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@underbaked ·

Is a muslin supposed to look this bad or did I cut the wrong size Toile Check

First toile I have ever made, plain calico, no hem, no closures, back is held together with three pins because the pattern wants an invisible zip. It looks like a sack with wrinkles radiating in about four directions. I measured carefully and cut a 14. I cannot tell if I am looking at a fitting problem or just at what an unfinished garment looks like, and I am reluctant to start slashing a pattern based on a photograph of this.

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  • @serger_seth · last wk. · 3 replies

    They all look terrible. That is not a fitting result, it is what raw calico with no closures looks like on a body.

    Before you read anything from a toile, four things have to be true. The back has to be genuinely closed, so baste the seam shut or use a lot more than three pins, because a gapping back throws every line in the front. Wear the underwear you will wear with the finished garment. Tie a length of narrow elastic around your natural waist over the toile, which shows you instantly whether the pattern waist is sitting where your waist is. And stand normally, not in a fitting pose.

    Then look, in this order: is the waist seam level and in the right place, are the shoulder seams sitting on top of your shoulders, are the side seams vertical, are the bust darts pointing at the bust apex. Only after all four do you start reading drag lines. Ninety percent of alarming wrinkles on a first toile are caused by one of those four being off, and they resolve together.

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    • @seasonalpalette · 6d ago

      The elastic at the waist is the single most useful thing in this list. It turns a vague sack into a garment with a reference line and everything becomes readable.

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    • @counter_top_carla · last wk.

      Also mark centre front and centre back on the toile with a marker before you put it on, and check they hang plumb. Costs nothing and tells you a lot.

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  • @leafspot_lucia · 6d ago · 2 replies

    Second issue: calico is stiff and has no drape, so if your final fabric is a rayon or a soft viscose, the toile is telling you about a garment you are not making. Wrinkles that would fall out in a drapey fabric stand up and shout in calico. Use something of a similar weight and hand where you can, even an old bedsheet or a charity shop curtain.

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    • @underbaked · last wk.

      Basted the back closed and put elastic at the waist. Half the wrinkles vanished and the ones that are left are all in one place, which is much less frightening.

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  • @chapter_cass · 7d ago

    Draw horizontal balance lines on the toile: one across the front at bust level, one across the back at shoulder blade level, both parallel to the floor when the pattern is flat. Put it on and see where they tilt. Whichever end rides up is the side that needs length. It converts a mess of wrinkles into one clear instruction.

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  • @question_jar · last wk.

    For what it is worth, my first six toiles looked like laundry. The reading is the skill, not the sewing, and it comes much faster than you would think.

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