Tag: projects

Drafting new facings, cutting and basting

Here was the original plan for the facings, but I’ve got to make new ones due to arm area expansion.
 
It was easy enough though.
 
It’s important to star one’s cutting layout.
 
Bodice stuff that needed to be cut on the fold. 
 
Prepping my cutting area.
 
Have you seen the movie Unzipped, about Isaac Mizrahi’s fall 1994 collection?  It’s a great documentary.  And one thing I learned is that all the women making the fashion wear black all the time.  So I’m wearing all black in homage. Also because it’s rather cold today.
 
I really despise cutting out.  It might be better if I didn’t have to crawl all over the floor all the time.
 
After cutting out the underlining, I was to put out the main fabric…
 
…and lay my underlining pieces on top.
 
Then Gertie told me to carefully baste around each piece and then finish cutting out.  I suspect this is one of those things Gertie does because she likes to be careful.  I’m doing it, but it’s taking forever.
 
But look how pretty it looks when it’s done.
 
However, I needed to watch a movie to keep me occupied.  And when that movie was over, I was nowhere near done. Grrr.

Today I spent five hours working on this and I’m still not done with this week’s items.  

Final muslin fitting, prepping material

Muslin #2.  I can see that lengthening the front now has me in trouble with the back. The side seams are even.  I sense a muslin #3 in the future.
 
The back is now a little bit better.
 
The front is reaching my waist.  And notice how taking all that fabric out at the armpit level helped tremendously.
 
But I’ve still got a shoulder thing going on.  I solved this by having Matt cut back until there was a bigger opening.
 
Why is this picture upside down?  There is now more room in the shoulder area.
 
Here is the pattern for #1 topped with the pattern for muslin #2 in front,  with the changes outlined for #3 in green.  I’ve known it since I tried on Sara’s strapless formal dress in tenth grade, but man, do I have shoulders.
 
Muslin #3.  I feel like I could pull in the shoulders a bit, and the waist, but I don’t really know what I’m doing here, so I think I will leave it.
 
The back looks good.
 
Sentinel is a good helper.
 
Now to press all the underlining material.  This dress does not skimp on material.
 

Tracing pattern pieces

I’m feeling confused about how to make the changes from the muslin to the pattern, so I’ll distract myself with tracing all the pattern pieces.
 
Here’s the official pattern piece.
 
I devised a check system to ensure that I got all the pieces I needed.  I have to be wary of project pitfalls and one of them is not having everything I need.  If I miss a piece and have to backtrack to this stage, there’s a good chance I won’t finish the project.
 
The file cabinet holds what I need.  Here is a skirt piece and a pocket.
 
I only use the finest tools.  A true statement in the case of the rulers, which have been invaulable.  A false statement with the pattern weights which are just whatever object I can find to serve as “heavy.”
 

Muslin fitting part 1

I want to start off this post by saying that when I was looking at the fitting pictures from the Crepe Sew-Along Flicker Pool, the ones that helped the most were those of people who were not anywhere close to model sized.  So even though I’m not thrilled with my size in any of these, I’m doing it for the good of the fitting process.
Here’s the first muslin front view

Side view

Back view.

Thank goodness I had a handy helper who did his darnedest to pin, even though he had no experience and no idea what he was doing.  Plus, he had to listen to his girlfriend’s not super specific instructions (“See that floppy part along the bottom?  Can you grab that?  No, not that floppy part, the other one.)  The fitting process would not have been done without him.  Thanks Sweetheart!

Here I have drawn where my “breast point” (aka nipples) are because those darts are very high and I need to lower them.  I’ve also pinched a bunch of excess fabric in the front around the armpit area.  I’m also making note that the waist doesn’t actually make it to my waist, so I need to add length at the bottom.

Matt has pinched off a bunch of droopy stuff on the back.

Another side view of the lack of extending to stomach.

Drat. Lining was off.

I am very much “over” sewing this dress.  I melted part of the lining because the iron was too hot (oh well!) I sewed a dart on the wrong side (it’s interior, no one will ever see it) and so I was very excited to put the final stitch in and have a triumphant try-on.  And I did.  And all was not good.  I didn’t properly line up the lining seams with the dress seams and voila! Messy, poorly executed bubble effect.

Matt, observing me taking the above picture said, “It looks funnier from this angle. Let me take the picture.”  So I did.


Happily, this meant that I had to pull all the stitching out and watch another two episodes of Friday Night Lights in order to finish the dress before attending the Greek Easter Celebration.  So some good came of it.

More Aprons

So I’ve come to my senses (a bit) regarding the “new uniform” project, slated for this summer.  In my mind, I was going to have time (and money) to make dozens of aprons.  But I realize that isn’t going to happen and, if I’m lucky, I’ll get the two shirts, two dresses and perhaps ONE apron done.  But I found this great book and here are more awesome aprons, including my apron of choice.
 
I love the circle skirt aspect of this and the very awesome pockets.
 
Very cool side pocket.
 
Good high waist.
 
Excellent Handkerchief example.
 
This yoke is fabulous.
 
Good details here.
 
So cute!  Like a flirty 50s party dress, but an apron!
 
Good gathers and a cute pocket.
 
I love the movement here.
 
Good detailing.
 
This is cute, but I think would lead to massive hippage on me.
 
 
I like the full body cover of this one and the ruffle.  It’s also reversible.
 
 
 
Sort of your classic “diner waitress” look.
 
 
But this is the winner.  I love the yoke, I love the pockets, I love the criss-cross in the back and I love that it has no waist.  I’m not so into the waist right now, at least not mine.
 
Awesome apron, here I come.  Just as soon as I finish the reunion dress, two work shirts and two work dresses.
 

Aprons

Okay, there’s a new uniform plan afoot.  The following two pictures are of the Laurel, by Colette Patterns.  I have plans this summer to make two dresses and two tops, but with a cute “small ruffle” variation and no pockets on the dress, and this will comprise the core of my new uniform.  The dresses/shirts will be in the same material, most likely a neutral, and I will get some black pants to wear with the shirts and black leggings to wear with the dresses.  But the exciting part will be that I will also sew a fun apron to wear over the ensemble!

I already wear an apron at work.  Because there are not reliable pockets in womens’ clothing, early on I adopted the basic three-pocket waitress apron to hold my work walkie talkie, keys and a few pens.  But I’ve decided to break out of the boring three-pocket apron and make some very cool ones to go with my uniform.  So I’ve been doing apron research.  You can come along with me.

I love the cherries and the piping on this one.  I’m looking for a full-front apron.
 

Nice bias tape here.
 
This is beautiful.
 
I like the pinafore look here and the fun pockets.
 
Kind of minimalist.
 
Very schoolmarm.
 
This princess seaming is great.
 
Very bright!
 
Very mod!
 
I love the bottom of these, and the chevrons.
 
Another good princess-seamed bias tape candidate.
 
So 1930’s cute.  But would probably make my hips look very substantial.
 
Here are the two books these came from.
 

What are your favorites?

Baby Blanket

Here’s the baby blanket I made for my friend who is due soon.  I think it turned out fairly well, though my problem with variegated yarn is that I never really love how it meshes together.

The pattern is a baby blanket pattern I got off of the Internet years ago and I like it because it’s very hard to lose track of where you are, thus ensuring good results.

Though I didn’t love how the variegation worked out, this yarn was silky smooth and is machine washable, so I can recommend it.