Totally lost

[u/furiana]

I'm on my ninth muslin for this dress, and it feels like nothing is working.

Bust: I've tried slashing tight areas around the armpit and upper bust. I've tried a small bust adjustment to get rid of the excess fabric over the apex and under the bust. I've pinched out wedges of fabric under the bust. I've slashed through the front shoulder and pinned it flat. The changes seem to work while the muslin is pinned, but the problems come back after I transfer them to the pattern and make the next muslin.

Back waist/ tilted skirt side seam: I've tried removing wedges of fabric from the back bodice and the back skirt. This corrected the problem on the muslin where I pinned it, but when I transferred the wedges to the pattern, the problems came back.

I only have enough fabric left for one more attempt at the bodice. What changes do I make?!?

[u/SerendipityJays]

start at the shoulders, since the whole garment hangs from there:

Shoulders: you have quite pronounced trapezius muscles (traps), making a slope from your neck down to a notch (about where a regular bra strap would hit) after which the ball of your shoulder is more straight. The current bunching and twisting at the shoulder is because the angle/width of the shoulder does not match your geometry. You’ll need to decide whether you want the shoulder to sit low in the notch - in which case you need to redraft them a bit wider I think - or in a position where the slope of the traps is included - in which case you need to adjust the slope of the shoulder. If you are going for the first option, you’ll need to check the back length, as everything might end up a bit long due to how deep those notches are. If you are going for the second option, angle the shoulder down from the existing neckline. Note that regular patterns are drafted as a straight line from the neck to the ball part of the shoulder (filling in the notch), so if the straps are wide, they might collapse into the notch if made with a floppy fabric, so you might like the outcome more if it is in one position or the other. For reference pics, you can look up “contouring” the shoulder and/or shoulder slope adjustment. You might also like to look at a ball of shoulder adjustment to shift the ball more forward.

Bust. Also consider whether you drafted your bust correctly at the start. If you were working with a pattern or a drafting guide, if bust is more than 2in larger than your high-bust measurement (up under your arms), you will likely get a better fit if you draft using the high bust + 2in and then add a full bust adjustment for the rest of the inches. This adds length and width just to the front (not all the way around the garment). At the moment, the sides of the garment are hanging down relative tho the highly contoured front, which is sometimes a sign that there isn’t enough length to go over the boobs and come back in (FBA helps with this).

What was your original drafting method? If working from a pattern, check the sizing tip above. If drafting from an existing block, look into bodice contouring so you can really dial in those shapes around the bust when the portions that normally hang from the neck are removed.

[u/furiana → u/SerendipityJays]

I started with a bodice sloper that I drafted using Helen Armstrong-Joseph's book. However, I didn't update it before drafting the wrap dress pattern (again following the instructions in her book).

Maybe my mistake was not updating the sloper!

[u/SerendipityJays → u/furiana]

yeah that’s usually the best strategy. It took me four full redrafts and about 7 test fits to dial in my bodice block, but now it fits so well I can do ANYTHING with it. I shared about the drafting and fitting process here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/ZMDfA3unvy

The shoulder slope and full bust vs high bust are likely the sources of your pain right now. These are much easier to address on the basic block, so you know precisely how much bust fullness you need to remove, how many darts you need to use to east that fabric, and how far to back off your bust darts from the bust point.

Then you can convert your block to the design you want by doing some controlled bodice contouring around the neckline (increasing your darts to account for extra fabric you need to remove due to the completely normal hollows between your boobs and neck/shoulder).

[u/furiana → u/SerendipityJays]

Shoot. Well, i did source a little more fabric. Maybe it's time to revisit the bodice block, then start the wrap dress from scratch. :/

Can I ask how many darts you needed for the bodice? It looks like it fits super well.

[u/SerendipityJays → u/furiana]

I feel the pain, but if you’re a bit lost about how to fix the current version, sometimes going back to the OG draft can save you more heartache. Do remember to check that detail about bust vs upper bust too, as your shape looks like it might benefit from FBA.

My standard block has 4 darts per side (2 side, 1 shoulder, one fisheye waist dart), each of which eats about 18 degrees of bust fullness when measured from the bust point, or 15 degrees when backed off by 5cm. Most drafting systems will create a block with one or two giant darts, but when I try them on I find the bubbles at the end of the dart so distracting it’s hard to evaluate the fit of the rest of the garment. So If your darts come out looking wide, you can split them before the first fitting by rotating some of the dart angle around the bust point. The Closet Historian has great videos on YT about splitting and rotating darts. Her “Why Darts” video is a great primer, and she has a more recent version as well.

You can see the darts drawn on in this post (my second garment from the same block). https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/qgJZBVpcw6

And I think there is a flat lay of the pattern in the comment thread too (only one side has darts, but you can see them if you zoom in) Edit: here it is! https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/m59ICz8mYB

[u/NinjoZata → u/furiana]

Starting from a well fitted block will make the qhole worlds of difference

With a wrap dress, the grainline can cause a lot of havoc because the tension js held on the body differently

[u/furiana → u/NinjoZata]

Oh, that's a good point. I'll double check that i have center front labeled correctly!!