Last week I constructed the muslin or test garment for the Jasika Blazer. This week, I’ve been working on the fit of the muslin.

Overall

Overall, the fit is pretty good and won’t require drastic changes. The front fits better than the back.

But there are a few things I want to address. The table of Fit Problems and Solutions below will tell you quickly what I’ve tried so far. If you want to see photos of some of the changes, those follow in sections. Strikethrough text in the Solution column means I tried it and it didn’t help.

Symptom	Solution*	Pattern Pieces Affected
Wrinkles in the upper bust and back shoulder	Add shoulder pads	No changes to pattern pieces
Back vent opens	Stitch the vent top closed per instructions on page 23	No changes to pattern pieces
Sleeve looks backward tilted	Rotate sleeve forward 1/4″	No changes to pattern pieces
Sleeve is too short	Add 5/8″ at lengthen / shorten line	Sleeve upper and lower, sleeve lining upper and lower
Diagonal wrinkles in the upper back	* Check the shoulder slope * Rotate the shoulder seam and sleeve cap 3/8″ forward * Raise the sleeve cap 3/8″ * Raise sleeve cap 1/4″ * Release the upper back 1/4″ horizontally	Upper sleeve and back bodice

* These solutions came from a variety of sources. Many were suggested by Beth Galvin, teacher of my Tailoring class. Some came from the Beatrice Dress Collective Forum. And a few sprouted from my own midnight imagination. Any errors are mine and mine alone.

Shoulder Pads

Right away, an amazingly easy fix is to add shoulder pads. Shoulder pads helped eliminate some of the wrinkles in the front and back shoulder area. The ones I used are made of batting and are 3/8″ high at the armscye.

Rotate Sleeve

The sleeve looks tilted backward in the side view so I rotated that forward 1/4″.

Lengthen Sleeve

The sleeves stopped above my wrist so I added 5/8″ to the length at the lengthen/shorten line on both the upper and lower sleeve.

Problem-Solving the Back

The diagonal wrinkles in the back proved a bit stubborn. I tried a number of things. If a fix didn’t work, I backed it out.

Shoulder Slope

Shoulders form the hanger for the jacket. I needed to verify that the shoulder slope of the pattern matched my shoulder slope. My husband traced my outline on a piece of poster paper. Our walls are textured so it’s quite a bumpy outline but it is good enough. I taped the front bodice pattern to the tracing, matching vertical grainlines. The slopes are similar. So that’s okay. No change required

Sleeve Cap Height

I made two new sleeves to experiment with adding height to the sleeve cap. Grading up each size gave me 1/8″ more height. I can grade up to 1/2″ and still manage to ease it in. I tried one sleeve with 3/8″ (on the right in the photo) and one sleeve with 1/4″ (on the left side of the photo). In this case, less addition seems more.

Rounded Shoulder

My rounded shoulder could be part of the cause of the diagonal lines. I released the fabric over the curve. This helps somewhat but turns the back into more of a board.

I’m not yet happy with how the back looks. I’m going for more of a hug-the-shoulders and back look of the flight suits for the crew on the Rocinante in The Expanse. More studying is required!

Next week, I’ll work on another muslin in a fabric with a similar weight to the final version and continue working on the fit of the back. Whew!