fitting frustration! }:-|

I was feeling guilty for not having progressed with sewing my dress.

So I cut my "fake" muslin fabric - it's not really a fabric, it's a bunch of fibers glued together, originally intended to be disposable tablecloth. This is what my sewing teacher taught us to use, and it's super cheap. It really does not have any elasticity so I don't know how it can mimic fabric in any way. Truthfully the fitting we got at our sewing lessons was mediocre at best.

"fake muslin" (disposable tablecloth) - cheap, but is it useless?

Then I basted the darts and tried it on. Immediately I found the following problems:

• it's too small around my waist
• my waist seems to be higher up by 4 cm (?)
• it seems I need a smaller measurement at the shoulders

So you might be thinking - good for her! Now she's going to apply what she learned from the muslin to the pattern, and off she goes, and a perfectly fitted dress appears in no time...

But no. I don't trust my fitting methods. I don't trust my "fake fabric". And I cringe at the thought of cutting my lengthy fabric, putting in all those hours of meticulous sewing, and then getting something wrong that can't be fixed.

I know - I sound like a perfectionist - I should make mistakes and learn from them, etc. But the thing is - I've already made a ton of mistakes and I still have no idea how to properly alter the fit! Discouragement follows.

Incidentally I received a gift certificate at Amazon from the wonderful people from my old work place - so I thought I'd search for a fitting book. I have "fit for real people" but that requires putting the tissue on your body which is not far from what I did and I still don't trust my findings (okay, I'll take a look at this book again but I don't think it's going to help). I also have a trouser fitting book which takes decades to implement and a ton of expertise. And anyway this is a dress, not trousers.

After a bit of searching on amazon I found this book:

Pattern Fitting with Confidence by Nancy Zieman

There's a "sneak peak" video for this book by the author on youtube that gave me my fitting optimism back:

(see? Something good came out of my fitting dilemmas after all :D)

What I liked about this book + DVD (mind you I haven't bought it yet):

1. It got great reviews on amazon
2. I loved her technique demonstration in the youtube video: 
1. I enjoyed listening to her, she is crystal clear
2. her technique depends on measurements and pattern adjustments on paper, rather than the "art of muslin fitting", which I don't like because I don't think I'm good at it and I don't like spending money on a muslin fabric, which costs as much as the fashion fabric.

I have several other books to review before I choose what to buy, but this one looks good.

What do you think of this technique?
Do you have a fitting technique / tutorial / book you could recommend?
Any advice on fitting?

Good luck to us all, those who are not carved out of the standard measurements! :-)