You see what I have to work with?!

In other words, what little crafty time I've had lately has been dedicated to trying to get this bedroom makeover going. I need to try to get as moved as possible into this room by Christmas Eve, since we have family coming to stay and need one of the rooms for them to sleep in. These admittedly aren't the best "before" pics, since my brother still had a bunch of stuff in here at the time and my dad went ahead and patched up some of the holes in the walls before I could get to the picture. But this should give you an idea of what I'm working with in terms of color... I call this "dungeon grey".
And let's not forget the black window shades (that never get opened), and the dark blue ceiling...

Oh yeah, and the completely busted closet doors, which are now gone, and not coming back. I'm going to put curtains there instead. (Oh, and the cat...she thinks it's HER room now!)

Spent Monday night priming the entire room, with some much-needed help from my dad. I'm very much lacking in skills on paint-rolling ceilings. As you can see, the primer is a drastic improvement in color! (And it's amazing how much brighter the room seems already!)

So here's my plan: I'm going to paint the ceiling and closet on Sunday--those are going to be tan. Next Saturday, two of my friends are coming over to help me paint the walls. (I didn't ask, they volunteered. I have wonderful friends.) Those will be green, somewhere between this slightly too-light green and this too-dark green. The blue carpet will stay. The idea was that I was trying to match this fabric. (And, at least on my computer, the greens look a lot less olive and the blue carpet isnt' quite as dark, so hopefully it'll work!) I will have to paint the trim on the windows and closet and all, because the one window had to be repaired and the baseboards had light blue paint on them from the original paint job from when my brother was a kid. So those are going to be a chocolatey brown to try and look like the actual wood color. On the plus side, that saves me a LOT of time on taping this stuff up!

I have to admit, this project has been stressing me out, since trying to work 3 jobs and find time to do major room redecorating has been rather difficult! But I found out today that hours are being cut at my garden center job for November, due to low customer traffic and needing to save some money. So what this means is that for the next couple of weeks, I'm temporarily laid off--no need of a cashier being there all day if there's hardly any customers. But I'm actually ok with it, because that will give me some much-needed time to put all of this together. Especially since I have 4 pieces of furniture to paint too, of which I still need to sand 1 1/2 of those and prime 3, and that's the type of work that I need larger blocks of time to do well. And then on days where I've still got a good block of flute teaching time, I can focus more on the sewing end of things. So this dramatically increases my odds of getting enough done in time. And the other fortunate thing is that I don't really have much left to buy for this. I need to get two more pieces of fabric: one for curtains for the closet, since I discovered that my original idea of recycling some bedsheets isn't going to work--one of them is fitted and would end up having to be significantly smaller to get rid of those darts--and one to cover the two insulated light-blocking shades so I can recycle those. And I need to get a new ceiling fan, since in looking at the original one, it's a lot easier to replace it than to paint the blades and try and find a way to get the lights less glaring. So I'm going to see if I can find a fairly inexpensive one with a covered light, preferably one that's still Energy Star-rated. And then I think that should be it.

I did have one exciting thing happen today for this room--one of my must-haves was a bookcase. Because I have a LOT of books, and am completely tired of the brackets-in-the-wall system that I've had my entire life because my dad favors them. Let me say, bookcases are ridiculously expensive. I mean, come on, it's a box with shelves, do you really need to charge a hundred bucks or more for one that's shorter than me? I was seriously considering building one, since even the cheapo IKEA ones are a lot of dough. But this week I found one on Craigslist that seemed to fit the bill perfectly--pretty much the exact dimensions I needed (including height--it's a 7-foot tall one!), and a light enough color that I can get away with not painting it. It was picked up today, and as long as I can get it through the door of the room, I think it'll work brilliantly. (Once I clean the spider egg cases off of the base, anyway... ick.) The best part: it only cost me $26!

Slowly moving along....

I know I've been quiet lately. I really haven't been that productive, honestly...it's been difficult for me to find time to craft this fall! But I do have a little progress to show, so here goes...

1. The skirt fitting class. The lessons are all up, the chats are done, and I spent most of it feeling behind because of how long it took me to fit the muslin. But I know I wasn't the only one in that class having trouble with it--and mine was relatively easy compared to some. I did finally get the muslin fitted pretty well, I think, and so since I had some unexpected time off yesterday, I made my master pattern.
To give you an idea: I made my muslin from McCall's 3830, a basic straight skirt, in a size 14. The black lines are the the original waist and darts. The red and orange ones are what I had to do to make it work-- 1" seams on the side or more, tiny little darts, the waistband lines up with the red line, and I had to make a contoured waistband to use as my default because a straight one was way too gappy. (I did have a larger view of the muslin with the two lines, but I seem to have accidentally deleted it from my camera. Oops.)
This is my master sloper pattern that I made yesterday. At my mom's brilliant suggestion, I put it on heavy non-fusible interfacing, because that would be more durable than paper, easier to store than posterboard, I can see pattern lines through it, and I can iron it! So, theoretically, if I make a skirt from this pattern it should fit quite well.

Given all that I have going on, my original plan (which I formulated about halfway through the class) was to get my sloper made, and then put this aside and try fitting another pattern with it later. I don't think that's going to be happening, though-- some of the ladies in the class had the idea during the last chat to do a sewalong to work on our second skirt muslins, and the teacher said she'd try to stop in and check on our progress every so often. So I kind of feel like I should do that while I can still get the help.

Item #2: I was house/dogsitting this weekend, and my plan was to use the time to get a good chunk of my bedspread quilt for my new bedroom done. I actually did make some rather good progress, considering that the plan evolved into also hanging out with another friend who came down to keep me company while I was alone in the house/helping her a bit with her Halloween costume/taking a couple of hours to go to a flute recital. (My first flute student from back when I was in college is now a college senior majoring in music ed, and she had her recital on Saturday!) My quilt top consists of 15 blocks, which will have strips between them, and then borders and stuff. But I got all 15 blocks sewn together with little drama, other than thinking I'd lost half of the pieces to block #4. But I kept moving through them, and my suspicions that they'd gotten stuck with another piece proved true. (#14 to be exact. That's what I get for trying to sort them and watch FlashForward at the same time!) I also got all of the leaves fused onto the blocks, and started appliqueing a few of the stems. But I didn't get very far on that, because the lighting in her living room wasn't the greatest and my machine hasn't had a working light for years, and I was getting rather tired by this point of Saturday night anyway so I gave up and watched the last of my Star Wars trilogy run without sewing. This is a sample of two of the blocks, just to get an idea of how they work together. I think I'm really going to like the way it turns out!

Mission accomplished!

I'm happy to report that my baked potato soup experiment seems to be a success! I ended up abandoning the crock pot idea....figured that once the prepwork was done, it would be pretty quick to throw together on the stove. So I ended up more or less combining the Alton Brown and Cooking Light recipes. And since I liked it, I wanted to get the new recipe down before I forget!

Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:

4 baked potatoes

7 slices bacon

2 leeks, thinly sliced

2 tsp minced garlic (though I used the stuff in a jar, and didn't level it, so it was probably closer to 2 1/2, or about 5 cloves)

2 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 c chicken stock

3 1/2 c fat free milk (I like the organic stuff, because it's sooooo much thicker and creamier and yummier than the conventional!)

8 oz light sour cream

1 1/2 c cheddar cheese

Fresh chives for garnish

Instructions:

1. Take the baked potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise, scoop them out, and put the innards through a ricer. (I baked them yesterday and cooled them in the fridge overnight--the nice thing was this made the skins peel away from the potatoes somewhat, so it really maximized the useable part of the potatoes. I do wonder if the potatoes being cold made it harder to put through the ricer, though! That was hard!)

2. Cook the bacon in a cookpot big enough to hold the soup over medium heat. Remove the bacon and set aside.

3. Cook the leeks and garlic in the bacon drippings until translucent. Add the salt and pepper and toss it around a bit more.

4. Add the chicken broth, then the riced potatoes, milk, and sour cream, and mix them up well. (I used an immersion blender because I wanted a really smooth soup. The immersion blender is FUN. Yes, I'm a dork.)

5. Add the cheese and mix it in, then crumble up the bacon and add that; let the soup heat through. Garnish with chives.

A couple of notes, and to give credit where it's due...

• From the Alton Brown recipe: the idea of using leeks instead of onions. (I don't like onions--they're too strong-tasting to me. That seems to run in my family, because I also have several relatives who don't like onions, including my mom, my brother, and at least one uncle.) The major contribution of putting the potatoes through the ricer, which helped a lot in getting that creamy texture I wanted. Also the additions of the sour cream and using chicken stock instead of broth--even though I used a carton of stock from the grocery store, I figured that would give more depth to the flavor than just plain broth.

• Other than the ricer, I took most of the preparation steps from the Cooking Light recipe--cooking the leeks and garlic in the bacon drippings, adding the stock and milk directly to the pan (Alton suggested heating up the stock separately first and then whisking the potatoes and dairy together separately, but that would make extra dirty dishes and I didn't want that.) Cheddar instead of parmesan. The proportions of chicken stock to dairy were more in-line with this recipe, though I didn't exactly follow the ingredients here either. (Alton called for buttermilk, and CL for 1% milk, but I didn't feel like drinking the leftovers and figured the fat-free would make up a bit for the bacon grease.) Also, the bacon--the lack of was the major shortcoming in the AB recipe.
  

• The AB recipe called for 2 1/2 tsp of salt, and the CL for just 1 tsp. I didn't think one would be enough, but I originally tried just two. When tasting it later, it seemed like it needed more, so I went ahead and added the other 1/2 tsp.
• My own twists: using the immersion blender to make the soup smoother, and adding the bacon to the actual soup rather than just as a garnish. The reasons for this were that I wanted the bacon flavor to infuse the soup more (I feel so Iron Chef saying that), and the more practical reason of the leftovers would just have the bacon sitting in the soup anyway.
  

It passed the "Dad test" too, although he's hands-down the least picky eater of my entire family. (He likes to test my food creations though, since my mom's highly restricted diet means she doesn't really cook meals anymore. And I guess it's a nice break from the ginormous salads he usually eats for dinner.) But he went back for seconds and even stated "you could sell this." That was nice to hear.

Now test #3....let's see how it freezes.

Not dead yet.

I've just been super-busy at work. But here's a little of what's been going on in my crafty world lately...

1. The Pattern Review class. I've been kind of feeling a bit behind, mostly due to needing to get the feedback from the instructor on the fit and that usually takes several days (I post one day, she posts the next, I fix and post again, etc.) So far, it's been helpful, though, and I think I'm getting close to the point where I might actually have a muslin I can make a real sloper out of. Here's where I'm at:
I think the front is actually fitting pretty well. Still having a little trouble with the back, but hopefully the instructor will be able to let me know what to do and I can get the actual sloper made soon.

2. I've actually started to make some progress on things for the bedroom makeover. Nothing actually in the room yet, as my brother hasn't finished moving his things out. I might have to just box them up and stick them in the middle of the room and work around it. But I did start priming pieces for the computer desk as of Monday. And since I've felt the need for a sewing project that I can work on in between bouts of muslin-tweaking, but nothing really demanding of my brain, I've been working on this instead.

No before pictures, as I forgot to take one, so an in-progress one will have to do. Basically, I'm just taking my cream-colored (at least, it used to be cream....use and the occasional spilling of tea have taken their toll) IKEA storage ottoman--it's similar to this one but more square-shaped (the lid's a little off here, which is why it looks more like a Super Mario mushroom tower)--and recovering it with this blue moire. I'm hand-sewing it directly onto the old cover because I'm feeling too lazy to figure out a pattern for the cover of the top. Especially since it would involve about 3 zippers and hammering in some grommets in the exact placement it would need to screw in the little feet on it that helps it sit in place within the box. I am leaving the handles on, though planning on leaving them tucked inside the box. What I store in there are things like my high school and first half of college scrapbooks (which are this odd bigger-than-12x12 size with no page protectors and therefore a bit unwieldy for a bookshelf), old journals, etc., so it doesn't get the lid taken off too often. In my current room, the idea was to use it to sit in front of the computer, but it's really more of a dumping ground for my stuff since I generally just sit on the bed instead. In the new room, I'm planning on using this more as a window seat of sorts, to give me a nice place to sit and read.

3. I was planning on going backpacking this weekend with the outing club at my church. Since the forecast basically sucks and I don't want to spend two days straight outside when the temperature isn't going to crack 40 (and be raining and possibly snowing for much of it), I decided to wimp out and stay home and work on stuff for my bedroom and whatnot. (Besides, I got scheduled to play on the worship team even though I already told them I wasn't going to be there...and my brother is the one in charge of the scheduling and was standing right next to me when I blocked out the date and he still didn't realize I was supposed to be gone! Go fig. I guess I should cut him some slack since this was before the wedding and he's only been married for a week and a half.) Anyway, since I'm staying indoors, I'm on a quest for the perfect baked potato soup recipe. I'm feeling inspired by this awesome potato soup they used to have at Bennigan's, may it rest in peace, so here's my rules:

1. It must be more or less smooth instead of chunky.


2. It must be creamy and use bacon.


3. It must also be a healthier version (since the inspiration is decidedly not, and I want this to be something I can eat on a regular basis!)


4. It must be able to be made in a crockpot, since I basically just want to dump all the ingredients in something and then be able to prime furniture for a couple of hours.


5. It must taste good. (Obviously.)

So I'm arming myself with a recipe from this book, this magazine, this tv chef and this blog, and basically just taking all of my favorite parts from each to create my own recipe. We'll see how it turns out. And when I actually end up making it...there's a fairly good chance I won't have to go into the garden center tomorrow due to the crappy weather (I got sent home early today), and if that's the case, I might just make it for lunch tomorrow. Possibly even on the stovetop, just for kicks. (And warmth...we're getting a new heater installed and therefore we don't have heat right now!!)

What do you think?

I've been so bad at keeping up with this blog this week...between trying to recover from my brother's wedding/stay caught up on work/use almost all of my free time working on my Pattern Review class (which I'll probably post on later, once I have time to make a muslin to show for it), I just haven't had time to write!! But after the huge fiasco that was sewing my dress for my brother's wedding, I'm thinking that maybe I should get a bigger head-start on making a dress for a friend' s January wedding that I'll be attending. And I'm weighing my options, so I'm blatantly fishing for feedback on this one!

This is the pattern I'd picked out, Vogue 7762. I'm planning on trying the one sketched in purple in the middle (which is actually also the one in the photograph) because I love those funky elf sleeves. And I have a problem with finding long-sleeved dresses that don't look frumpy on me, but since it's January and I get cold easily, long sleeves are a must. I don't think a sleeveless dress and shrug are going to cut it. Problem #1: When I bought the pattern, the sketch was on there and in the pattern catalog, and the photo was not. And in the photo, the dress looks a little...boring. I don't know if it's the color or the way she's posing, or what, but I liked it much better when it was the sketch! But I'm thinking that making it out of a print instead might liven it up-- I kind of like the look of it with the print on the sketch to the right.

So question #1: Print or solid? (And if you say print, should I go for something really graphic or more understated? I'm thinking understated since I don't want to draw attention away from my friend the bride, but I still want to look good! And, admittedly, funky prints are way more my style, as you've probably figured out if you've been following this blog for any length of time.)

The second issue: The dress calls for a woven. And it looked fairly fitted on the sketch and the pattern drawing when I was looking at it. But when I was reading it more closely after buying it, I noticed that it called the dress "semi-fitted", and that set off some alarms for me because one of my usual biggest fitting "problems" is my waist. It's not a bad problem to have--it's just small compared to the other curves, so I guess I'm pretty much an hourglass figure. But that means I have to be very careful about wearing clothes that aren't fitted at the waist, because that can easily make me look pregnant! Also, there aren't really any darts around the chest. So what I'm seriously considering doing is making this dress from a knit instead of a woven. It would probably be more comfortable that way, both for the hour-and-a-half or more drive to Baltimore and if I actually make it out to the dance floor (we'll see, because I'm not going to have a date for the wedding. I'm not a believer in asking some random guy to go to a wedding for two people he doesn't even know just so I don't have to sit by myself. I don't know anyone I could ask anyway. And it's not like I won't know anyone there--my best friend is a bridesmaid. I just won't get to sit with her for dinner, that's all.) Also, from a sewing standpoint, I figured then it would be a lot easier to make it more fitted at the waist and still accommodate the fact that I'm not flat-chested without getting weird "I don't fit" wrinkles.

So question #2: Go with what the pattern says, or take a chance on a knit? Also, other than eliminating the zipper and making it pull-over, and maybe eliminating the back dart, any advice on such a drastic change in textile?

If I don't go with a knit, I need to figure out what to make it out of. The dress calls for "Lt.wt. Wool Crepe, Soft Faille, Silk Like Crepe, Matte Jersey and Lt.wt. Double Knit." I don't want to go too lightweight, though... I'll get cold!! And I can't wear wool because then I'll break out in hives.

Question #3: With the potentially big fitting issue, should I just go for a different pattern altogether? If so, any suggestions for what won't look too old or frumpy or high school on an almost-29-year-old?

Decisions, decisions....

And now for something completely different..

At least, different for me. You may be wondering what the outcome of that dress in the last post was. Well, I went to Goodwill on Monday and found a cute vintage-esque cardigan to wear over top of it. As for the wrap, I'm most likely going to recycle it into some pillows. At least then I'll be able to use SOME of the fabric I bought for this outfit!!

As for this....yes, I'm making a quilt. (My mother is so proud.) This is my inspiration. It's a quilt I saw years ago in a Coldwater Creek catalog, and for some reason it just jumped out and grabbed me. Something about the combination of greens and the leaf print. So I decided back then that if I ever got the urge to make a quilt, this just might be the one to do.

As it so happens, the idea also goes perfectly with the bedroom makeover I'm getting started on--it's very nature-inspired. So I've spent the last two nights getting the blocks cut out (with some help from my mom, who had to explain the most efficient way to do it.) This is the color scheme that I'm using for the quilt, mostly. There's going to be 15 patchwork blocks with tan strips in between, and the main border is going to be the fabric that inspired the color scheme of the room--it's kind of a hexagon print in green, blue, tan and white. And, of course, leaves appliqued on the blocks.

I won't be starting on the sewing right away. For one thing, I have to make the leaf template. For another thing, my Pattern Review sewing class starts on Monday. And I also have a weekend near the end of the month where I'm going to be house/dog-sitting for a friend, and so my plan for that time is to watch a lot of movies and sew as much of this together as I possibly can. (At least the patchwork blocks and the appliques. I should probably wait to cut the in-between strips until I see the finished size.)

Arrrrrgh!!!

Talk about frustrating....

Well, here it is....the sister-of-the-groom outfit from hell. This dress is better than the first, of course, but you can see that it still has some issues with the fit.

And then there's this wrap that I thought I finished tonight...
I used the Weekend Designer wrap pattern. But it does NOT work with the velvet at all. Too floppy despite my interfacing, too bulky, too BAD looking. So I guess I'm going to have to take some time tomorrow and try to salvage this into a capelet or something. Seriously...why do I even try to work with nice fabrics?

I guess this outfit is just jinxed or something...even my shoes have been an issue. I have an unusual size due to my unusually wide feet, and so I mail-ordered the shoes almost two months ago. Got them fine, the width was fine, but the shoes were cramping my toes so I sent them back. And then didn't hear a thing about them until a couple days ago, when I emailed them to find out the status of the order. The shoes are out of stock. So now I have until Saturday to find a pair around here, and probably the only day I'll actually have time to look is Wednesday. Aaargh.

the art of procrastination

So as of today, there are only nine days left until my brother's wedding. And I've been on limited crafting time this week, between work and social stuff that's popped up (my best friend from high school is in town with her husband and two kids, so I went over to her parents' house last night to catch up with her, and then my best friend now stopped by tonight). No, I don't have a picture of the dress yet. So really, other than a little bit of time spent on it tonight, the only day I had this week that I could have worked on finishing the wrap was Monday, since it took me a good bit of time on Sunday to get the buttonhole figured out (for one half. I still have one half to go as of tonight. Including basting the interfacing onto the velvet.)

So do you think I sewed on the wrap on Monday? Nooo... I did this.
This pile of wood is my computer desk, completely disassembled. I hope I can get it back together all right... I don't have a picture of what it looked like all together originally, but I did take pictures of the different pieces and components before disassembling them the rest of the way/removing the hardware that was left. (My dad had already taken it apart a bit.) So it took me several hours, but I got the whole thing sanded. And pretty much by myself--I did have to get my dad to help me with one particualarly difficult screw (which was not my fault, whoever originally put it together did a crappy job that resulted in chunks being taken out of the particle board, which is the main reason I absolutely have to paint it. Because we had to fill those in with some kind of construction goop.)

So now I can say the room is officially started, even though my brother won't be moving the rest of his stuff out until after his honeymoon. I even bought my paint yesterday, and made a date with two of my friends who volunteered to come over and help me paint. (Without my even asking them to. I have good friends.)

Also, though I'm procrastinating on getting a picture of the dress (due to bad lighting and a horribly messy current bedroom), I did finally get a picture of my hutch thingy. (The top is a little messed up-- the finish was chipped pretty badly, so that got some preliminary sanding.)
And then this is a closeup of the doors. I know it's a little bit country looking, but I do like the hinges and hardware a lot on this! It's kind of earthy, which fits in my rather nature-inspired room very well. (I just have to figure out what color I'm going to have to repaint them... I don't think they're going to work with it as is after I paint it white. I'd debated leaving it the natural color, but since the main flat surface was messed up anyway...)

On a somewhat related note, I found this quiz courtesy of Salinda. According to it, my decor style is "global casual".

Your home is warm and inviting, and expresses your curiosity and zest for life. You have wide-ranging interests, and an appreciation for many different cultures and ways of life. You bring a sense of the far-flung world into your home through its décor through unique or artisan-made treasures. Objects in your home tend to reflect your personality, your passions, your values, and your eclectic interests. This gives your home a sense of intrigue and comfort.

You value creativity. You are stylish and fun loving, and can be an inspiration to others. You have a natural sense of drama, and you know you have to be willing to take risks—whether with colors, finishes, furniture choices, or ideas—for your home to stand out. Your home can be happy and lively and the place all of your friends want to be.

I thought it was pretty accurate, actually! And a nice way to not go with the cop-out of "eclectic".

Today I...

• ...finished the sister-of-the-groom dress from hell! Mostly finished it last night, but I sewed the hook and eye to complete it this morning. No pictures yet, as I didn't have time to take them. I'm still not happy with it, but at this point, I just have to go with it and hope that no one notices the many imperfections that are bugging me.
  
• ...cut out the wrap that I'll be wearing with it. I'm a little bit concerned about how it's going to turn out; my original plan was to use some silk velvet (yum) that I dyed back in the summer on the outside, and then line it with satin to give it a little more body. Unfortunately, I found that I severely underestimated how much satin I'd need, and didn't have enough yardage to cut it out in any direction. (Any ideas with what I can do with about a yard of really shiny satin would be appreciated.) So both sides are now going to be the velvet, which is why I'm concerned--the velvet's just so drapey and I'm afraid it'll just sag all over the place, since it's basically a double-seamed tube of fabric with rounded ends.
  
• ...went to Joann's to get some interfacing to hopefully help solve that potential problem. (The lightest weight of non-fusible interfacing they had.)
• ...was hoping to finish that wrap, but my brother's fiancee's bridal shower was today, and by the time I got home from that and Joann's and a stop to get them a new wedding present, I was just too tired. (I'd originally gotten them a cake pan, because my brother loves cake; the plan was to get them that and a box of one of his favorite mixes and a can of icing. But one of my aunts gave her a ginormous basket from her and her three daughters filled with all sorts of kitchen goodies (I have to admit I was kind of jealous--I've always liked kitchen stuff more than a girl who can't afford her own place should), and a cake pan of the same size was one of the goodies. So my mom said she'd buy the cake pan off of me--she'd picked it up for me while she was out at Kohl's and I was at work, and no longer has the receipt, so I can't return it. And she likes the fact that it has a lid. So I got them some measuring cups and such instead, since they hadn't gotten any of those yet (and you need the liquid ones for cake mixes). And left it for my brother since they've been getting wedding presents delivered here anyway, so then I can give it to them first. So there.)
• ...made my mom's necklace for the wedding instead. Again, no pictures, because flash never works for jewelry pics and it's too dark for natural light.

So that pretty much covers my Saturday in a nutshell. And maybe, just maybe, I can finish that wrap tomorrow. Here's hoping...

And the dress saga continues...

I did get the dress cut out on Sunday, and mostly sewed together on Monday. As you can see, this is already a huge improvement over the last attempt. I'm trying not to be bitter that I'm doing much better with Joann's-brand polyester shantung that cost me a total of about $15 than the now-possibly-useless silk charmeuse that probably cost me around $50.

It's still not perfect, though... while most of it fits (and looks) much, much better than the silk version, I'm still having trouble with those blasted side darts. Despite hand-basting them together by hand and several tweaks to the slant and depth of them. I'm still getting those points at the end. So this is leading me to two conclusions: a) if all goes well with the skirt fitting class I'll be taking over at Pattern Review over in a couple weeks, I should probably look into taking a bodice-fitting one as well as the pants one, and b) perhaps in the future I should stick with princess seams instead of double-darts whenever possible.

This whole thing has been a really discouraging experience, honestly... I can't help feeling like I shouldn't be having this much trouble with such a simple pattern. I keep telling myself that it's because it's one of those really tailored, classic silhouettes, and my style generally isn't so classic. And I know a big part of it is that I went for a higher-quality (and far more expensive) fabric than I tend to go for and it failed in spite of making a muslin. I don't like feeling like I wasted that money. And it really doesn't help that getting this wedding together has been a very frustrating and not very enjoyable experience for my entire family. Right now, I just want nothing more than to get it over with. So I just need to finish this (hopefully tomorrow...today ended up getting eaten up by handwork and further attempts to get the darts to lie better), and then maybe this weekend I can get the wrap taken care of. And then I need to find something to sew that's just fun... I'm debating between just whipping up another article of clothing, or holding off on that (since I start the skirt fitting class pretty much right after the wedding) and starting on some of the sewing for my room. Which has the bonus feature of not having to be fit on me. :P