March Muslin Madness and Epic finds!

So March's stashbusting challenge was something for the changing season, which was kind of a joke because in my corner of the world, winter just WOULD NOT GO AWAY!!  aaAARGH.  I've been dreaming of lovely spring days while looking out a window at snow.  But nothing lasts forever, even if it seems that way.

For my birthday I received the lovely book "Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing" from my mom.  Thanks, Mom!  Her portrait blouse looked like a good beginner project, so I've been working on one.  I want a nice, go-to blouse to replace my ratty t-shirts with.  I'm hoping this will be a good wardrobe foundation piece, so I'm trying my damndest to get the fit as good as possible.  That means multiple muslins!  Muslin madness!!

I'm not sure what this yellow fabric is, some sort of polyester?  The important thing is that it was FREE!!  There's almost an entire bolt, and it's 60" wide.  Perfect for muslins, because I really don't give a crap if I mess it up!

If life gives you lemon polyester, take it.  Free shit is cool.

I did one muslin with the pattern as written.  There was not enough room for my boobage, so I did my first full bust adjustment using the method described in the book.  This one was better, but I still wasn't happy with it.  Since I'm an apple shape with big boobs, I wasn't feeling the waist darts.  That, and I wasn't sure I had re-drawn the front ones properly after the FBA. 

So for my latest muslin, which I'm hoping will be a wearable one, I omitted the waist darts entirely.  The fabric is a double knit polyester from an estate sale with a slight stretch.  I have a soft spot for 70's double knit polyester.  Something about the texture and color just speaks to me, even if they don't breathe/are itchy/most everyone else doesn't like them.  My first vintage dresses were A-line double knit numbers with huge collars.

The reason I'm a bit behind in posting March's project is that I went out of town with my son for spring break.  He had a great time with his Memaw, and I had a great time rummaging around in some antique malls.  I found a truly epic cache of vintage sewing patterns!  Even better, most of them were 40" bust or larger!

I'm planning to use one of these for my April project.  It will be my first time working with a vintage pattern.

Happy sewing!