OK, so this month out there is everything from “Me Made May” to “International Business Image Improvement Month” (which could use it, I admit) and I am going to totally avoid the entire thing and declare my own celebration: MAMM, which stands for:
MAKE A MUSLIN MONTH
I know there are folks out there who have been sewing since we were slapping laundry on rocks down by the old mill stream and avoid making a muslin of a new garment like the plague (and I suspect that most of them either have a sloper/block/tried and true pattern that they use religiously, OR they are perfect size whatever and have figured out which size in the Big Three fits them). I am not one of those people. I have physical issues that preclude whipping the tissue out of the envelop and just cutting out. I’m short, stocky, stout, short-waisted, broad in the back, have a tummy, big upper arms, and a rear-end you could set a potted-palm on. I also have arms like a T-rex (as in even petite size stuff is several inches too long in the sleeves) and low knees. I don’t like making ‘wearable muslins’ because by and large, this does not work for me; I end up with things that are too big in the shoulders with the waist in the wrong place, the armscye is way too low and the sleeves do not fit. And I will have ruined a piece of fabric; I’d rather work out all the issues on muslin first. (more…)
