the V was pretty deep and it was showing a bit more than I wanted. As soon as I attached the skirt it swung the front into alignment. It also helps tighten things up so there is no gaposis.
3. I'm 5'10" in shoes and was expecting this to be a tunic top. I cut the skirt waistband at 30 and the shortest hemline. As you can see it hits me right above the knee, unhemmed. Hurrah! Now I know to trace the longest size to make a winter skirt.

Well that's all I can think of at the moment. This little "gem" is off to my friend for a maternity top and I'm off to cut something lovely for myself.
In the words of Tigger, "TTFN, Ta Ta for now!"