muslin making and palette play

Same pattern company, different type of garment... I'm making a Robson Coat next!

I've learned from experience that Sewaholic Patterns need more tweaking on my top half than my bottom half. (Incidentally, I really hope I still have that wedding dress muslin around somewhere, because I'd like to make a "real" Cambie sometime and don't want to muslin the top 3 times again!) So I figured I'd better actually suck it up and make a muslin on this one. Since it looked like the finished garment measurements for the bust and waist were about the same, and my bust isn't quite that...um...flat, I decided to experiment with cutting a size 10 for the top and sleeves, grading to an 8 at the waist, and leaving it a size 8 for the hips.

Here's my result.

The front of the coat. I didn't cut the muslin the full length, because fitting over the hips was not the issue I was worried about. I'm also not entirely sure I pinned the coat closed in the places marked on the pattern, or on the correct side for that matter, but you get the idea. I do think my grading worked pretty well, though there is a bit of a diagonal wrinkle going towards that first pin that makes me wonder if I need to do a slight FBA after all. I also doubt I'm going to be doing airplane impressions much in this, but I wanted to test the range of movement in the arms. They feel pretty comfortable over a long-sleeved shirt, which is probably the most I'd be wearing under this, so even though it pulls when I do that, I think I'll be good.



And then here's the back. I know I've got a bit of a swayback going here, though I don't want to overfit this one since it's meant to be worn over other things. I might just leave it. The one tweak I'm thinking I may want to seriously consider is adding just a little more room across the upper back--this was me raising my arms to the level I would need to, say, drive my car. It's not like I'm about to do my impression of the Hulk, but adding just a tiny bit more room, say 1/8" in the center back on each side, might do a lot for avoiding strain on the seam. Any thoughts from you fitting gurus out there?

It looks like the sleeve length is pretty good here, but I think I'll have to check the hem depth and probably add a little to the final pattern--I'm probably not going to want it much shorter than what it's showing up as here.

I think I'm going to like the style of this coat! And though I am going for the full length for the real version, because I like longer coats, this muslin makes me think that it could be a cute shorter coat as well. 


I'm throwing the most recent Wardrobe Architect assignment in this post too, because it's more or less an extension of last week's color assignment. All we were asked to do was organize our palettes into three categories: neutrals, near-neutrals, and statement colors.

So I took last week's palette and did a little rearranging. No surprise, over half of my colors fall into the "statement" category. Unless teal is now a neutral, because I wear it a lot these days. It's the perfect compromise color between blue and green. So teal is totally a neutral, right?

Even though I wasn't sure how to make metallic swatches on Photoshop, I'm adding metallic silver, gold and copper to my near neutrals, because the majority of my jewelry incorporates some kind of metallic. I do mostly lean towards silvers, but have discovered the value of having gold, especially the more antique color, and copper to mix things up over the last few years.

Of course, the problem with statement colors being your main thing is that there's so many different shades of the same thing. Like that purple-- I categorized it as plum, but it could also be eggplant, or maybe a darker radiant orchid, since that's the color of the year. The darker green could be emerald, or kelly, or grass, or whatever. There's probably at least 5 shades that could fall under the umbrella of "teal". So I'm looking at this more as a guideline than a rule.

So, SO close

Does it make me sound like a horribly lazy person that I'm glad I got an unexpected day off of work? I didn't have to go to the shop because the weather is gross and the manager predicted sales would be extremely slow. They're selling Christmas trees now, and who wants to look for those outside when it's rainy and cold? Not me. So I got to work on the dress this morning instead.

It took a little longer than expected, because I had to tweak some seam placements in the skirt again. But I think I am basically there, as far as the muslin goes. Except for one issue. (Pardon the iphone photos--the lighting around here is pretty terrible today due to the rain, and I figured I'd have more luck with mirror shots using the phone than I would my camera. Also, my tripod broke.)

This is the front of the dress--now with spiral-steel boning! The stitching on that is completely wonky because I was having to stitch the channels on with the boning in it in order to actually get the boning inside. (I had to make these channels myself. I may have done it too tightly. I'm debating whether I'd be better off making new ones out of, say, grosgrain ribbon for the real thing.) For the most part, I think the boning helped, at least on the side and back.What I'm not sure about is all of those diagonal wrinkles right in the center front. I think it's time to post in the Craftsy class again and see what Susan has to say.

One more note about those skirt seams--the black lines are not the seams. Those were the original thread tracings, and those seams were moved to line up with the princess seams.

One change to the front that I do like is that I retraced the curve of the sweetheart neckline (the white that's slightly showing above the original stitching.) I like this one much better.

And here's the back. Not entirely accurate, since the very top will be tacked closed with a button. But I did add a zipper--partially to check the fit, and partially to play around with a lapped zipper. (It's on my Check The Technique list anyway! Still needs work.) This is obviously not the zipper I'll be using, since it's grey--I didn't have a white one on hand. And I think I'll have to extend the zipped part an inch or so, because it's just a liiiiiiiittle bit hard to pull on over certain curvy bits. (Ahem.) But with the zipper, the fit is actually quite comfortable. Even with all of those extra layers that the seam allowances made around the waist, so I think it'll be just fine with the underlinings and such. Again, I added some boning to this, right over the darts, and I think it does do a nice job of smoothing it out. I will have to shorten the actual bones on both the side and back pieces just a little bit, though. Maybe about 1/4".



Speaking of the side--I do think I am going to have to alter the curve of those pieces some. It does still pull towards the front slightly, though the boning did help that out quite a bit. I think that shaving 1/4" out of the middle of the front and adding it to the back should do it. Again, the thread traced black lines are not the actual current seam lines. But it does look like things are laying pretty smoothly in the front, so I'm pleased with that.












And although it's not the most flattering view of my middle, here's a view of the whole skirt. I tried it on with the shoes this morning to check the hem length, and I'm going to have to add at least 2" plus the hem allowance. I might do 2 1/2" just to be on the safe side, since it's easier to make a wider hem than to skimp on the fabric there. The circumference of the skirt is plenty wide enough, though, and even with my long stride, I can walk comfortably in it. I guess I'll just need to figure out if I need to add something to the hem to poof it out some, whether it's horsehair or some tulle underlayers.







Speaking of shoes--if you were curious, here they are! Since I rather dislike shoe shopping (mostly due to that lovely widening bony bulge you can see riiiiight under my big toes), I decided to be cheap and lazy and wear the same shoes I wore as a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding several years ago. (Incidentally, this is the same friend whom I just made the Star Wars bibs for, and she's going to be a bridesmaid in my wedding as well, so the circle is complete.)

Since I don't have too many occasions in which to wear strappy silver sandals--and when I do, I usually wear my gladiator flats instead--they're in good shape. All of the little rhinestones are still there, and I just have a little bit of scuffing on the heels and the very edge of the toes. Nothing a little nail polish can't fix, once I find the right extra-shiny shade.

I love it when a plan comes together!

I do still have some important details to figure out. Mainly the internal support structure. But I did get the new bodice basted together with all of my pattern changes, and if I may say so myself, it worked beautifully.

I think the moral of the story is that when it comes to very fitted bodices, princess seams are going to work for me ten times better than double darts ever will. This made a HUGE difference in the look of the front. I also like the new lowered neckline, though I think I'm going to have to adjust those curves a bit to make it look a bit more sweetheart-y. (That somewhat pointy section on the right side is the result of the clipped piece sticking out. If this was the real thing, obviously I would have pressed it and stitched down the seam allowances and such, since the Bridal Couture book strongly recommends joining the lining to the upper edge of the bodice by hand. But this isn't the real thing.) I also did a rather sloppy version of the cap sleeves, with the side seam allowances on both the lace and the organza just folded in, but it's enough to tell that it will work, provided I can figure out how to conceal the actual seam allowances on the sides and shoulders as much as possible.

It looks like that waist on the front is really crooked, but it's not nearly that bad outside of the picture. For one thing, I think I forgot to tug this into actual approximate placement before I took the picture, so the top will run a bit lower. For another thing, the jeans are not helping that visual.

See? It's pretty straight from the side. On an unrelated side note, yes, these are the jeans I made, and for the most part, they're washing and wearing beautifully! But I have noticed that the waistband has stretched a bit so that it gaps in the front--though the back is still gapiosis-free!-- so for the next pair, I'm going to need to stabilize and/or alter and/or completely swap out the waistband for something more contoured. On the plus side, I was afraid that it would be too tight in the crotch area, and it's actually quite comfortable!

Ok, back to the dress. There is that one diagonal pull there, but I think once the skirt is on, that will probably straighten out. The boning might help too, once I get that in.

My favorite new detail? The back is exactly how I pictured it to be. Check this out:

The lace is one piece, and underneath there's the "fashion fabric" on the lower part, and organza on the upper part. So the effect when I'm wearing it is just that my upper back is covered in lace. The pattern alteration was soooo easy to do--I took my french curve ruler, started where the front bodice meets the back armhole, and did a very slight curve towards the center back. Then I added seam allowances to both of those pieces. Given my usual lack of success when it comes to flat pattern alteration, it's very gratifying to know that this worked. Again, there is some rippling, but I do think that will straighten out when the skirt/boning is in.

My next adventure is figuring out boning placement--I'm not sure I technically need it, since this isn't strapless, but I think I'll have a little more peace of mind knowing that I'm not putting all of that strain on the organza in the shoulder seams. Especially since I have no idea how much this skirt will weigh when all is said and done, given the length and the layers of lining and underlining and stuff. (Plus I need to figure out if I need to add tulle and such for fullness.)

I've never used spiral steel boning in my life, so I've been using this tutorial for cutting it. It was definitely easier than cutting through an entire length of metal, but still hard! My little wire cutters, which I generally use for jewelry-making, were not quite up to the task, so I ended up having to resort to just snipping it over the same area over and over until the metal finally weakened enough that I could break it. I did get all of the lengths that I'm pretty sure I'll need cut (a bit tricky for the front, and some of the pieces are very, very short, since I was using where my bra ended as a guideline. See between those yellow pins and the waistline!). I got the tips on all of them. The website also recommended wrapping the tips in some plumbers' tape to keep the tips from coming off while sliding things in and out of the boning. I don't have any, so I've been at a bit of a standstill ever since. Not that I've had time to sew since Monday anyway.

On an overall plus side, the lace is behaving better in the actual bodice, so maybe I'll only have to hand-stitch the seams and darts (just for motif placement), instead of all over the pieces, after all!

that sinking feeling...

...in which you realize that you might have to hand-embroider the lace on the entire bodice of your wedding dress. That's what I'm experiencing right now.
I'm currently in the process of testing the pattern changes I wanted to make for the lace--this is the back, with a new top panel of organza with the lace over top. (Thank you, Joann's Casa Collection, for giving me a way to test this in cheap polyester before I mess with the real thing.) Even though this is still the muslin, I hand-basted all of the lace pieces onto all of the muslin pieces, just so they'd line up the way they were supposed to. This is why I've been quiet this week.

I'm a little worried, though--the lace isn't exactly laying flat against the fabric underneath. I guess it's to be expected with polyester organza, since that ripples out the wazoo, but the fact that it's also doing it on the muslin is a bit concerning. So now I'm wondering if stitching all of the sunflowers onto the silk so the lace isn't poofing away from the bodice is going to have to be the way of things.

I'm finally getting my usual November time off of my retail job this week, somewhat, so tomorrow has been designated as a sewing day. So my plan is to sew this entire bodice back together, make sure the new princess-seam pieces are going to work, and see what this lace is doing after that. Oh, and I also need to throw some boning into this thing at some point, if I can figure out how to cut spiral steel boning!  I also want to play with the zipper, since my thought is to only have it go to the top of the solid part, and then finish the edges and just have a button at the very top of the sheer part. I also need to figure out how to best finish the edges of the organza/lace sections, since that will affect the entire armhole section, but that may have to wait for another day. I'm thinking maybe hand-stitched bias binding out of the organza to camouflage the lace in the seam.

So if I do have to hand-stitch all of the lace to the underlayers, I guess I need to figure out if I would just do that through the top layer, the eventual underlining, or both. And also if I might want to just throw beads on the thing while I'm at it. I'm leaning towards not, since that might detract from the sunflowers and would certainly make the seams a total pain. But then, it would give extra sparkle, and I do like sparkly things!

pictureless progress

It's been fun to see all of the costumey goodness around the blogosphere over the last few days! Nothing Halloweenish for me this year, alas. I had no parties to go to, and I wouldn't have had time to make a costume anyway. I did go back to my retail job yesterday, which is unfortunately still an outdoor register thing, And Sandy apparently decided to bring winter with her, because it was in the 40s pretty much the whole time I was out. So the closest I got to dressing up for Halloween was as an Eskimo while I was at work, as I was wearing FIVE layers up top, the last one being a winter coat! (Though I'd taken the fleecy liner out, thinking that the thermal top/long-sleeved shirt/required work t-shirt/hoodie sweatshirt would be sufficient. That was obviously a mistake.) Plus a scarf, hat, handwarmers, and gloves. And I was still cold. It's ridiculous. I don't know how you people that live anywhere further north of here do it!

I did go to the mall later on Halloween with my fiance, and I wore my Cadence sweater because it was orange. And I was still cold, despite having been indoors for hours and having hot tea. Blah. Anyway.

So I'm doing what is now my 4th bodice front, as well as an entirely new back. I want to make sure the princess seams are going to work, as well as test the pattern change I've had planned for the back. And I also want to make sure the lace idea is going to work, period. I haven't had a chance to work on it since Tuesday, so I haven't taken pictures yet--between a dj meeting, a weekend of rehearsals for this evening's flute choir concert that I'm playing in, and the usual work stuff, I just haven't had time to sew.

I did also go to a craft afternoon yesterday hosted by a casual friend, and started knitting a scarf to go along with the hat I made for my fiance back around his birthday. He's been asking for one now that it's starting to get cold again, and I need to use up the yarn anyway. So I figured that this can be something I work on while hanging out with him and watching tv for awhile, at least until I get to a point where there might be wedding-related crafts that aren't my dress.It's a simple enough pattern, just a striped ribbed scarf, and so far I've managed to get about 6" done, I think. No pics of that yet either.

We'll see if I get more work done on that bodice this week (I haven't even finished cutting out the new pieces yet). It's a bit iffy, since this week also marks round 2 of the dental surgery, and I know that sewing that day is off the table based on how I felt the last time. (That, and having to work one-handed while holding an ice pack to your face just doesn't work. I tried.)

So hopefully I'll have something to show soon. On an unrelated note, I have been reading the reports of how different bloggers fared in the storm, particularly in the New York area, and I'm glad to hear that you're all safe!

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!)

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)

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

The Ultimate Frosting Project--here we go!

That's right, I'm finally starting on my wedding dress! At least, the muslin for it. Ok, so all I've actually done so far is trace out the bodice pattern. Allison suggested that it might help my mental state to break the project down into more manageable chunks, so I'm focusing just on the bodice for now.

My ultimate  plan is actually to muslin it twice--the first time strictly for fit, and the second time to go with the rest of the dress/test out the boning and my idea for the lace in the back. I picked up some cheaper, much-less-cool lace and some polyester nude organza at Joann's awhile back to play with that. The slightly more practical reason for starting with just the bodice is that this way, I can start right away with making sure the seamlines of the skirt will line up with the seamlines and darts of the bodice, once I know the bodice will work. Less tracing that way, and less chance of my running out of paper...in retrospect, I probably should have ordered some along with the waxed tracing paper that I finally managed to acquire, thanks to A Fashionable Stitch! Oh well.... I still need to get some silk thread, and they have a pretty good price on that at Nancy's Notions, so maybe I'll pick up a new roll of paper there while I'm at it.

As a reminder, I'm using the Sewaholic Cambie pattern for the bodice, down through the waistband. (Which, incidentally, I've decided to leave white and incorporate color with a sash. For one thing, it'll make the back more interesting to look at, and for another thing, that way I won't get held up by waiting to see what we end up doing for bridesmaid dresses. More on that later in the post.) I knew from working on the Lonsdale dress that an FBA was going to be necessary. Since I'm also planning on making some changes to the back of the pattern, I figured my best bet would be to trace the pattern and go from there. I already did the FBA adjustment (took this picture beforehand) and it's....interesting looking. But if initial test of pinning the dart together and holding the pattern up to myself is any indication, this might actually work to give it the extra shaping that I need. And hey, bizarre-looking pattern pieces did the trick for my jeans, right? I did take some pictures throughout the process, so if this ends up working, I just might do a tutorial on an FBA for the Cambie.

According to my couture gown studies, the next step I need to do is to add the stitching lines to the pattern. Maybe I can squeeze that in this morning--I'm going to meet my sis-in-law and another friend for brunch, I need to pick up some paint (for my future sewing room!) and then I'm going down to Doug's to help him paint the kitchen, since we'd already decided to do that first, while waiting for a furniture delivery.

So about those bridesmaid dresses....apparently trying to find actually-wearable-again bridesmaid dress ideas that aren't your typical overpriced dresses made of cheap polyester taffeta is harder than I'd thought. My original thought, which the girls were interested in, was to do those infinity-style wrap dresses. But after narrowing it down to a couple of Etsy shops that seemed to have a good selection of greens and decent pricing, I discovered that one shop was basically shutting down for the fall/winter and not accepting any more orders, and the swatches that I got from the second were basically swimsuit fabric. Since I can't in good conscience make my girls wear shiny spandex (although my best friend/maid of honor and I had a few good laughs about it), it's time to go to plan B. So the current thought is to have them all get whatever black dress they want and add some green accessories. Which may mean sewing a few more sashes for me, as long as they don't pick empire-waist type stuff (not so flattering with a sash), or it may mean jewelry. We'll see what their thoughts are.

I'm kind of torn about jewelry, actually. Part of me wants to make the jewelry for all four of us, but part of me wonders if that's biting off more than I can chew. I do have some earrings that I can use for myself (recently splurged at a friend's party, since the sale running meant I could get these for half off!) but I wonder if I should go with green jewelry to help tie that in a little better. But I guess I shouldn't worry about that quite yet, huh?

Muslins, muslins everywhere...

....and not a project to show! Seriously, everything is in that completely not safe for work zone. Or safe for public consumption, period. But I actually have made some progress, so I figured you all wouldn't mind if I at least talk about it a little, right?

First off, the Lonsdale dress. Long story short, I have to start over completely on the muslin stage. I thought I was being all smart--after double-checking my measurements, I figured that since it looks like I fit perfectly into a size 10 at the bust and a size 6 at the waist and hips, I could just cut it as a 10 at the top and grade down those two sizes and it would work. WRONG. It was so ridiculously gappy at the top (and surprisingly a little too small at my waist--that pretty much never happens). So then I tried taking it in at the top, and letting it out a little at the waist. The waist was fine, but now the top pretty much doesn't cover enough of anything I want it to cover. Of course, it wasn't until about halfway through this adjusting process that I remembered that Tasia has a post about making an FBA for this particular pattern. Oops. So I'll be starting over with that in a proper fashion once I get some time to do so--probably not today, but maybe tomorrow. I've also gotten the boning, and I decided that I'll make the rest of the support (hopefully) easier for myself....to be explained in a future post. So, over a third of the way through the month and I have zero visible progress for the Summer Spark Sewalong....can I finish this in time? Stay tuned....

So since I didn't have the time to go through that process at the moment, I worked on the jeans muslin some more. And I think I've actually got that pretty close! I still need to test it with a waistband, and perhaps let out a teensy bit more in the thigh area, but I've just about got it to the point where it's not too tight-looking in the back, there isn't a whole lot of wrinkling in the front like the last attempt and I can pretty much sit down in it without feeling like my circulation is being cut off. (I probably should let that extra bit out, just to be safe, since I'm making this is a non-stretch denim.) So then the next complication is figuring out how to transfer the multitude of changes back to the pattern, seeing as how the only pattern tracing paper I can get around here is crap that won't even mark on other paper. That, and seeing if I can still add pockets if I straighten out the side seams like Mr. King says to do. Because wow, if I drew this line right, the wedge that I have to take out of the front is HUGE.

(Incidentally, has anyone reading this ever purchased from Sil Thread? I found this, after reading the recommendations in the question section of the Jean-ius class, but there's no descriptions on anything so I'm not entirely sure this is the right stuff. A shame, because this is waaaaaay cheaper than the other site he recommended. Plus I'm not sure if I could find enough useful stuff on the other site to make the $35 minimum order...)

I can show one thing, at least. This is how far I've gotten on the Strafford Tee. It doesn't look like much other than a block of purple, but you see that little twisty bit towards the right? My self-figured "darts" are working out much more nicely on take 2. I've actually started increasing again, sooner than I'd done the math for, because this is about 6-7" long now and according to the pattern I only need to do 10" before I have to start actually following the instructions again. But I figured that I'll just get it back to the right number of stitches and take it from there--I don't mind if it's a little longer than what it calls for.

Of muslins and me-mades and major craft withdrawl

Seriously....with all of that fabric that I have lurking in the basement, taunting me, how is it that I had nothing that would make a good jeans muslin? I mean, sure, I had some khaki twill. But only enough to make a pair of shorts, and I'm going to save that for my actual pants-making tests. And, well, everything else was stuff like the denim I actually want to make the jeans out of. No good. I didn't want to use regular ol' muslin, because it's too thin and I felt like it wouldn't give an accurate idea of what a thicker denim would look like. And of course I didn't want to bust into all of that twill-type fabric that I just bought, because I got those specifically to make pants that I actually want to wear. So it was off to Joann's with me. I considered getting an inexpensive denim, if I could find one with a light enough color that I could mark on it like I'd need to, but all of that had a bit of spandex in it and that's no good for testing before my non-stretch final fabric. But in the end, the least expensive feasible option (after my handy 40% off coupon) ended up being a white twill. Not my first choice of color, but the only other options were brown, black, or paying $3 more per yard for a slightly different twill to get khaki.

Of course, I'm trying to figure out a way that I can actually get something wearable out of this in the end, once I work out the fitting kinks. So I got one of those marking pens that's supposed to wipe off with a damp cloth, since the only ones I have fade after exposure to air and that's no good for this either, in hopes that I can get as many marks off as possible. I'm also thinking that dye will more likely than not be involved at some point, because white twill bootcut pants do not sound like a good option for my actual wardrobe! It'll probably also end up being a pair of shorts or capris or something. But that's ok. It's just that sewing time is a complete luxury right now, and even though I know the fitting is a Really Important Step, I don't want to "waste" that time on sewing things that will just get thrown away, you know? (Especially since I had to buy fabric just to test!)

I've got some MMM to catch up on from the last several days. I spent the weekend hanging out with some friends--I had to practically beg for the Saturday off, but we had a great time, and the friends that met my boyfriend for the first time liked him, so that was a good thing. (I did attempt to do some knitting, but it ended up being negative progress, as I had to frog several inches of it.) I'm definitely paying for it this week, with a 6-day run at the retail job, including what will end up being about 11 hours on Saturday. If I fail any day of this challenge, that will probably be the one. We'll see how I do. In the meantime....
Day 17:

Shirt: the vaguely Celtic Renfrew top
Jeans: Express, via Goodwill
Sandals: Auditions
Earrings: See below

Worn after work, to help my boyfriend transport his dogs to his parents' for the weekend, and then a quick dinner at Pizza Hut. Someday, I will make at least 5 more of these shirts. They're that comfortable.












And look-- turtle earrings!















Day 18:
Shirt: "Shakespeare on the Green" top
Skirt: "Cha-Cha" skirt
Sandals: Same as yesterday. (And since these were the only shoes I brought with me, you get to see them for the next two days as well!
Earrings: I forgot to get a close-up, but they're me-made with dragonflies.

The greens don't quite match up between my shirt and the skirt, but I don't care. It looked fine, and the green in the skirt is only a stitching line anyway so it's not like it was a big block of clashiness. I wore this for teaching, and then to drive up to my friends' house. I ended up changing into jeans once we got there and had eaten dinner, but the skirt's pretty comfortable so it was fine for driving. I was just getting cold.



Day 19:
Shirt: Reconstructed T made from a self-drafted pattern--pre-blog, but I did talk about it a bit in the last Self-Stitched September that I did.
Jeans: A different pair of Express jeans, also from Goodwill
Sandals: Can't see them, but they're the same as the last two days.
Earrings: A repeat from Day 4. (And the one day I wore this for SSS, apparently. How uncreative....but then, I don't have much red jewelry, so I guess it's understandable.)

This was our bum around/play hours' long board games/watch a movie/picnic by a little lake day, so jeans and a t-shirt was definitely the thing. Thus the reason I need more Renfrews. Also, this one is a little too short....I guess that's what I get for making it while I was in college.

Day 21
Dress: The "Convertible" dress
Bracelet & earrings: me-made, but again, I forgot a pic
Sandals: What do you think?

Today was this dress's public debut, and it ended up working really well--nice enough to wear for church, but comfortable enough for an afternoon involving more board games. If you look at my blog post on it, I kind of ended up morphing between the 2nd and 4th options from the left in the top row--more shoulder coverage for Mass and a little cooler for later. I think this dress is going to see a lot of use this summer!




And last, but not least, today's outfit:
Day 21:
Top: the "Frankenblouse"
Camisole: purchased
Skirt: The quickie batik skirt reconstruction that I may or may not have originally made. (It was either me or my mom.... I honestly can't remember which.)
Sandals: Montego Bay Club
Necklace: Repeat from day 2
Earrings: Me-made with butterflies

This outfit was a bit of an experiment for me. Ever since I found her blog, I've had a great admiration for Oona and her crazy print mixing. As much as I love prints, I've tended to be a bit boring in that it's usually a print with a solid. (See basically every outfit with a print I've ever posted on this blog.) So this was a pretty subtle way to ease myself in--stripes with a floral, but the stripes are thin and metallic and practically a neutral. I'll be honest and say this shirt only stayed on for a few hours-- I ended up changing into a t-shirt once I got done teaching because I wanted to get that twill washed up in case I have some time to trace the pattern onto it tomorrow evening, and my light-colored laundry tends to get put off for awhile (since nearly everything I wear is medium-to-dark colors) so I had to take advantage of having some things to wash it with.

So that's 2/3 of the month down! Like I said, I think this week is going to be the biggest challenge, seeing as how I'm practically full-time at a job that I can't wear anything fun or me-made at this week. Also, I miss sewing. So I'll just keep chanting my mantra that I'm thankful I have a job....and hope it slows down a bit once June hits.

Testing, testing...

Warning: The following post contains pictures of me attempting to fit pants. Or pants-like things.

I've gotten the test version of the pants basted together, and spent some time this afternoon tweaking the fit. Here's how the process has gone so far:

Step 1: Added all of the markings that didn't happen in the original Frankenpattern. Which turned out to be way more of a trial and error than it should have, at least for the first piece, because I hadn't finished my first cup of tea for the day at the time and forgot that my seam allowances are currently 1" and not 5/8".

Step 2: Discovered my first pattern tweak-- apparently I mis-traced one of the waistband pieces (out of the magazine, and so much has been said about Burda's new pattern sheet layouts that I don't think I need to go into more explanation there) and one ended up longer on a side than the other.

But that was an easy enough fix. I trimmed them to the same width on that edge and marked the difference for later. (Slightly harder to fix will be my discovery right after that I'd only cut 1 facing piece for each waistband instead of 2. I guess I'll have to dig in the remnant bin again and see what else I have, since I'm pretty sure I don't have enough left of the piece I used to cut those and the pocket pieces. If I have enough at all.)




Then came the fun part: basting the whole thing together (sans pockets and facings and zipper fly bits) to see what the situation would be.

Actually, it was pretty close on the original pattern. (The top row is the "before" pics for the pattern sewed together on all given seam allowances, and the bottom row is the "after" pics after I tried a few of the tweaks I learned from the jeans class. Fronts and backs are diagonal to each other, because I messed up on the Picasa collage layout before saving and couldn't edit it.)

The main problem initially was, of course, the crotch. Lots of pulling and sagging and whatnot. I also had to take in a little bit on each side and at the top of the back to fix some gapping issues.  It's still not perfect, but I think it's about as good as it'll get, at least with this fabric. It's a kind of stiff twill, so it just doesn't have much in the way of drape to hang well in the back. As for the front, there's still some creases, but I'm becoming convinced that pretty much any pair of fitted-at-the-top women's pants is going to do that, since it seems like, in my cursory glance over the internet just now, even skinny models with no hips have those wrinkles when they wear pants. (At least, in the initial Google image search, and on Anthropologie. On a side note, these pants aren't there anymore. So this has to work!)

I've got my pattern pieces basically prepped for alterations now, except for trimming-- the orange line is the new seam allowance, and the purple is the new cutting line. This piece (the back) was the most dramatic change. Most of the rest of it just involved taking in the tops of seams about 1/8" or so. I'll need to add just a little bit to the center front, too, since I had to flatten out the curve there and it seems like it took away from the seam allowance somehow.

Next step: I need to take these shorts apart again, since they're only basted together (though I think I'll trim the seam allowances down a bit first.) Then it'll be sewing them together for real, mainly to give myself a bit of practice on the two techniques that concern me in here: the welt pockets and the fly-front zipper!

Ahh....success.

I'm not completely done with the jeans muslin yet. But thanks to a brilliant suggestion by the wonderful teacher, Jen, the issue of weird wrinkles in the front around the crotch area seems to have been solved! So I just have to make a few more tweaks, and then I just might have an actual usable jeans pattern!

Aside from that, did some "real" sewing today. I cut out the first part of what will hopefully become a shirt inspired by the Anthropologie sweater I put in the last post, as well as a pair of new pajama pants from some wonderfully soft flannel. I did get those partially sewn together today--a nice quick project, since I'm not going to worry about seam finishing or anything on this one.

I also did a small wardrobe refashion. Some of you may remember these pj's from a few years ago. Which I still love. But in the 2-3 winters I've worn them, I've learned that while those sleeves look awesome, they're really not very practical for clothes to sleep in. Especially this time of year-- all sorts of cold air gets in the sleeves, they get caught on things all the time, and if I want to throw my robe on over them, the sleeves don't exactly fit. I also discovered while unpacking them that one of the sleeves had ripped pretty badly near the armpit, I guess from the weight of that fabric while going through the laundry. So while I was repairing that, I chopped something like 10-12" off of the sleeve.

So this is what they look like now. Or at least as much as I can show with one arm shoved in a sleeve and the other holding the camera! (Also, please excuse the wrinkles--it was stored under my bed for the last six months or so.) I think it keeps the spirit of the kimono sleeve, but hopefully it'll be much more wearable now.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...

I can't help it. I see plaid, I get that Monty Python song stuck in my head. But I think my shirt looks way better than his. And since the fabric was called "Ayden", I'm going to go with that for the sidebar, because I'd much rather go with the boys' name than my "lumberjack shirt". (Besides, I like the way they spelled it.) So here's my extremely laid-back pattern review for Burda #110 of the May 2009 issue.

It's not perfect. If I was going to do it again, I think I'd have done some things differently. Like I think I'd make the back a bit wider, because it's a little snug across the shoulders despite my having let the back pleat out quite a bit for the same reason. And I'd take it in a bit more at the waist....I may still do that if I'm feeling up to it, actually. Depends on how self-conscious I end up feeling about it. I'd definitely make the buttonholes a little bigger, because some of the buttons are reaaaaaally hard to button, but I was having some issues with that anyway (more on that later). And I ended up taking something like 6" off the hem, because when I did the test version, I knew that with the plaid, it was going to hit in a really awful spot on my hips. I think maybe I took a little too much off. Maybe.

But I do think I did well with other things. I took a little of the fullness out of the sleeves, and they're perfectly non-gathered just like I wanted--and I added the right length, too! And I still like the way the pleats turned out! I like the double-buttoned cuffs even though I don't think the pattern called for that. (I have to admit that once I got to the buttonholes yesterday afternoon, I kind of ignored the magazine's instructions altogether and just stuck them where they'd look good. And no collar button that I'm never, ever going to use!) I think I did a pretty good job of matching up the stripes, too, at least to the extent that I could given the pattern. I'm still proud of myself for picking this fabric, because it's not in my color comfort zone at all-- no blue, green, black or brown anywhere, and I still like it.

I do like the pattern overall, and I think with a couple of tweaks to fix those fitting issues, I'd use it again.

So that issue I'm having with buttonholes... I think I may have broken the buttonhole foot on my machine. :-( I have this bad habit of setting it on the edge of the table--earlier this year or late last year I found a travel toiletry case at Goodwill and I've been using that as my "sewing box", which has worked really well, and had been keeping it in there. Which worked much better. Except that apparently I forgot to do that one time recently, and it got knocked onto the floor and into two pieces. It's back together now, but it doesn't quite slide around as well as it should, and still comes apart sometimes. I'm also not entirely convinced that because of that, it doesn't affect the length the buttonholes actually end up being in relation to each other--my machine has the ability to make one buttonhole and then go on auto to remember the length, but if the foot's not starting in the right place, I think it may be shortening a few of them. I'm not sure if I'll be able to replace it either, since I have an older model machine. :-( Guess I'll have to start checking eBay.

I also did a minor refashion recently, which I finished up on Friday night. I got this tank top awhile back because I liked the color and the length and overall shape of it. What I did not like was this embellishment. I was ok with the sequins, but those clusters of fake pearls were just nasty. Especially since I'm not a pearl fan anyway--too grandmotherly for my taste. So I took those off, as well as the sequins since they were coming off anyway. I wanted to take the lace off too, but I took a couple of stitches out and found that it was leaving visible holes in the fabric, so it had to stay. It was too plain with just the lace, so I ended up sewing beads on there.

Much better. (Except for the photo coloring.)

A couple of updates on previously mentioned things:
#1: I've decided for certain that I will be doing Self-Stitched September. My pledge is to wear at least one handmade or reconstructed article of clothing and/or accessory each day for the month. (Good thing I have my jewelry stash.)

#2: You remember that jeans muslin? The one that was just refusing to work? The class instructor did get it in the mail. (And is actually using it as an example in the jeans-fitting class she's teaching at a fashion school there, eep! I guess it's a good example of what not to do....or how many fitting issues one girl can have...) The nice thing is that she's going to make a pattern from the muslin (hopefully after fixing the crotch issues) and send that back to me. So that saves me a step, and then I don't have to worry about remembering the ridiculous amount of changes I ended up making. So maybe, just maybe, there is hope that someday I will be able to make a pair of jeans that really fit! (And don't fall apart after 3 wearings. Yes, I'm still a little bitter about that one.)

Next on the agenda: a new bag for fall. I broke down and bought a purse last fall because I didn't have time to sew one, and ended up hating it. At least, hating the straps, which had a tendency to constantly fall off my shoulder when I had to wear a coat. Especially this one, which is quite bulky due to all of the layers...stuff like that makes me wish I could wear wool.  (Also, for a pricey leather bag, which thankfully was on sale, it was kind of poorly constructed-- I had a tear in it before 2 months had passed!) So this year I'm going back to my funky printed cotton bag. And using up some stash to boot! Hoping to cut that out tonight, since I have reduced teaching and will be home earlier than usual. Ah, end of summer/beginning of marching band season.