The other night I bravely set out to really start my dress.  Pretty much in disbelief, I gathered the super-large pattern-drafting paper, the tools, the book, my measurements and dove right in.  It almost seemed possible until the darts...



This is the dress I have in mind, from " Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified" by Cal Patch. Since I was having a hard time finding a prepared pattern that I actually might look decent in and doesn't involve knits, I settled on drafting my own pattern based on my measurements with the help of this book.

The dress is an empire waist and I am a 32C. That's a lot of shape in the bust area.

After some basic drafting of the bodice, the book had me cut out a muslin and pin it on a tight-fitting top. Then, "form one or two darts around the bust, ending at either the neckline or side seam. Pinch the darts where you see the fullness naturally forming at the edges of the pattern, and pin them until you are satisfied (pg. 93)." 



So, um, help!  I don't think I'm "satisfied".  I've redone the darts a million times and I can only seam to get anything ressembling normal when I do two at the side like this.  Is that weird?  I'm afraid to just go ahead and make the pattern (yeah, I've never sewn darts, but let's cross that bridge later), because I hate to waste time and fabric if this is just complete, ridiculously wrong.

Please give it to me straight.  I can take it!  What the heck and I doing wrong? 

And, really, is it smart to make this dress on my body shape in home decorator's weight fabric?  I thought the home decor would be fine because it's kind of like quilting cotton + lining, with the lining already built in.  But I'm worried that if I can't make the darts look halfway decent in the muslin that problems could be amplified in the heavier weight home decor? I don't know.

If I look like I'm ready to give up in that picture, it's because I am.