Merida Formal Dress Part 1: Pattern Alteration and Muslin

First of all, don't you hate it when you're trying to sew and...

Sigh.

Anyway, I've had a lovely hiatus.  I got some writing done and finished about 80% of a pirate costume for my friend's daughter (which I didn't post about because it's straight from a pattern).  Now it's back to the grind, especially since I've had two more (non-pattern) costumes added to my list, bringing my total up to seven.  I'll post about them later, I suspect.

So, here is how I'm going about the formal Merida dress for Joci:

First, I have this pattern that I used four years ago to make Chaela's first Halloween costume ever.  

It's amazing for a long, basic dress with a fairly full skirt.  First I measured Joci and resized the pattern because the smallest size on there is a 3, and I needed something smaller.  You can see how lovely and organized I keep my sewing room.  The smallest size you see on there is the one I drew.  I also did the cutting a bit differently than last time.  I didn't have tissue paper (where are my presents, people?! ha ha) so I laid the pattern directly over the muslin and traced it with a marker that bled onto the fabric underneath.  I didn't mind this firstly because it's a muslin and secondly because I knew if I did it right I would finish all the edges, so none of the marker that ended up on there would be showing anyway.

Now, the sleeves on the pattern are substantially different from what I want.  Even the tops of them were weird, so I couldn't even trace those.  My solution to this was to lay out the two pattern pieces that attach to the sleeves and trace.  Like so:

Then I drew the rest of the sleeve to fit the measurements I'd taken of Joci's arm.  At first it came out like the one on the left, but when I folded it, it looked too small (besides not looking like any sleeve pattern I'd ever seen), so I added another seam allowance on each side and ended up with the pattern on the right, which I used.  While the curve is still weird, which made sewing it weird, the rest of it looks a little more normal.  A little.

Once all of the pattern pieces were finished I cut them out and sewed them together.  This is the muslin I ended up with:

I'm pretty happy with it for a first try!  All I want to change is to let it out about half an inch around the waist, and I don't have to change the shape of the pattern to do that.  So I'm going to tear this apart to use as a pattern on my "real" fabric and then sew it all back together, finish it, and add the other sleeve (and a bit of fiddly embroidery... you know, for fun) and this will become the under-dress for Joci's costume!  Part 2 to come soon!