Tag: projects

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.

Back is done. New material is bought.

My email update to my friend:

I hit a tragic point in my sewing.  Actually, cutting.   I decided the directions for what to do with the contrast fabric on the front were dumb, essentially they wanted me to fold it over at 5/8″ sew along that line and finish that edge.  But I thought the fabric wasn’t heavy enough and I would have to spend a lot of time ironing everything back into place and I hate to iron.  So I had the grand idea to just double those pattern pieces, fold them over and make a nice finishing stitch along the edge with that perfectly matched thread.  And my idea would have worked too, except I didn’t have enough fabric to double everything, a fact I realized after I had cut out one of each of four pieces, when I needed 2 of each of four pieces. 

So back to Fabric Depot I went yesterday.  And let me tell you, traffic is much worse on Friday at 2:00 than on Saturday at 10:30.  And guess what?  No more of the material in that color.  A nice lady who worked there took my sample and looked all over the place for it, but it was gone, gone, gone.  So I found another piece of material, but it wasn’t the perfect match the last piece had been.  Alas.

I’ve done the whole back of the dress and am quite excited as to how it turned out.  I didn’t work on it today because there was potato planting in the morning and then Pink Martini had a sing-along in Pioneer Square and I couldn’t rightly not go to that, now could I? And then I had to make food for Easter and for the staff meeting.  And I didn’t even get all the food made because I needed 1 cup of coffee for the cupcakes and by the time I realized that, all the coffee shops near me were closed.  So I will get up and make the cupcakes tomorrow.

It’s a good thing I don’t have yoga this next week.  I’m going to need the time to finish my dress.
Here’s the back.  I’ve cleverly pinned it to the muslin so it will hang and make me feel all accomplished.

 

Here’s the replacement material.  It’s shiner than the other material and not the perfect match the other material was, but it will do.