Hey, it's starting to look like a dress!

Considering that we're pretty much in Sandy's direct line of fire, as of when I started writing this (around 10:30 on Monday night), I've gotten off pretty easy! It's been very wet and windy here, but no trees down around my house, and the power hasn't even flickered. We were, however, under a state of emergency that required staying home. So I just sewed basically all day, other than a little flute practicing break. I can't say I was sorry that I had a day to do that.

So I got the princess-seam-creating dart sewed in, marked the changes to the straps, lowered the neckline, fiddled with the waistband, and got the skirt basically basted together enough to do this:

Basically, this is what my dress will look like! When I cut out the skirt pieces on Saturday, I wasn't sure if the skirt would be full enough that I could comfortably walk in it, but I think it will be fine. I did have to do some tweaking--there was way too much room in the back skirt to match up with the waistband, for sure. And after pinning it all together multiple times, I basically had to shift the top of every seam around so that the skirt seams more or less line up with the darts and seams of the bodice. (Hopefully more.) 

I think I'm going to have to redo the bodice muslin one more time, with the princess seams, to make sure I haven't just stretched and warped the fabric into submission. It's just as well--I also ended up having to move the shoulder seams, and I need to test the pattern changes for the sheer upper back. And, well, the princess seams, which I also need to smooth out anyway. But it's getting to the point where it's closer and closer, and that's rather encouraging.

I'll give you a back view while I'm at it. For the record, these pics were taken before the hours I spent tweaking the skirt seams for where they'd line up. And I may need to do some work on the back still, since I'm not sure if those wrinkles count as making a swayback adjustment necessary. But I think I'll hold off on that one, since I am still going to need to play with some boning, and that might help to straighten it out.

Anyway, I may work on this bodice some more tomorrow, depending on if we have power and if I need to/am not allowed to report into work because we'll still be under a state of emergency. (I don't know if we will be or not. I guess I'll have to wait and see!)

when wardrobe disaster strikes

So, as anyone around the mid-Atlantic/northeastern region of the US knows at this point, a big stormy mess of doom is coming straight for us. (Particularly my area, if the fact that the Weather Channel is hanging out at the beach I visit every summer is any indication. It's rather weird to see a beach and boardwalk I'm actually familiar with on tv!) So, since the big concern is power outages and water, one of the main preparations today was catching up on my laundry. No big deal, right?

Except that somehow, despite the fact that I NEVER keep pens in my pockets, a pen somehow got stuck in with one of my loads and ran through the dryer. (Since I'm living at my parents' until after the wedding, my dad is the most likely culprit--we're guessing it must have somehow gotten left in the washer and then lost amidst my clothes.) The result is that the entire load basically got ruined.

Some of it wasn't so bad--the clothes I wore to paint at my fiance's house last night, for instance. A pair of pajamas that I got for Christmas last year got it pretty bad, but at least I just wear those to sleep in. The bigger problems were that nearly all of the t-shirts, the hoodie sweatshirt, and several pairs of the jeans I wear to work also got it pretty bad. (All thrifted, and most I only wear to work because they just don't fit right, but I did have one pair that fit well enough that I wear them outside of work, too. So now I'm just down to 3 pairs of "real" jeans, and I can only wear the skinny jeans with a limited number of tops. Boo.) My one brown pair of pants that I wear at least once a week, even though they're too short (I've been holding out until I have time to make some), also seem to have gotten a little, though it's not quite as noticeable. And aside from those cute pjs that I've had less than a year, this is what's making me the saddest...
This was one of my outfit pics from this past week--all me-made except the boots. The top was safe because that was from a different load, but my teal microfiber skirt, which has become a staple this fall, did get some ink splatters. Another me-made that I wore yesterday met the same fate. I'm trying soaking those and the work t-shirt that got it the worst in a combination of detergent and oxy-clean to see if it will help. The two me-mades might be salvageable, because the skirt is dark enough that the ink just looks like a smudge instead of an obvious stain, and the top has a kind of splotchy (on purpose) dye job to begin with. The black ink is an obvious difference, but unless I missed a spot, it looks like both splatters are on the back, and so I might be able to hide it by leaving my hair down. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, but it's rather upsetting to consider that these two things might be ruined, when they're both still actively involved in my wardrobe!

But this also leaves me with a dilemma--as much as I wanted to avoid buying clothes this fall, I do wonder if I should just replace the brown trousers and the one pair of jeans. I know I could sew them, and I have the fabric to do so, but I just don't have the time until the wedding dress is done. And that does put a dent in my wardrobe.

To leave this on a happier note, because I'm still way more upset about this than I probably have a right to be--after all, they're just clothes and it's not like I don't have more, I just get emotionally attached to the ones I spent time sewing in particular--here's my other fun outfit from last week. Again, both pieces of clothing are me-mades (the green Vogue dress from last fall and the Junior Mints jacket, again. Thankfully, this particular challenging-to-make dress was NOT in this load of laundry!)

In which our heroine changes the FBA yet again! And other fitting tales

I have to say, Craftsy classes are awesome. I'm currently doing the Couture Dress class, along with reading the Bridal Couture book (both by Susan Khalje). I'm on the Muslin Fitting video section (obviously), and posted a picture of my muslin so far with a question about when in the process I should start dealing with the boning. And I was quite pleasantly surprised that Susan wrote back the very next day with some excellent constructive criticism!So I've been tweaking the muslin as I could over the past two days, as per her suggestions.

As I reminder, this is what I had at the beginning of the week:



And this is what I have now:

1. For the back, I took a horizontal tuck across the upper back, I think about a total of 3/4". (The seam was about 3/8" from the foldline.) Goodbye, weird saggy armholes!
2. Susan pointed out that the side seam was pulling to the front a bit, which I hadn't really noticed before. She suggested taking a bigger dart and letting the side seam out just a bit. I think I'll still have to let it out a bit in the middle--I actually ended up pinning on the side seam again after deepening the dart (about 1/8" out from the original stitching, for a total of 1/4"), but it definitely looks better than before.
3. I also took a nice big chunk out of the center front, by starting the seam for that about 3/8" out from where it was.
4. It's just folded for now, and I'll need to play around with it some more, but I did fold the sleeve caps under further so the edges would be on my shoulder instead of hanging off the edge. I like this look much, much better.
5. Susan also mentioned that the shoulder seams were pulling too far towards the back, so I tried to center them up. Which basically meant shortening the front sleeve section a lot--I just checked the outer edge on the one side, and it's nearly a full 2" shorter than before!
6. The biggest change: After all of that FBA work, it looks like I'm going to have to turn this into a princess seam bodice after all! I just could not get it to lie right, and it was still gapping in the front, even after I played around with shifting the inner edge of those sleeve cap strap things. And the only way I could get it to lie flat was to pin a dart out, about 3/4" total on each side. You can see this best in the side view picture--I know it's still bubbling a bit funny at the bust, but keep in mind that this is only pinned in for now. I hate to say it because I really wanted to avoid altering the basic design lines too much, but it really does lie much better with the princess seam. So now I just have to figure out how the heck to make it work. I'm hoping that those side dart bits will just function as a flat piece, because I'd really like to avoid the look that I had to resort to on this blouse. 

I'm definitely going to have to lengthen this bodice some now, because there is absolutely no way that waistband is going to hit anywhere close to the right place now with all of that darting and tucking I've had to do. I'd say that I'd have to patch on some muslin, but in all honesty, I've made so many changes to the darts and all by this point that I might be better off just re-muslining the whole thing, if I can just transfer the changes to the pattern right. (Especially since I need to change the back anyway to split that into two pieces.)

The part I'm not so sure about is that neckline--I think the shape of it is great, and it's good to not have it gapping now! But I feel like it's maybe a little too high now--I'm not looking to flash a bunch of cleavage around in front of all of my relatives and friends, but I think the sweetheart would be a bit more flattering if it were maybe an inch lower.  Plus then I can have more fun with jewelry, because I still want a fun, sparkly (and possibly green) necklace! The only thing is, I'm not sure how to lower it, since letting out those shoulder straps will just shift the shoulder seam backwards again. Do I just need to redraw it a little lower or something?

I actually get nearly an entire day to sew on Saturday, which is super-exciting because this hasn't happened in months! I'd like to get the skirt muslin pieces traced and cut out, finally, but I'd like to do some tweaking work on this bodice as well, if I have time. We'll see, because it's looking likely that Hurricane Sandy Frankenstorm of Halloween Doom is going to hit my tiny little state pretty hard. I'm just hoping that if it does, I don't have to go to my retail job, because I do not want to sit at an outside register in all of that nastiness. And hey, if I lose power, I can baste and thread-trace by hand to my heart's content! As long as it's daylight out so I can actually see what I'm doing...

Previous wedding dress posts::
Tracing out the pattern
FBA attempt, part 1
FBA attempt, part 2 (with diagonal tuck adjustment)
FBA attempt part 3 (Bodice 2.0)
FBA attempt part 4 (Bodice 3.0)

Third time's the charm?

I'm starting this on an unrelated note. I guess you can say I've been a little distracted with this whole wedding planning thing...it seems that both my blogoversary (6 years? Whaaaat?) and post #700 have passed me by with no notice. Um, yay me?

Anyway. I (finally!) had some time to sew today--I really wanted to work on this some yesterday, but I was thwarted by a co-worker who didn't bother to show up for her shift, and ended up losing the three hours I otherwise would have had due to a last-minute lesson cancellation. Grr. So I started with some fresh paper and the original Cambie pattern and went back to square one.



This is what I ended up with this time. There was a lot of cutting and taping involved--I added the side dart with the FBA, but it was too low, so I had to raise that higher, too. And that scribbled-out side of the vertical dart was my attempt to avoid what happened with the first bodice from over-wide darts.

And the result?

I think, this time, it actually worked! It's still not perfect, obviously--I'm probably going to have to do some kind of swayback adjustment, the neckline gaps a bit, and I may have just a little too much room in the front near my waist. Plus there's still that saggy back armhole thing going on. But, on the whole, this is most definitely a better place to work from than the previous two bodice fronts! I did already make one change from the pattern-- the side ended up being too long to line up with the back side seam, so I increased the new side seam dart until it was the right length (I think about an extra 3/4" from the original line I'd drawn). I'll have to go back and thread-trace that at some point.


I've already made a few small tweaks, at least to one side of the pattern for comparison purposes. As you can see, the front sleeve isn't gathered anymore--I swapped it out with the lining piece, because I figured it would be easier to alter a piece that's supposed to be gathered anyway than it would be to figure out the right width on the flat piece. I've come to the conclusion that I don't want the sleeve to hang off the edge of my shoulder, because I just don't think it will look right in the lace. So I've marked the outer edge about 7/8" further in and tapered it down from there. (I'll have to straighten that one line out.) I also took a small wedge out from the inner edge of the sleeve to try and combat the slight gappiness of the neckline, about 1/4" tapered down to the original stitching line.

Aside from that, I'm going to wait to make further adjustments until I have a better idea of what effect the skirt will have on it. I did manage to get the waistband basted onto the muslin today, but I still have to entirely trace out and thread-trace the skirt pieces before I can go any further with this.


Previous wedding dress posts::
Tracing out the pattern
FBA attempt, part 1
FBA attempt, part 2 (with diagonal tuck adjustment)
FBA attempt part 3 (Bodice 2.0)

secrets revealed

I mentioned in a couple of recent posts that I was sewing some baby shower gifts. Well, the shower was last Saturday, so now I can show what I made for my friend!

The first gift wasn't really a surprise for her, to be honest. I've made this pattern before, maybe about a year or so before the blog, for my best friend from high school when she had her first child. I was telling this particular friend about what I was sewing, and she said that whenever she got married and had a baby, I'd have to make it for her, too, because she's had pretty much a lifelong love affair with duckies. So this was straight out of a pattern, some old Simplicity one, I think. I definitely had an easier time sewing this one than the first time I made it, mostly due to the fact that I have a serger now and could reduce the little yellow bits that went everywhere!


And here she is, modeling the hoodie towel!
















She wasn't expecting the other gift, though! I thought it would be fun to continue the (very short) tradition of geeky baby bibs, and she's been a huge Star Wars fan for pretty much as long as I've known her, which is since we were kids . My first thought was to attempt appliqueing Yoda onto something, since she loves the little green guy in particular, but I (thankfully) found this fabric on Spoonflower instead.

Check out the adorbs--that little Boba Fett jumping on the trampoline just KILLS me for some reason! And Han chasing Leia with a frog....awww. The fabric came with either a blue or a pink background, and we didn't know what gender the baby is until the day of the shower,so I went with the blue.  It turns out she's having a girl. I think she did it on purpose, because she's like me and not the biggest fan of pink and didn't want to get overloaded with it. But it's ok, because I happen to know that blue is one of her favorite colors, and girls can like Star Wars too! Another friend (the one making the gift list next to her in the photo) and I turned this into a group gift, because she found a Darth Vader onesie and some plushy Star Wars toys, and we stuck those and the bibs in a lunch box. The mom-to-be was pretty amused.

So there you have it-- my last pre-dress finished sewing projects!

Closet Challenge Update, weeks 4+

What I've learned so far: It is very difficult for me to motivate myself to take outfit pictures of myself. Probably largely due to not really having a good place to do so/lack of time until after dark. Plus I've honestly felt that I need a me-made garment to make the photos interesting, since this IS primarily a sewing blog....and I honestly don't have as many me-mades for the fall/winter so I do rely more heavily on thrifted clothes than I would have to in the spring and summer. And so I'm just combining the last couple of weeks (thus the 4+), with the really crappy self-timer photos that I did manage to get while crammed up in the corner of my horribly messy bedroom. (And putting them in collage form to minimize the crappiness. Half the time, I can't even get both my head AND my feet entirely in, because of lack of space to set the camera up in.)


So, in no particular order of days:
1. My convertible dress, which I attempted to fall-ify on a still warmish day with a brown cardigan. It works for mint chocolate chip stuff, right?
2. (Can you tell this is the one shot I had a photographer for?) A pre-blog leaf-embroidered me-made skirt and a thrifted top. And, of course, the boots!
3. I've been having trouble fitting in my 3/4-sleeved stuff lately, because it went straight from too hot to too cold (for me). So this is me warm-ifying my Chevron Blouse with the Junior Mints jacket.
4. Another fall-ifying attempt, this time with my sleeveless ModCloth dress refashion, worn over a black knit top and somewhat-refashioned thrifted grey pants.
5. This one is basically just to show off how well my latest knitting project goes with my vintage leather jacket!
6. I've mostly worn this outfit before-- my Painter Blouse with my trouser jeans, since it's pretty much the only pants I own that will go with that aren't way too monochromatic for my taste (i.e. grey or brown). I prefer this top with regular jeans, but that doesn't quite work for teaching purposes, since I do try to maintain an artsy-professional image for that. The belt, which I thrifted awhile ago, is a new addition, and I think it's a huge improvement, because that one change makes it look so much more pulled-together! It's amazing the difference that accessories can make, isn't it?

Also, can you tell I'm trying to offset the too-shortness of all of my pants by wearing more flats? :P

In order to better inform my AD sewing (After Dress!), I realized that I should probably also be tracking things that I wished I had in my outfits from week to week/things that would make some of my pieces less orphany. So I'm going to be making an ongoing list that I'll add to as needed.

1. Royal blue Clovers (or a similar style, if that particular pattern doesn't work for me), as stated here.
2. A cropped fitted black vest (while wearing some black purchased pinstriped pants and a gifted plain coral blouse. I wanted something bright because it was a dreary day, but the outfit was just a bit boring and it was too warm for jacket layers. Incidentally, that loop scarf I finished recently probably would have looked great, but it was too warm for a scarf too.)
3. Pants, in general. I've noticed that the outfits I've been liking from week to week tend to be based either on skirts or jeans. Now, the jeans I'm ok with, because that's totally my weekend wear. And the skirts were ok for most of this month so far--except for last week, it was pretty warm still. As it gets colder, I know I'm going to want to wear pants. And, well, I only own about two pairs of pants that I really like, and once it gets colder, I think that loose-fitting linen pants will be out. I don't like the way most of my store-bought pants look or fit on me, so I think I tend to find those outfits boring. I predict a Thurlow binge in my (somewhat distant) future. Especially given that I have fabric for at least 5 pairs of pants!
4. Not so much a "want" as a "need", but I could probably use another cold-weather solid-colored top or two that coordinates with black, due to the usual dress code of sorts for worship team at church. I have about two, and have been relying very heavily on my little collection of corduroy jackets (and the limited acceptable options that I have to wear underneath them) to make it work. Now for this, I might have to suck it up and go to the thrift store. 
5. I can't make this, but I find myself wanting a pair of grey boots. Something kind of like this (though I wish it was a lighter grey!) But that's going to have to wait, since finding shoes that fit is no small investment for me, and therefore I have to consider shoe purchases very carefully. 

I guess the other question is, aside from the pants, what I actually have fabric for....I still have a lot of stash to bust!

And the fitting madness continues!

Previously on "Fun with FBA's"...

Our heroine, in her quest for the One Dress To Rule Them All, discovered that Really Big Darts are a nemesis that can only be overcome by breaking them into more (and smaller) darts. To this end, she went back to the drawing board....or tracing board, in this case...to see if she could come up with a more workable shape. Now, on with the show!

After carefully thread-tracing the darts by hand on the original muslin bodice, and trying to add some length to the front in order to make it line up with that center front part, I was left with this new muslin bodice. As you can see, the darts are much smaller than the original version, and the sides are a bit more angled. To be honest, I don't know enough about patternmaking to have an answer as to why the bottom is still wider than the top, aside from the darts, because I thought the whole point of those diagonal tucks was to make it so it was more fitted at my waist and still had more room left for my chest. Oh well.

Undeterred by this, I went ahead and basted Bodice 2.0  to the original back muslin pieces. An unforeseen consequence of my changes, unfortunately, is that the front is now at least 2" longer than the back, and much lower than the center front was in the original bodice . (This is why my usual fitting method is "try things on and pin the heck out of it while I'm wearing it".... obviously, I do not understand flat patternmaking AT ALL.)

This is how it looks now. And I have to say that the results of this experiment were...odd.


The front. On the plus side, the darts worked much better, and it looks like my chest has plenty of room. Also, the caps ended up a bit more gathered and narrow at the front, and from this angle, it looks better than before. Also, it doesn't look like the neckline is gapping quite as much, though it's hard to tell because I was crunched for time and therefore didn't actually press that curved edge under.

On the not-so-good side, diagonal drag lines under the bust. Also, I oddly have quite a bit of room left at the center front--it's like the reverse of the gapiosis problem that's usually reserved for me and pants waistbands.

Now, the back is where things get even stranger....

Holy swayback adjustment, Batman!! Turns out my reverse front gapiosis is due to it somehow ending up too small in the back. At least, at my lower back. Based on what that neckline is doing, it's actually too big up top!  This is also after my fitting assistant (aka my mom) pinned the back out an extra quarter-inch to try and alleviate the tightness, and after I'd loosened the original back dart adjustment by 1/4" each as well. Also, it seriously looks like I need darts by the armpits. (Though, to be fair, that was a problem the first time, too.)

So I think it's safe to say that this particular pattern adjustment is NOT going to work. Back to the tracing board...again.


Next time on "Fun with FBA's, in which our heroine attempts adding a side seam dart to the original bodice pattern. Will she find success? Will her nemesis, Gapiosis, come to annoy her again? Will she ever solve the Mystery of the Saggy Back Armpits? Stay tuned!



Previous wedding dress posts::
Tracing out the pattern
FBA attempt, part 1
FBA attempt, part 2 (with diagonal tuck adjustment)

fun with FBAs, part 2: Getting closer (I think)

 
After some fiddling around tonight, including trying the double dart (which just wouldn't lay right, there was just too much fabric), I discovered a solution that just might work. I took a smaller dart in each side of the front, and then took a slightly diagonal tuck all the way up. That seemed to solve the excess fabric problem pretty nicely, and the front looks pretty good now! (See lower left). You know, aside from the completely wonky lower edge. (See upper left.) The center front looks like it's a pretty good placement for the waistband, so I'll have to go with that. I think the best bet will be to cut an entirely new front piece with these changes, because I need to make sure it's ok with the grainline changes that those tucks will make at the side. If that doesn't work, I'm going to attempt the princess seam adjustment.

Aside from evening up the lower edge, I do need to play with the sleeves a bit. (See front sleeve picture.) On the left side of the picture, I folded the outer edge in to make it more narrow, and on the right side, it's as sewn. I'm thinking the left side will probably work better with the lace. The other issue with the front is that the neckline is gapping slightly on the curved edges, and I'm not really sure what to do about that.

I also took a bigger dart on each side in the back, about 7/8". I think I need to slightly loosen that up again, because once I get all the layers and especially the boning in there, I think it might be a bit uncomfortably tight if I don't. I'm a flute player, so I'm a big fan of breathing, you know? Looking at this picture now, I can also see some diagonal pulling towards the center seam, but I guess I'll let those darts back out a bit first and see what that does.

The other thing I need to figure out is the back armhole, because it's gapping pretty badly. But I think that's an adjustment that may need to wait for after I get the waistband and a skirt on this thing, because I know that's going to weigh things down a bit more.

All in all, I think this is pretty good progress for the evening!

Previous wedding dress posts::
Tracing out the pattern
FBA attempt, part 1

fun with FBAs

You all know I mean "fun" in a sarcastic way, right? Ok, good.

I've finally managed to start the muslin process for The One Dress over the last two days. (My sis-in-law and maid of honor have taken to calling it the One Dress To Rule Them All, in honor of my ongoing love affair with all things Lord of the Rings related, so that's what I'll be going with here. Anyway.)

First of all, I have to say that Sunni is my hero for starting to carry that waxed tracing paper, because all of the Craftsy videos and couture books were right. This stuff is amazing for muslin marking!  Secondly, I have to say that this dart is going to cause me some issues. This is what my dart ended up looking like after my attempt to work an FBA on the pattern without compromising the integrity of the design. And when I pin-tested it with the paper, it looked like it could possibly work. In fabric, it's proving far more difficult.
This is what it looks like after sewing the bust dart right on those slightly curved lines. Waaaaaaay too pointy.

Once I saw that, I decided to try the other side a little differently and compare them to see what direction I need to go in.

So this is the second one-- for this one, I straightened out the stitching line overall, and tried to stitch into the point in more of a concave curve. From this angle, it definitely looks better.

From this angle, not so much.  I realize that part of the issue is most likely that the darts just go up too high, and I'll need to end them at least an inch lower. The far more difficult prospect is going to be how to pinch out the ginormous darts and take that big of a chunk out of the fabric without getting those annoying bubbles at the top of the darts.  I may have a bit of trouble in the center front, too, if this picture is any indication. But, to be fair, this test was basically holding it closed behind my back at what felt like the thread-traced lines, mainly to get an initial idea of what I'd need to do with those darts.

The side view looks even worse! (And, for the record, this was with me pinning it closed, though I was doing it to myself by feel and only at the very top and bottom. I was also tugging it down to try and simulate the weight of the skirt.)

I took the darts out and played around with some other solutions-- just not taking out as big of a dart period, double darts, etc. So far, no dice. So I think I have two choices here: either I can try a more narrow dart and trying to taper some of the extra difference out of the side seam just in the front, or I can try to alter this into a princess seam cut to make it easier to control the curve. I'd much rather do option 1 if I can, because that keeps the design the same. Not to mention that since I plan on overlaying this entire bodice with a patterned lace, that's one less place I'll have to try to match up floral motifs.

I do know from this initial test that there are a few other things I'll have to address, and a few things I don't quite know about yet. I didn't take a look at back fitting at all, because my first priority is smoothing out those bust darts before I even try to deal with a zipper. I'll also need to actually put in that zipper/check back fitting and all before I can check to see if the neckline is going to gap at all  (and where it's actually going to hit, so I can see if I want to raise or even, dare I say, lower it!) I'm also thinking I might want to make the shoulder bits a little more narrow so it fits more smoothly around my shoulders. But I'll have to check first to see how nicely the inner edge of the neckline lays, along with the back armhole. There may be some gapping there, but it was hard to tell under the circumstances.
I'll also need to tweak the waist seam a little, since the front ended up a little longer than the back. I'm guessing it's due to my FBA tweaks. (The lengthen-shorten lines aren't lining up either, but I'm not sure how important that actually is.) So I'll need to see if I want to lengthen the back or shorten the front to match.

So, how am I doing so far? Are there any of you ladies that are *ahem* a bit bigger up top that have made the Cambie? If so, I'd love to hear your suggestions for that bust dart!

I'm also going to start doing a link list for these dress posts, for an easy reference to the process.
Tracing out the pattern

Closet Challenge Update, week 3

I have 3 outfit pictures this time, all from last week.

Admittedly, this first one (from last Monday) was a bit of a fashion experiment, and I'm not sure how successful it was. It was one of those days where I really wanted to wear this particular skirt, but nothing seemed to really go right with it. I finally settled on the "Spiced Chai" cami and the thrifted sweater, mostly because I was running out of time before I had to go teach. Also, for the record, my "North Country Regeneration" skirt does not have that big pleat-looking thing in the front. It's just your standard A-line. It's just because the top is longer than what I usually wear with it, and it's making it gather funny.












Outfit #2 (from last Wednesday) was a bit more obvious--the Corset-Laced Pants with my lonely only (for now) Renfrew top. But I was comfortable and quite happy with this one, even though wearing this top in particular always makes me feel like I need to sew 5 more Renfrews NOW, and right now I can't. (Someday...)

Incidentally, I'm still not totally satisfied with the ties on this. The color of the leather is better than the original ties, but they just don't lay right. I think I'm going to have to resort to braiding embroidery floss together some night. I'll have to see if I have any that are a close enough color match. 






The third one, from Saturday, is a top that I've featured before in the Me-Made months, but predated the blog. I guess this is one of my "elf" tops-- I made it during my college years, which was also when the Lord of the Rings movies were being released in theaters, and I was constantly being drawn to patterns with funky sleeves and those earthy colors as a result. (The reconstructed Renaissance-y shirt that I did last April was from the same era. Come to think of it, I still find myself drawn to those funky sleeve patterns. But hey, The Hobbit is coming out soon, so....) Anyway, there's things I wish I'd done differently with this top, like had a serger because the fabric is very prone to fraying. (At least I had the foresight to double-stitch the seams, which has greatly added to its longevity.) But I still love this crinkly mossy fabric, and those sleeves. And I always wish I wore it more than I do. So I paired it with jeans for a day of drinking tea with my sis-in-law and a mutual friend, and then running errands with Doug. (And testing out my future awesome reading chair, which is waiting for me at his townhouse.)

So let's see....aside from that, I've gotten some work done on the secret baby gift (so close to finishing!), got the stitching lines marked on the bodice pattern pieces for The Dress (but have not cut out the muslin yet), and started refolding my fabric for a possible storage solution in my future sewing room. (I also got paint for it!)