Saturday, March 8, 2008

First Up Vogue 7283 - Take Two

Well, I made several adjustments to the OOP Vogue dress. Here is the result in muslin form. I think I'll try for another muslin before making it in fashion fabric. I plan to line the dress even though it called for underlining and facings.


The front and, yes, I can lift my arms more than that. I'm not sure why I stopped at that angle.


The back. It is crooked because my darts are all off. I used my trusty Kwik Sew jumper pattern and compared the darts. I marked it on the pattern pieces so next muslin they will be straight.

Isn't it amazing what a shorter lenght, cute shoes, and a belt will do? Yikes, no one look at the hair or face. You can tell that I didn't get my beauty sleep last night.

I'll give ya a full run-down of all the alterations once I cut the next muslin. Muslins are great for getting rid of the yards and yards of quilter's cotton I have.

Friday, March 7, 2008

First Up Vogue 7283

In this post I showed you guys what I bought on eBay. Well the package arrived today and I couldn't stop myself from cutting into a muslin already. I am going to try this one first.




The description on the back is semi-fitted A-line dress has short raglan sleeves; jewel neckline or bias standing collar. Pockets in front seams. Self belt variations. I am making the collarless version.


This pattern is in great shape for being 30-40 years old.



I did my usual (I love being able to say that) adjustment of shortening the length between neck and bust by 1/2". Since this is a princess seamed dress, I had to do it 4 times. Front, side front, back, sleeve.


YUCK. This pattern is supposed to be for bust 32". My bust is either a 31" or 32" depending on when I measure. This pattern is way too big for me. I can grab inches of fabric. Like 4-6 inches of fabric.

So here is the big question, where do I take all that extra room from? Below is the seaming on the front. The lines are approximate because it is darn hard to see where the seam are on this fabric. If I mess with the princess seams I'll have to mess with the sleeves. But maybe that is okay since that dart is wonky anyway.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

One more thing to go for SWAP!!!

I only have one more thing for SWAP! I drafted this tote bag from CharityinAK's blog. It's a super easy tutorial and it makes a super-cute bag. I would have made it wider but didn't realize the gussets would takeout width-wise material. Duh. Oh well, it turned out cute. The bottom of the bag is square and that is a cool feature. I can put baby bottles in it and it stands up perfectly.










This is what they do when I tell them to smile.

Sewing Blogs

Looking for some reading material? Some sewing tutorials? Check out this huge list of sewing blogs. You can be added too!

The Big List of Sewing Blogs
My rank is 4,446,976 and I have no idea what that means. There are popular blog about and below my rank so I'm not sure what this number means. I added a bunch of these to my RSS feeds. Yikes, tonight I'll probably spend more time surfing than sewing. I have got to get my stinkin' purse done for the SWAP so I can start on my last shirt.

Monday, March 3, 2008

NL 6952


This is part of my Wardrobe Contest. Here is a link to the storyboard.

Pattern Description: There is no pattern description on the New Look envelope. I never realized that before. Here is my description: Fitted, woven tops with integrated collarband and a variety sleeves including full-length, 3/4 cuffed, ruffled, and sleeveless. I made the 3/4 length sleeveless version.

Pattern Sizing:This is 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. I made the size 8.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?Yes, very much so. The fabric, of course, is very different but other than that, yes!

Were the instructions easy to follow?Yes, the instructions were very clear and easy to understand. I have made this shirt twice (see this thread on the fitting woes forum) and the placket seems to give most of the reviewers issues. I decided to leave the placket off to reduce bulk and I like buttons to show.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
-Likes: Good wardrobe basic, nice shaping, very easy to sew. I made this is two evenings with my son pestering me. Here he is. He couldn't resist the camera.
-Dislikes: The regular length sleeve is kind of blah. I think they did that so that it would be an "easy" pattern. If they added too much detail they wouldn't have been able to put that rating on it.

Fabric Used:This is an embroidered corduroy in tan brown. It has a teensy bit of stretch. I had to becareful when I cut this so that the little eyelet holes weren't in, um, places I didn't want holes.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: The only alterations I made were to reduce the length between neck and bust by 1/2". I included pictures of the back piece and the sleeve. When I reduce it, I reduce it all around; the front, back, and the sleeve. You can see from this shot that the bust point fits correctly. I added more buttons and started them higher than they did. They suggest 4 and I did 6. I'm a teacher and bend over a lot.

I did follow the tips of fellow PR.com sewers and sewed my collar a bit differently. If you look in this review I did I asked for suggestions on how to make points, pointy. Several people said to take a few stitches across at the point and then trim. This is what I did and the collar turned out great. I drew with chalk on the interfacing so I could see it. Here is the before and this is where I sewed the seams.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?Yes, I will sew it again. I do recommend to others. I think it is a great basic pattern. I'll probably use this pattern body and add other details and sleeves from other patterns. It fits me well. Here are the back, lifted arm, and crucifixion pose so you can see the fit of the shirt. Different front picture.

Conclusion: I really like this pattern.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

eBay . . .

Guess who just won this for $21.00?? And they are all my size.
You can expect to see a few more dresses popping up. Thank goodness March rolled around before this auction ended. I really am strict about the "not spending more than $100 a month" resolution.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Yikes. I'm $1.49 in the hole.

So, I budget $100 a month for sewing crap (more detail here). I HAD to buy these belt rings to finish this dress. I just HAD to finish the darn thing. So I got the rings home and they didn't fit. I ended up using these aluminum rings that I ALREADY HAD!!!! So my balance did not have to go negative. Oh well, only three more days before I get my allotted $100 for the month of March.

Still working away on SWAP. Current update:
Bottoms:

  1. Jalie 2000 - Choice of Pants - Merlot stretch sateen
  2. Butterick 5147 - Pencil Skirt - Tweedy mystery wool found in stash
  3. Simplicity 4091 - Skirt with Flounce - Dark brown bamboo/cotton corduroy
  4. Butterick 5147 - A-line Skirt - Waiting for some wine-colored moleskin fabric from Fabric.com

Tops:

  1. Jalie 2005 - Choice of t-shirts - I bought some bubble knit fabric from Fabric.com. I bought it in a tan color. I'm not sure of the weight so I'll wait to see when it gets here.
  2. Jalie 2787 - Criss-cross tops - Get Ziggy With It from Gorgeous Fabrics
  3. Jalie 2793 - Tunic - Dark brown and tan
  4. Jalie 2322 - Button-down Blouse - Tan embroidered corduroy
    Jacket (waiting for the fitted top contest on PR.com)
  5. Kwik Sew 3584 - Gathered cropped jacket - Dark brown bamboo/cotton corduroy

Accessory
Purse? Not sure about this one yet. I am thinking of doing a wristlet/credit card pouch.