Hot Patterns Trilogy Dress Part 2 – the muslin

Here we go, proof of the pudding! I admit i get a kick out of doing muslins. I think it’s because I get to write all over them in ink!

I sewed my muslin of the Trilogy in an inexpensive double gauze. I’ve been planning to venture into the world of double gauze for a while – so many sewing sites are ‘wild’ about it for summer garments.

Before I move on to the pattern, here’s a look at the fabric post-laundry, before and after a thorough pressing: And it’s rather nice – soft and easy to sew(I used a walking foot). In white, it is also sheer. I can understand, though, why it is a popular fabric for swaddling blankets.

On to the pattern and muslin. In short, the muslin has been binned. I’ll just touch on a few points:

• I sewed size 12 based on the HP size chart and my full hip measurement.

• My worst moment: when I realized that the pleat in the front shoulder line is very, very deep. Two and 3/8″ deep in fact. I was expecting a soft dart-like pleat. Just to be sure that my fabric had not ‘grown’, I verified the shoulder seam against the pattern tissue – perfect match. To me the pleats resemble a tabard.

• The armhole is very deep, wide, and fly-away, The shoulder seam is 10″ long and not the softly curved shoulder line in the pattern envelope art.

BTW, I drafted my pattern with 1/2″ seam allowances. The pattern comes with 3/8″ SAs, which make me uncomfortable with most woven fabrics. And I curved my back hemlines to match the front, just a personal preference. The pic below is before hemming..

I’m not really fussing, but I am disappointed by how how poorly the actual pattern aligned with my expectation. Lesson learned…

Whew – I’m going to sew only my favorite patterns for the rest of the year! This and my un-snuggly robe are quite enough experimentation for now 🙂

Ciao! Coco

Hot Patterns Trilogy Dress Part I – the jigsaw

Summer is coming, and I’m on a quest for midi dresses, comfortable, stylish, drapey… I’ve been looking at the Trilogy pattern for years, and I finally decided to try it. Hot Patterns have a way of discontinuing their patterns, so better now than later!

The jigsaw: the pattern has 3 lengths – ‘top’, tunic and dress. Rather than build a PDF file with separate outlines for the 3 versions, they built a jigsaw. Top + add-on = tunic or Top + add-on = dress.. Which I really appreciate, since the approach saves paper and ink, not to speak of tape!

But gritting my teeth, it’s time to whine:

• The PDF file is not size-layered. In this day and age, this is just plain silly.

• Hot Patterns has a no-trim approach to their PDF files. Nice. But I cannot, no matter what my printer setting, get the entire page to print. My printer does not handle a borderless print. Even on a4 paper, some details would be missing. I spent about an hour and lots of printout trials trying to overcome this weirdness. I caved, and I just assumed the path of any empty spaces between pages.

• More aggravation: how to put this tjigsaw together. There is nothing in the pattern file, which includes the instructions, to provide a clue. I found the answer in a remote corner of a file called Trilogy Arch E.pdf. I copied just this bit and printed. Here you go, pure gold, remember me…

…CUT THESE INSTRUCTIONS OUT AND KEEP THEM…How about if Hot Patterns just put this graph in the instructions!!!

Exhausted. This is not my first go-round with Hot Patterns, but we’ll see where this goes. Part II, coming soon, the muslin! Why am I feeling so forgiving and complacent about something on which I’ve spent and entire day? 🙂 Coco