Crescent Sew-Along #4: Making the Muslin, Part 1

Today we’re going to put together our skirt muslins. It’s much like sewing the actual skirt, but a little faster as we don’t have to finish everything perfectly. All right, let’s get sewing!

Remember: you’ll need a zipper for your muslin. If that seems too wasteful, using up a zipper just for a muslin, you can rip it out afterwards and reuse it. You can even use your real skirt zipper, the one you plan to use for your real Sew-Along skirt, in your muslin. After the fitting is done, rip it out and use it for the actual skirt project.

Let’s start sewing! We’ll go in a slightly different order than the pattern instructions. A couple of you mentioned that you were going to muslin just the yoke, so that’s where we’ll start! If that’s all you need to feel confident with the fit, you’ll save a bit of time (and save muslin, too!)

Sewing the Waistband

First, grab your waistband pieces – there should be 8 pieces total. Starting with the centre front seam, sew the waistband together along the curved seams and sideseams. If you’re following the pattern sewing instructions, refer to step 11.

Use long stitches to sew the seams. If you have to unpick or let out the seams, you’ll be happy that you used wider stitches as they’re easier to remove!

For sewing the curved seams, pin the pieces together matching the ends first.

Then, pin in between the edges as shown.

At the end, you should have a constructed waistband looking somewhat like this:

Press all seams open. Let’s move to the next section!

NOTE: If all you plan on muslin-ing is the waistband, you’re done!

Sewing the Waistband Facing

Only two seams to sew here! Sew the Front Waistband Facing to the Back at the sideseams. Press both seams open.

Sewing the Pockets

Technically, you could skip this step and sew the pockets closed. But, since the pockets are at the hip, and affect how the skirt fits, let’s sew the pockets properly to give us a better idea of fit.

Pin the pocket to the pocket opening edge on the Skirt Front.

Sew, press open, and press pocket to the inside of the skirt.

Fold back the pocket, and stitch the bottom seam of the pocket bag.

Turn the skirt over so it’s right side up, and line up the top edge and side edges of the pocket bag.

Baste in place, through all layers, along the top and side to secure pocket.

That should get you started! Next, we’ll move on to Sewing the Muslin, Part 2.

As usual, leave a comment if you have questions!