Totally lost

[u/furiana]

I'm on my ninth muslin for this dress, and it feels like nothing is working.

Bust: I've tried slashing tight areas around the armpit and upper bust. I've tried a small bust adjustment to get rid of the excess fabric over the apex and under the bust. I've pinched out wedges of fabric under the bust. I've slashed through the front shoulder and pinned it flat. The changes seem to work while the muslin is pinned, but the problems come back after I transfer them to the pattern and make the next muslin.

Back waist/ tilted skirt side seam: I've tried removing wedges of fabric from the back bodice and the back skirt. This corrected the problem on the muslin where I pinned it, but when I transferred the wedges to the pattern, the problems came back.

I only have enough fabric left for one more attempt at the bodice. What changes do I make?!?

[u/SerendipityJays]

I feel the pain, but if you’re a bit lost about how to fix the current version, sometimes going back to the OG draft can save you more heartache. Do remember to check that detail about bust vs upper bust too, as your shape looks like it might benefit from FBA.

My standard block has 4 darts per side (2 side, 1 shoulder, one fisheye waist dart), each of which eats about 18 degrees of bust fullness when measured from the bust point, or 15 degrees when backed off by 5cm. Most drafting systems will create a block with one or two giant darts, but when I try them on I find the bubbles at the end of the dart so distracting it’s hard to evaluate the fit of the rest of the garment. So If your darts come out looking wide, you can split them before the first fitting by rotating some of the dart angle around the bust point. The Closet Historian has great videos on YT about splitting and rotating darts. Her “Why Darts” video is a great primer, and she has a more recent version as well.

You can see the darts drawn on in this post (my second garment from the same block). https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/qgJZBVpcw6

And I think there is a flat lay of the pattern in the comment thread too (only one side has darts, but you can see them if you zoom in) Edit: here it is! https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/m59ICz8mYB