A moulage is like a body-double, a sausage casing made for your body. It's made out of woven fabric. It has just enough ease so you can try it on and not bust it!
Years ago, I was in sewing school and had the opportunity to take a moulage class. So. Much. Fun! And so easy! Getting a sloper to fit had taken days and tears. The class itself took days, but the process was like a breath of fresh air. Instead of multiple fittings I made 1 version, a couple of small adjustments, tried it on to make sure, no adjustments. Yes! I was sold.
Unfortunately, or, rather, mostly fortunately, that moulage no longer fits. It hasn't for a while. I'd been meaning to make another, but it just didn't happen...Until now!
Here's what version #1 was like:
Adjustments were needed in the front and back.
Remember that lessoned I learned? I forgot it when I went to do the sloper:
Don't sew tired.
Once you've fixed the mistakes your tired self made, you can use the paper pattern of the moulage to check the fit of clothing, make a sloper (but not when sleepy) and use it to check the fit of other clothing patterns, make your own patterns and other things. Awesome!
Now, I don't like talking about stuff like this, but someone may find it helpful so I'm going to go ahead. As you may have noticed, I have a unique body. We all do! Mine gains about 10 pounds of water weight at a certain time of the month that then goes away until next time. Between that and other temporary changes, getting things to fit around that time is not fun. One thing that might look like a mistake but isn't is the extra room in the sloper. It's there for this issue. I want to see how clothing made to accommodate it will look month-long. Stay tuned for the results...once I do some other things that I really should do first. Until then, thank goodness for leggings, knit dresses, and lacy cardigans for warm weather wear!
