Muslin for basic close fitting top

I decided I want to make the rashguard top from the Make Your Own Activewear book by Melissa Feyr. First you are recommended to make a muslin. Well my swimsuit fabric was expensive so I did just that using my cheap coral fabric. So thats what this top is - a muslin for my rash guard.

In the mirror I thought this fitted well. From these photos I believe I should do an FBA although according to my measurements, and the book, I should not need to do this. The common faults bit though does alude to that stretched bit accross my chest so I think that must be what is wrong with this top.

Also I have been told this about needing an FBA before by Karey when I messed up my peplum jacket a while ago now. I suppose its time I learned to do this just to see if I can get this top to fit better. I have enough of this fabric to redo it in the same fabric too so that would be a really good test. I am not so scared of altering patterns now as I used to be, so perhaps its time now that I learned this.

As it turns out because I thought this fitted - until now that is - so I never changed the block.More on my rashguard top later. It seems not to have the same problem, which must I think be down to fabric choice.

This is cheap crepe fabric that I have used before for the lining of this skirt and this swimsuit which was a tester for Ralph Pink. Since it cost me 99p for about 6m it was a real bargain despite the naff colour. Its also ideal at that price for making muslins.  I used the reverse of the fabric for this top. Thats why it looks flat and not crepe.

Well once I get round to doing this FBA I will show you how my next version compares. It should make for an interesting experiment I think.

Take care

Bracken