Progress with the Work In (Vogue 8787)

So a few weeks ago I posted an SOS about my Vogue 8787 muslin. As you'll remember, the upper back was a mess:

I received a lot of advice, both on my blog and on BurdaStyle.  I tried some of the advice and increased the back dart, made a square shoulder alteration, and shifted the back shoulder seams over.  It was better, but still not quite right:

I am a lot happier with the dress after hacking off (not literally, of course) the sleeves:

If I don't look happier it's because I'm wondering what the hell is up with my hair.

I felt like I could do better so I did a little research in the books I have on fitting, Real Fit for Real People and Fast Fit.  My problems pretty exactly fit the definition (vertical wrinkles, back armhole seam goes out into arm) for a Narrow Back Alteration (let's just call that an NBA for short).  I found this highly confusing - I mean, how can you have broad shoulders and a narrow back? 

This alteration involves cutting an L-shaped line into the back pattern, overlapping the cut edges by 1/2 inch, then truing the side seam.  I love to look at pattern alterations so I'll assume you do, too:

The NBA in all it's glory.

I also made a square shoulders alteration to the pattern piece as this is something I almost always need to do.  Initially I decreased the back dart size (according to instructions) but then brought it back to it's original size after my first fitting.  And here are the results:

 

 

I am MUCH happier with this!

I hope to finish this dress in the next few days if I can carve out the time.  Here's a peek at the front of the bodice - I decided to have fun with stripes again:

So what are you working on??