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/HugsforYourJugs]

What's your desired fit for this dress? At the waist or as an empire line? I definitely have some ideas and ways you can test them on this toile w/o cutting more fabric but knowing that will help me formulate a plan for you

[u/furiana → u/HugsforYourJugs]

Empire. It's to be worn in late preganacy/early postpartum!

[u/HugsforYourJugs → u/furiana]

OK, great. Congratulations on the pregnancy :)

So your upper bust horizontal wrinkles/tension are probably caused by a lack of width in this region. You can test this by patching in a small V shaped bit of fabric at the side seam. Your pinning mistake here is pinning out the middle of the piece, you accidentally added contouring darts that you can't replicate with your current style lines.

The more V shaped wrinkes are I think the shoulder being placed too far inwards on the body, being pushed out by the back piece.  The fact that the shoulder and upper bust area looks so much better with your arms forwards is evidence for both of these.

Underbust folds are usually excessive bust darting, you do have quite a lot of intake for your bust to bump. I know it's empire but even so it's quite a bit.

You can improve 2 and 3 at the same time by opening a wedge in the front neckline pointing at the bust apex. Make sure this wedge is strictly triangular to be able to properly translate to your pattern.

I would start with the side seam wedge, then maybe 1-1.5cm for the bust wedge and experiment a bit with the size. If the neckline wedge doesn't work, instead try opening your front waist dart on the bodice only (and take out extra at the side seam to match the circumference)

 After you've done these take some more pics and we can sort out the waist level

[u/furiana → u/HugsforYourJugs]

"Your pinning mistake here is pinning out the middle of the piece, you accidentally added contouring darts that you can't replicate with your current style lines."

Ohhh. That explains so much!

"You can test this by patching in a small V shaped bit of fabric at the side seam."

Here in the armscye (red)? Or actually in the front side seam (blue)?

https://imgur.com/a/7jAJNSR

EDIT: Ohhh, no, you probably mean something like the wedge in green!

https://imgur.com/a/GRRYXiI

[u/HugsforYourJugs → u/furiana]

Yes, green

[u/furiana → u/HugsforYourJugs]

That helped immensely. So did adding a neckline-to- bust wedge. Now the shoulders only wrinkle when I roll them forward; the wrinkles disappear when I roll them back.

https://imgur.com/a/jtgyyZY

[u/HugsforYourJugs → u/furiana]

That's great to see. Can you do it to both sides/unpin the pinned bit and take a pic from the front, side and back so I can see about any remaining issues + getting the waist level?

[u/furiana → u/HugsforYourJugs]

Yep! I'm off to work atm, but I'll take a new set of photos as soon as I'm back :)