Take a substantial piece of muslin and start by pinning a straight-grain fold exactly on the centre front, with necessary excess at the top. Then smooth it to the neck and shoulder seam and pin there - for a fitted garment, make sure it's as smooth as it could possibly be. Let it hang "where it will" from the shoulder down - that, too, is (should be) a straight grain. Pin that straight grain to the side seam. Take away the inevitable excess in front by shaping darts, in part as the fabric wants to fold and in part how you want the fabric to fold. This is the result:
On the back I used the same process to produce a side panel rather than darts (so the back will be in three pieces: centre back and two side panels):
While the resulting muslin can be used directly as a pattern, a number of us chose to transfer the pattern from the muslin to paper by tracing lines using a tracing wheel, then drawing on the paper. Paper has the advantage of not being in any danger of stretching and can be more easily and accurately cut:
New to me, but a good idea: use black tape to simulate details, both to evaluate their desirability and for placement. If you look closely, you can see how long the muslin bodice is, providing lots of scope for length options:
Then use the pattern to make up the bodice you've decided on, using colour "just to see" what a plan looks like in execution (oh, the sleeve - drafted it using the block pattern method):
And the the acid test: will it fit ME rather than the mannequin? Turns out it was all pretty accurate, although there are inevitably a few alterations since a mannequin only ever approximates a person.
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