Status Report

It's the middle of August here, and we've had a lot of days with triple digit temperatures, which kind of drains every single bit of energy from your body! 

I worked on the tunic top, and then set it aside for a bit. It was necessary to raise the center of the Vee about 2 1/2" for it to look decent. I did muslin the neckline with a regular piece of muslin, but now I'm convinced I need to muslin the entire top to be sure it's going to look right on me. With the look of the top, it will need a fabric that drapes well, so I didn't want to use regular muslin and have been contemplating what I have that I can use for a muslin that won't bother me if it doesn't turn out well. 

The light bulb finally went off yesterday, and I realized I have a very lightweight cotton sheeting that will work. It's a deep garnet red, so if it works out, will be a nice top for me as that's one of my favorite colors! Hooray.

In the meantime while that has been being mulled in the back of my brain, I decided it was time to finally bite the bullet and do a sleeve draft for my particularly un-typical arms. Due to genetics, a lot of pool exercise with weights, and extra pounds, my biceps are 18 1/2" around, while my shoulders are sloping and forward. That makes it interesting to try to fit anything, so I figured with a custom sleeve draft, I'd have better luck. 

I had done the Winifred Aldred draft a while back, (Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear) but never went ahead and did the muslin. I had purchased the Craftsy class (now Blueprint) of Suzy Furrer’s sleeves, Patternmaking + Design: Creative Sleeves at the same time I got the moulage class, but it was languishing in my queue, so needed to get that started. Since I had such good luck with her moulage, I wanted to go ahead and attempt that draft before moving ahead. Now, I have the two drafts and they seem to be fairly similar. I have not yet done the draft from the Armstrong book, (Patternmaking for Fashion Design) but may do so in the future as another check.

I did muslin the Suzy Furrer sleeve, and I think it’s a win for me. I’ll be moving forward with making it into a two piece sleeve for my jacket pattern this week. Unfortunately, I can’t stand for long periods of time, so it has to be done in fits and spurts. Hopefully quickly, but who knows?

For the lapel-less jacket, I’ll be using Burda 6569, View A and a houndstooth silk suiting in camel and navy. I pulled out the invoice for that and was actually quite shocked. I know back in the day, I bought a lot of really good fabrics on sale, on close out, or as bolt ends from Fabric Mart, but now as I look at the prices, I’m in shock and in heaven! The date on the order is May 9, 2009, and I bought three yards for $2.99 a yard!

Needing Ironing!

Unfortunately, when I looked in my lining bin, I didn’t find anything I wanted to use with this fabric. I figured I needed a camel or a dark navy, and was leaning towards a dark navy. My favorite and only lining I’ve used for the last multiple years is Ambiance Bemberg rayon lining. It’s wonderful and drapes nicely, and wears well.

When I went looking for it I was horrified to see that Logantex will no longer be importing it, so most of the places I looked were selling out of the stock they have with no possibilities of reordering. Denver fabrics had some, so I ordered a brown and an iridescent bronze (along with a piece of navy wool for trousers) and hopefully one or the other will work well with the fabric.

Onward and upward. Hopefully by the time the lining fabrics arrive, I’ll have the jacket ready for the lining!

More later, and hopefully soon!