I'm pretty sure I figured out what happened with the sleeve but I won't know for sure until I sew the second muslin, which is happening right after I finish this post. I aligned the underarm seam of the sleeve with the sideseam of the bodice. You know ... how you usually do that. But for this jacket, those seams are not supposed to align and are, in fact, offset. And there is a definite mark (notch) to tell you that, if you pay attention. I did not. That's what I get for thinking I'm so smart and not looking over the details. ;-).
The other problem with the sleeve is that it is too tight. It's OK with nothing under the muslin but as soon as I tried it on with a tee, no way Jose. Which called for another head-scratching session, because the sleeves are 2-piece sleeves and with the "built-in" elbow dart, they do not pin together flat. I thought about what to do and came up with this:
(Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them for detail viewing.)
I pinned the sleeve pieces together so that the grainlines were parallel and the armscye seam was fluid.
Then I adjusted the bicep width like this (my alterations are marked with red pen on the pattern):
IOW, I slashed across the bicep "latitude" and straight down from the top center mark plus a couple more "pizza" slices in the upper arm area, leaving hinges as necessary at the seamlines.
Then I filled in the spreads with more STP and raised the sleevecap back up to close to what it was before the alteration and trued any seams that needed it.
Other alterations included moving the princess lines closer to center front by slashing/spreading the side front panel and slashing/overlapping the center front panel. This is roughly pinned at the seam on your left.
Finally, depressing as it is, I still needed more hip room for the jacket to hang nice in the back. A center back seam would've been ideal but I didn't want to change the look of the jacket back. (Can you see where I tried that and then Scotch-taped it back together?) Instead, I slashed through the peplum at and up through the back panel seams. I then added 1/2 of each spread to the bottom of each side of the panels tapering to zero by about the mid-high point, and I spread the peplum to match the new width. My mind says this will work. We'll see how Muslin #2 really looks.
Now, off the computer and up to the sewing machine where Muslin #2 is waiting, cut and ready to be sewn.
Debbie, what kind of fabric do you use for your muslins? Do you use just a plain white cotton? Or do you use scrap material that closely resembles the fashion fabric? I've heard both ways of doing it and I like watching your progress. I want to try to do the same thing - although I know it is a lot of work, I can see from your example how it is so very worth it.
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