Just a few minutes to post, but catching up

Well, I haven't moved on to the pants draft just yet. I wanted to work a little more on my bodice and see what I could get accomplished. I need woven tops badly, and I think they are pulling me away from my quick and dirty, (and instant gratification) tee shirts. But I do need to get some of those done form my Autumn 6 Pac also.

I am tweaking each garment as I go along. Each time I make a garment, I can see somewhere else that needs a little tweaking. But that’s okay as I can generally wear the ones I have made, even if they’re not yet perfect.

I have unpicked the collar, sleeves, and shoulders on the seersucker one I did first, and will recut it to fit. I am thinking I can make a “wedge” (possibly on the bias so it looks like a design feature) to add into the shoulder to increase the width and fix that sticking out sleeve. Then I do need to recut the neck on that one also, and I have enough fabric to make another collar and will probably add a piece of bias along the inside edge of the collar as it’s going to fray ~ I can tell after one washing. 

Last week in my spare time I did a sleeveless top from the sloper. I had a piece of French linen I bought a while back in the stash. It’s gorgeous in black, aqua, creamy white, and taupe geometric print. Not something I’d usually wear, but I love it. Only had 1 1/8 yards, so had to cut it cross grain. No collar, no armhole facings. Had to use bias tape on the armholes. But did get facings for the neckline. I had the buttons in my stash which look like they were purchased specifically for this print! I have added a top button. I was debating on it, but the picture shows it’s needed. Not the most flattering picture ever, but it is what it is. I need to work on "fashion shots" for sure! And boy, oh, boy do I need to get some new bras made. Aging and old bras just don't give you that perky silhouette that you used to have! :P}}

 

 

This one I had to take out an inch at the back hip tapering to nothing at the shoulder blades, and I could easily see that the back armscye needed to be cut in for about a couple of inches from the armhole. BUT, I’m not taking all the stitching out and redoing on this one. I don’t wear sleeveless in public, so I don’t think I need to go to all that work! LOL It would be so much easier and quicker if I were patient enough to wait for the retreat so I would have someone who could take a look, tell me what needs to be done and help by pinning out the places that need it, and eyeballing so I would be able to do this easier. Making a garment, taking photographs and then trying to alter by myself is much more time consuming. Although I will definitely wear this top!

 

I have the next garment cut out, and was hoping to get it sewn up tomorrow, but one of my scheduled appointments for today didn't work out, so I have to work tomorrow too. Darn it! But hopefully a short day as all the preliminary work was done this morning.

 

My next garment will be a tan linen-cotton knit, short flutter sleeved cardigan. I think I have enough left to make a matching tee so I'll have a "sweater set" for my 6 pac. And I have a taupe linen-rayon blend from Joann that will be my next jacket. And some charcoal ponti for a Style Arc moto jacket. But I can't decide if I should go for the jackets or work on pants. Who knows what I'll feel like when I get there. It's going to be a surprise for us all!

 

Hope you're enjoying your time and wishing you a fabulous weekend!

 

 

 

 

Pondering the who and what of where I am at this point in time. And then my progress!

Sandra of http://makingitwithhelp.blogspot.com/ posted an interesting query about why people post and how many visitors you have.

Even though I am a statistics kind of person, I don't pay that much attention to who, why, and how many people are watching my blog. Of course, like everyone else, I do appreciate the comments, especially suggestions as I'm generally out here on my own, but that said, this blog is more for me.

I initially wanted to be involved in the blogging world to connect with virtual friends all over the world who shared my interests. Then blogging became an obligation instead of fun. I backed off and did other things for a while. And then I found Stitcher's Guild which fills the void of not having any sewing friends close by.

After I started paying attention to Stitcher's Guild and being able to lurk or connect with sewing friends, I realized that for me, the blog is as much a journal of my progress in sewing, and interests as much as anything else, with my major obsession being sewing and fit.

I would love to be one of those people who have fantastic ideas and can show you in a few words and pictures how to make innovative garments, but I'm just not. I much prefer classical styles in wonderful fabrics that are well made. I doubt I'm a very good teacher as I do my own thing and do things the way they make sense to me.  In my opinion, I don't really contribute that much as I'm just trying to make things that I like, that fit me well, and fit in with my life and tastes. And make my own patterns. As such, I think for most sewing people, I'm probably pretty boring. Although I do a fair bit of fabric shopping on line and as such do have some wonderful places to buy fabrics and may be a resource for that.  :P}}

So that said, if you're here reading this, I appreciate that you find my missives to be engaging enough to read, and I appreciate you commenting.  I will continue to blog as time permits, but I'm not feeling it's necessary to do so on a daily basis.

I'll continue to post my progress and my projects. I might go off topic somewhat sometimes, but as I think Debbie Cook http://stitchesandseams.blogspot.com/ said recently, it's my blog and I can write anything I chose. You may run into some stories about my other obsessions, reading, or gardening, or the always hovering food, cooking, healing, healthy diets and weight loss. If you're bored with those or not interested, please feel free to skip those posts.

I do have a tendency to grab an idea and run far and fast with it. My wonderful husband is getting more used to it after 12 years, and he just always agrees. LOL His previous wife was a drama queen, who made his life a living hell most of the time, so he just figures it's easier to agree than to make waves. My latest thought is fulfilling something on my bucket list. Mary http://kf-biblioblog.blogspot.com/ kind of gave me a mental nudge, and the thoughts have been growing and growing until they have become a semi-plan.

Complete change of plans. We'll stay where we are in our current residence for the foreseeable future. I have kind of made a 5 year goal to work really hard, save up all our money, then buy a trailer and truck and see all 50 states a little at a time, stopping to really see, get the sense of the place, talk to the people, see the sights that we're interested in, and then move on to the next place. There is so much of this great big fabulous country, and we don't know that much about so many places. I figure it will take at least a couple of years to do, and then when we have decided we're done, we'll decide where we want to live out the rest of our lives. I figure by that time, we'll have grandchildren scattered all over, and can decide where we want to live based on proximity and closeness to all of them.

I have seen much of Hawaii, parts of California, obviously as I live here, and parts of several other states. But not an in depth visit where I get to go and wander and meet people and figure out who they are and the for lack of a better word, the tempo of the place. It kind of fills me with a great sense of adventure and wonder that we can actually do something like this. I contemplate my grandmother taking a vacation with a couple of babies in a covered wagon from Oklahoma to Arizona, and think that there is a huge sense of adventure lurking beneath the boring surface of my anatomy!

So now, back to the Sure Fit and where I am.

The last post left me with needing to add to the shoulder width. Which I did. I also fiddled with the neckline a bit more. And made another muslin. Then realized that it was STILL too long in the back. So I pinned out another fold, and it seems to be much better. Glenda did see my post on SG, and wrote me a nice email saying that she thought the fold should be further down at the mid dart level instead of where I put it.

Well, to be honest, I'd already done my first tee shirt draft and just left that where it was. I needed some instant gratification sewing. For my first tee shirt draft, I pulled out my flat pattern books, looked at what they thought you needed to do to change a sloper from woven to knit, ignored it; looked around on the SFD site a bit to see if I could find the directions to change from woven to knit, even looked in my dress kit instruction book to see if I could find Glenda's comments, (no go) and being my impatient self, just used the woven draft to make the first tee.

 

After making this first one, I decided the shoulders were too wide, and I took the armholes and sides in by 5/8" all the way around. This fabric isn't one I would ordinarily choose, but found it when I was on Marcy Tilton's website a while back. this was an "end" piece, only 1 1/2 yards, and it's an Italian viscose/lycra jersey. The aqua caught my eye, and the taupe-y purple and greens work with my wardrobe, plus I figured I could wear it with black pants. I'm super glad I bought it as it's a fantastic fabric, feels like silk against my skin, was easy to sew, and drapes wonderfully. So this was my altered version.

 

 

Onward and upward. I love that garment already and need to get some more stuff going. I'd like to try to think I can do the Autumn six pac over at SG, and to that end, have generally chosen to use grey and browns as my "core colors." But, since I don't like boring, and got really tired of wearing plain solid colors after 20+ years in the corporate world of suits, blouses, hose, and heels, I'm adding a bit of color to my six pac. I have generally navy, brown, grey, and creams in my wardrobe. That's what I wear daily, and this one will fit in with multiple garments. It's from the same Marcy Tilton order... just looked in my fabric book and it's from last November. This one is a German fabric, 94% rayon, 6% lycra and it was a 1 3/4 yard piece. I have enough left over for matching undies! LOL

 

 

 

I did take in the armholes and side seams 5/8" on this one too, but I think I need to rework my draft a little bit. The 5/8" at the hips makes it a little tighter fit than I like, so I'll do some revisions before my next draft.

 

Now I need to move on to pants. I'm debating. I still have my old pants draft that I made via How to Make Sewing Patterns, but I've changed a lot and need to do a remeasure and re-draft. BUT I have the Sure Fit pants kit here too. I just don't want to get too far ahead of myself as I'll be doing the Retreat with Glenda in October. But I'm impatient. I need pants, and I'll probably go ahead and get moving forward with that.

 

I'm sure once I get to Oregon, my imperfect drafts will be critiqued and tweaked to fit better than they do now, but I don't want to spend the next two months not sewing just because they're not perfect yet. VBG

 

Because I did 7 appraisals last week, very unusual, and way too many hours invested, today is my day off. Unfortunately, I've already used the morning for other things than sewing. Better get a move on so I can get started on my next garment.

 

Until later!