Taking a step back

I'm sick of fitting. I've said it.

It took me 3.5 muslins (including one wearable muslin...that wasn't supposed to be a muslin because I loved the fabric) to get a passable version of the Emily blouse. I'm still not thrilled with this one. In the photo, it looks like it's pulling across the bust, but I think it's the way that I'm standing because I don't see the pulling when I'm standing in front of a mirror. I guess it's okay, but I'm pretty "meh" about this, especially after all of the work that went into this. Obviously, this is a lot better looking than that first muslin that I posted a picture of, but I can't say that I'm particularly excited about it.

And with that thinking in mind, I decided about a month ago that I'd stick to sewing princess seamed tops/dresses for a while. I know that I have a higher chance of success with princess seams than darts (especially with having to cut chunks out of bust darts and rotate them elsewhere and all of that other fun stuff).

So...as part of my contribution to stash reduction, I recently sewed up New Look 6457. This was the opposite of frustrating. For pretty much the first time ever, I was able to simply follow the fitting instructions in FFRP and lower the bust fullness, do an FBA, and I wound up with a really cute sundress.

I LOVE how this turned out. It fits me like a glove, and I don't think the picture does justice to how waist-defining and flattering this dress is. As soon as I tried on the finished version, I decided that I wanted to make up several more of these. It's the perfect dress to throw on after work when the condo is still friggin' warm or to wear around town on the weekend. It's ridiculously comfortable, and I don't feel like a shlump in it.

Still riding the high of NL 6457, I decided to tackle the very similar (from the picture) New Look 6805. It's got a similar princess seamed bodice and a pleated skirt...and without all of the piping, it should go even faster, and therefore be a recipe for success, right?

Wrong. Of course, this couldn't actually be easy for me. Given the similarities of the bodices, I used NL 6547 as a sloper, thinking that I could just transfer the changes. Well, I transfered the changes, but apparently not the fit. And because I'm a masochist and enjoy suffering, I didn't make a muslin of this one because I was so sure that it would fit. Ugh. Bad idea.

Really bad idea.

At least the skirt in NL 6805 turned out cute, but the bodice is wonky in a ridiculous number of ways. I futzed and futzed and couldn't get the straps to lay at the same angle (I suppose this is because these are true "straps", whereas NL 6457 was more of a tank style.) The back on this thing gaped initially, and I had to add a center back seam to fix that. The princess seams themselves needed to be taken in on this (I guess it runs large in the bust and my transferred FBA from NL 6457 was overkill), and I'm still not happy with how those look.

So, in the past two months, I've had one raging success, one meh (after way too much work and fitting work), and one I-can-wear-it-around-the-house result. I really feel like I need to take a break from fitting for a while. My confidence is shot. I recently got engaged and had hopes of sewing my own dress, but I'm really not feeling that at the moment. Granted, I have just over a year until our wedding (during which time I'm going to try to lose weight, also, but that's another story), but I really don't think I could pull off the dress that I want at this point.

I've decided that I'm going to take a step back and just concentrate on things that I know that I'll enjoy SEWING for a while...things that don't require much fitting work. Next up in the queue is a pair of Simplicity drawstring cargo shorts for my fiance. After that, I'll work on a few more cotton versions of NL 6457.

If I'm feeling up to it, after that, I've got a few versions of Simplicity 2930 that I'd like to make. I'm thinking that this will be a good one for me because it has both princess seams and separate pattern pieces for different cup sizes. I should be able to get away with using a 16-D-cup, doing a narrow shoulder alteration, and a normal-sized FBA (instead of a huge one) and should be able to get a couple of nice, flattering tops out of this. Famous last words, right?

Wonky Darts

Bust darts have given me fits in the tops and jackets that I've sewn so far. At first, I thought that it was me and some strange dart ineptitude that I have, but then I noticed that my waist/butt darts never seem to have the same problem. My bust darts usually seem to be overly pointy, and I have a heck of a time getting them to lay flat.

Fairly recently, I realized that it might not all be my fault. I usually have to do a pretty large FBA to accommodate my bust, and this usually results in a huge bust dart. I've started playing around a little bit with rotating the bust dart elsewhere. The Emily blouse has been my first attempt at splitting the bust dart into a second dart (in this case, I used an armhole dart, which someone had recommended to me)...but *sigh* this clearly didn't fix the problem of my wonky darts:


Here's a closer look at my oh-so-prominent dart:


And a front view (ignore the fact that there's too much ease in the sleeve cap and that the blouse has no waist shaping--I can fix those things):



This is a muslin (thank you $1/yard swap meet fabric) that I went ahead and finished to practice collars, shaped hems, etc. But, I'd like to make this again and actually try to make this work. Sadly, even as wonky as my bust darts are, they don't look as bad as they usually do, so I think that I may have been onto something with my gigantidart theory...just that I didn't decrease the dart size enough with this one. My thoughts on what I'd like to change for my next version:

• I hate the armhole dart. I'm rotating the bust dart excess to a waist dart next time.
• I think the bust dart is still too big--I'll rotate out more excess next time.
• I think that I lowered the bust dart too much. I usually lower my darts 1/2-1", but when I did the tissue fitting this time, it looked like I'd need to lower them by 1 1/2"...which I think was too much.

Any fitting gurus out there have any other thoughts?

Next up: Emily

I'm currently about 1/3 of the way through sewing up 5 pairs of boxer shorts for David, assembly line style. By the time that I'm done with these, I'll have totaled making 9 pairs of boxers in the past year. Yeah, I'm a little burnt out on boxers at this point. At least I won't have to look at my boxer shorts pattern again for another 6 months or so after this.

And, after I'm done with these, I'm back to sewing for myself again. I entered the Advanced Beginner sewing contest on PatternReview. My goal is to make my first fitted (although the pattern says "semi-fitted") blouse for myself. If I'm successful, it'll be the first time in years that I've had a shirt that buttons without being huge elsewhere.

I'm using the BurdaStyle Emily blouse pattern for this project. It's your basic darted women's blouse. I tissue fitted it over Memorial Day weekend....and it was a total PIA. I needed a huge FBA on this one (shocking, I know) AND had to lower the bust dart more than normal. I wound up combining the new Palmer/Pletsch Y-shaped FBA on this *and* still split the bust dart and rotated part of it into an armhole dart to avoid Gigantidart syndrome on this one. I've got my muslin cut out, but haven't sewn it up yet. We'll see how this looks in the muslin and if it looks like it'll be worth working through.

If it *does* turn out okay, I'd love to make up a few of these. I went on a mini-spending spree that was funded by my recent Etsy shop windfall at Fashionista Fabrics and picked up a couple of really nice stretch cotton lawns there. If the muslin shows promise, I'm planning to use these for my "real" version(s).

My new summer jacket

After having somewhat mixed feelings about how my last few garments have turned out, it was quite a relief to make something that I really love: Jacket 131 from the May 2008 issue of BWOF. It's a little overcast here today in San Diego, and unfortunately, my flashed washed out my gorgeous fabric a bit: an Italian Metallic linen from Fashionista Fabrics. The fabric has subtle little silver threads running through it, and in person, I think that the silver buttons really help the fabric pop. Granted, with the flash, I think I look a little washed out, overall, in this picture, but in person, it's a really cute jacket.

Even better, I feel like I really nailed the fit with this one. There are no weird wrinkles anywhere, and nothing is pulling or feels tight anywhere, and it isn't too large across the upper back or chest. I used the Burda Plus 44 as my starting size and didn't even have to make many adjustments (just an FBA and full bicep adjustment). This is the first time that I've made up a BWOF in a 44, and I think I'll be using this as my starting size from here on out (although in patterns that only go up to a 42, I'll probably play around with that and just add to the places where I need the extra fabric).

This was also my first successful project with princess seams. I'd played around with another pattern that had them a few months ago and through a botched FBA and failing to stay-stitch and clip the seams, I wound up with a pretty ugly wadder. I feel a lot better now that I have something princess seamed under my belt...especially since about half of the patterns in my stash have princess seams. With my full bust and generally curvy figure, I think that these are a lot more flattering on me than patterns with only a few darts (or ugh, dartless patterns).

I'll be wearing this jacket open most of the time. I think that it looks particularly cute with a brightly colored top underneath. In fact, this outfit with the green t-shirt is exactly what I'll be wearing when I head out to see the new Indiana Jones movie with my mom in a little bit. (Gotta show off the new jacket to her, too.)

Catching up...

Ahhhh...it's been a bit of a whirlwind of a month:

1. I changed jobs and no longer work at a company that expects me to be on-call 24/7 as a "trade off" for "letting" me work from home (the story behind this is that my old company relocated to the Bay Area but kept me on staff). Yay. Of course, this means that I'm back to commuting into an office again.
2. I've been getting a lot of custom orders through my Etsy shop. It's wedding season, and I knew that my styles have generally been popular for wedding party orders, but wow, I never expected things to take off like this. I'm not trying to brag, but I've been a little overwhelmed with my spike in orders.

I'm still trying to sew when I can. I'm currently working on Jacket 131 from the May 2008 issue of BWOF. I'm absolutely loving the fit that I'm getting with this. It's a little loose in the waist, but I can take it in a pinch, and that semi-empire-waist band hits me right at the thinnest part of my torso. This has been my first successful experiment with princess seams, too, so I'm also really proud of how those came out. Not to mention that the fabric that I'm using for this is gorgeous: Italian Metallic Linen from Fashionista Fabrics.

The only bad thing is that this is a really trendy/distinct style, so I'm not sure that I'll want more than one of these, but with what I've managed to sew so far, this jacket has done a ton for my fitting/sewing confidence. I think you'll be seeing a lot of princess seamed garments from me in the future.

Caity, I did actually finish the dress that I talked about in my last post. The fit is really nice (I'm loving these Burda Plus patterns for those of us who are a bit curvier), but the fabric that I chose turned out to be a bit conservative (in the quantity that it's used in the dress) for my taste. You can read my review of the dress on Pattern Review. Don't get me wrong, it's a cute dress, it just reminds me of something that I'd buy at Ann Taylor Loft...a look that I'm trying to get away from a bit, since it seems like everyone my age does most of their shopping there.

Dress decision made

I wound up going in a different direction from either of the dress possibilities that I posted a few weeks ago. I've been so ridiculously busy that I decided that it was probably safer for me to go with something that would be easier to fit/sew.

I'm now nearly finished with Dress 413 from the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Burda Plus. It's a fairly simple dress with a chiffon-type fashion fabric and a lining. Between the outer dress and the lining, the dress has twelve darts (!) total. I felt like I was sewing darts for forever on this one. The rest of the construction was pretty easy--it only has 6 different pieces, total, including the lining. Other than the darts, everything else was pretty much just sewing seams and a little bit of hemming. I managed to use my serger for just about all of the construction, other than the darts and the hem.

I'm not sure that I'm liking the fit on me. I started with the smallest size available--46--and did a moderate FBA, but I'm feeling like I should've graded down probably by about two sizes and done a much larger FBA (although that probably would've meant getting into dart rotation and such-- something that I'm not real confident with). I think I need to take it in a bit in the waist or something-- it still feels a bit "big" all over. Depending on if that works or not, I still have enough fabric left over (I think) to make a tie belt--that could help, although I don't generally like how I look with belts.

I'm also second-guessing my decision to lower the bust dart by about 1/2". I definitely needed it in the tissue fit, and I know that darts drop in fabric and accommodated for that, but in looking at the dress on me, the darts seem a tad low. I'll be playing around with pinching things to see if I can figure out a way to raise the dart up a tad. It's definitely not a full-blow wadder, but I don't know if it's something that I'll feel "pretty" enough in to wear to a friend's wedding. I'll post pics when I've got the dress completely finished.

Tagged for 7 random things!

I've been tagged by fellow seamstress keely to post 7 random things about myself on my blog. :)

Here are the tagging rules:

The rules:

* Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
* Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
* Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So...my 7 random things:

7. Even though it's over ten years old, Ben Affleck is now a punchline, and I've seen the movie a bazillion times, I still cry every time I watch "Good Will Hunting".

6. One of our cats is named after a "Sopranos" character.

5. I make an awesome penne arrabbiata that's based off of a recipe that I got in Rome and is way yummier than you'll find in most Italian restaurants in the US.

4. When I lived in the Bay Area, I volunteered weekly for the Marine Mammal Center, an awesome marine mammal rescue organization.

3. In a side-by-side blind tasting, I can distinguish red wine that's been aged in American oak vs. French oak.

2. The guy who I grew up next door to now plays major league baseball for a team in the American League.

1. I really, really want a dog. I grew up with dogs, and I so miss having a dog. I have the cats trained to greet me at the door when I come home, but you can't take a cat to a cafe or to a dog park or to the beach. Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, we'll be living in my 900 square foot condo, and we already have three cats, so a dog is probably out of the question for a while...

I'm tagging the following bloggers/seamstresses/creative people:

• Shell Mitchell
• Leora
• Pretty Cheap Jewelry
• Sarah
• Sherril
• Melody
• Laura