Moto Bike Jacket: part two

I got started on the muslin for the Moto Bike Jacket. It's working out, but there are already a list of things I'll be changing before I go to final pattern.

The seaming on the front side panels came together nicely, but it only worked because I was stitching on a muslin fabric that is significantly thinner than my final fabric which is bonded with fleece on the wrong side. You can see how thin each dart is. My regular bust dart is only 1 1/2 inches so each of the four shaping darts was only 3/8 inch. That isn't very much to work with, and at the pointy end of the dart, I was basically just stitching along the folded edge, catching just a few threads of fabric. I'll be adding some more width to each seam to make it easier to sew in a thicker fabric.

Muslin back

The back came together easily, but I can already tell that the princess seams will need some shaping. The center back panel just looks blocky and wide. I don't want the final jacket to fit so tightly that I can't move or wear layers, but I do want it to be as close-fitted as possible given those constraints.

Side shaping seams

You can see above how the seams will wrap around the ribs. I cannot believe that I got this so right on the first try. Triumph! Only the seams on the front panel are for shaping. The seams on the back panel are just style lines, all the shaping in the back will be in the princess seams. Shortly after celebrating my beautiful rib-wrapping-shaping seams I discovered a pretty big mistake. If you look closely, you can see it in the picture above.

Mistakes

Ugh. Look at that. How did I forget to adjust my back neckline? I don't even know. I'm sure that it's because there are so. many. pieces. to this pattern. I was bound to lose track of something. Oh well, it's not impossible to fix, but that will be for next time. See part one here.