Couture dress progress: Muslin

I've been struggling with the muslin on this dress a bit - its so hard to fit yourself sometimes! I made a sz22 with a 1.5" FBA and dropped the bust dart by 2", plus have pinned out some of the bust ease and side seams The fits not bad - I'm having some excess on the straps that needs to be pinned out, and the back looks a bit wonky because of my crappy zipper insertion.
All the seams seem to be straight so I'm going to leave it as this, until I'm ready to cut out my fashion fabric and I'll have another look at it then.

I ordered the silk organza for the underlining yesterday and this is my fabric - the lace will be the main fabric and the satin will be the midriff band;



I haven't decided yet on the lining - has anyone used Silk Habotai for lining? Dharma Trading has plain white silk habotai and its actually cheaper than the polyester lining available locally.

Vogue 8751 again!

I managed to score some wool blend suiting on clearance for $3 a meter the other day, perfect for another pair of these pants. The wool was a bit scratchy even after a wash so I figured I'd have a go at underlining them. The wool fabric also has 3% lycra so I needed a lining with stretch and its one thing I don't have in my stash so in my wisdom I decided to cut a rayon lining on the bias....I couldn't find any info on bias cut linings but figured I'd baste them on and sew like normal. It was a bit of a PITB, I basted them on and they twisted a bit so I had to unpick and rebaste. Even now they feel like they are twisting slightly. This week Lincraft has their 50% fabric sale so I'm going to stock up a bit on some stretch linings and stash them aside as the underlining does feel so luxurious that I'd love to do it again.



Otherwise these are identical to the last pair and a good practise go at a suit (jacket and pants) I'm planning to make from the other 6m of this suiting that may have followed me home!

On another note I signed up for Susan Khaljie's Couture course over at Craftsy last week. Very impressed so far - Susan is very charismatic in front of the camera and I love how interactive it is - I've already asked her a question and she replied very quickly! I already had the pattern so I've started - marked my pattern pieces and cut out my muslin, just have to trace all the details on. I'm already learning new things - I've never paid so much attention to grain lines before, and never used transfer paper either. I'll post up pictures of my muslin once I've got it sewn together.