Now I'm Ticked Off

Geez, I just wrote the greatest blog post ever. It was witty, funny, sarcastic, informative, inspirational, and perfectly divine, with just the right amount of griping thrown in for good measure.

And Blogger just ate it.

Just for sake of asking, does anyone out there know what happens to your stuff when you are typing along, smiling, singing a happy little sewing song in your sweet little head while Blogger constantly saves your stuff every three seconds automatically, and all of a sudden you get distracted by a cat, causing you to hit the wrong key on the keyboard, and your wonderful stuff just disappears? And if it was automatically saving the whole time, WHERE IN THE WORLD DID IT GO?

I wrote about this:

 And this:

And Vogue 1177. And thread tracing. And chalk pencils. And strep throat. And nerds.

Wardrobe Plan Colors

This is the fabric I'm using for Vogue 1177, the top/dress, a crepe de chine with a black background with several shades of brown, camel, and ivory dots. I can't remember where it came from, or when:

 

I can already tell that it is going to fray and shred and make a mess in the sewing room. But that's okay. Right now there are four people in this house with very active cases of strep throat and so far I am not one of them. Hanging out in the sewing room with a vacuum cleaner suits me just fine.

 

I have been collecting brown toned fabrics for the past year. This has been deliberate.

 

Before retiring early, I taught high school and college. The main school colors were black and red (at one school) and black and grey (at the other school). As a result I wore a lot of black--tops, coats, shirts, pants, shoes, you name it. I want to do something DIFFERENT. So brown is my chosen color for the Wardrobe Plan.

 

Here are two more recent additions to the pile. Pretty sure these came from Joann's or Hancock. These want to be tops of some sort.

And here is a strep throat patient who is helping out by holding one of these ten million kitties around here. These cats are wearing me out.

 

That is one pretty Little Girl with Long Tailed Louie.

Burda 7189 Eureka!

Well I have sliced and diced and chopped and split and slid and rearranged these sleeves and armholes until it is not even funny. But I think I have got it at last!

My right sleeve in the following photos is the one that works. The sleeve itself is in pitiful shape, but the armhole length is GREAT and widening the sleeve at the bicep makes an absolutely AMAZING difference in the fit and feel of the entire blouse.

This is an ugly, ugly muslin but I want to wear it all the time. No cuffs on this rendition.

The left sleeve is beyond being a hot mess. Talk about surgery gone wrong! This was about as much fun as kissing frogs.

Unless you, too, are TALL and have spent years wearing ill-fitting RTW with sleeves that bind and are always way too short, you cannot appreciate how much I love this ugly muslin. Since I was 14 years old I have never bought a RTW long-sleeved shirt that I could stand to wear more than an hour.

I want to make this FOR REAL in a solid ivory color, but I don't have enough fabric here and of course Joann's had what I wanted, but not enough of it. For now I am going to make a mock-up of another Vogue blouse.

Next time I'll iron the muslin for yall.

Burda 7189 Yet Another Muslin

After making several length adjustments I cut out a new muslin. Even though I lengthened the sleeves in the arm section and in the sleeve cap area, I still ended up slicing and dicing this sleeve into a jillion little sections trying to get a better fit.

 

This sleeve appears way more distorted and misshapen than it actually is. You can see the various inserts and adjustments are kind of buckling up. The lower edge is pleated and that makes this sleeve look so horribly Frankensteined.

 

Even so, so far so good. The fit of the body of the shirt is much better.

 

Still working on the sleeve cap and bicep width for this pattern. I really, really like this pattern so I'll keep at it.

 

More later. Thanks for reading, and as always, I'd love to hear your comments and input.

Burda 7189 Muslin Part 4

 

Thank you to all those who have left a comment or sent an email regarding this muslin. I took Gail's advice and widened the bicep. What an AMAZING difference this makes. Not only does it feel better, I have complete movement in the arm now. I split the sleeve cap to widen and lengthen it about 3/8 inch. I just pinned in a strip of muslin for this quick alteration.

 

 

This muslin still needs so much fitting that I am going to go ahead and put together Muslin 2. I've started the flat patterns adjustments already.

 

I  am lengthening the armhole and sleeve cap by 1/2 inch. I have also made a 2 inch FBA, which is really simple on a princess seamed garment.

 

I still need to lower the bust point by another inch and will also lengthen between the bust and waist a further 2 inches. If that proves to be too much it will be easy to pin out in the new muslin. I'm still planning on widening the bicep.

 

I've been rummaging through the fabric box looking for the real fabric for this shirt. So far the only suitable things I've unearthed are heavily patterned. In order for all the neat seaming and style lines of this pattern to show off I think it needs to be a solid colored fabric. Most of what I have is for more of a bottom weight, so I'm going fabric shopping!

Burda 7189 Muslin Part 3

I'm pretty disgusted with this.

In the first photo, I have scooped out the front armhole on my left side (the right side in the photo).

 

I have lengthened one sleeve 1/2 inch and the other sleeve 1 inch. My left sleeve is longer. I have reduced the seam allowances in the side seams, front princess seams, and back inset seams.

Now the shirt has no shape at all.

But then again, neither do I.

But these last two photos tell the real story.

 

I can't move my arms.

I'm going to widen the sleeves at the bicep.
I'm going to lengthen the armhole.
I'm going to chop it up with the scissors.

Burda 7189 Muslin Part 2



 

Okay, here is proof that I have no pride. None. Here's the view from the front. I haven't put the sleeves in yet and wanted to check the fit of the blouse itself. Photograph by husband. My head is missing.

 

The length of it is good. The shoulder seam seems fine. The armhole is going to be excellent (very  hopeful).

Here is the side view. No makeup. No lipstick. No hair. Sunglasses!

The fine print says it all.

Here we go from the back. Love the back. Love, love, love it.

See the little stand up collar? I may raise it just a tad.

Time to let her rip with the seam ripper.

Burda 7189 Muslin

I've started work on the long sleeved muslin for Burda 7189. I'm hoping to get this one to work because I like the sleeve, collar, and front band options. This would work well for me in the Wardrobe Plan.

This is the two piece bodice front. The center front has an inset pleat over the princess seam section. I think this is a nice detail.

I have marked the center front, buttonholes, and lengthen/shorten lines with dark thread. A very nice thing about this pattern is that there are THREE lengthen/shorten lines on the front--in the sleeve area, between the bust and waist, and between waist and hip. This should allow me to get the best proportional fit. I'm tall, so this matters to me a lot.

You can see that the sleeve has two lengthen/shorten lines, too.

But far and away the most exciting thing I see in this sleeve is the shape of the sleeve cap. The left side of the sleeve in the photo will be the front, and the sloped side on the right is the back.

This is the detail that is so lacking in modern patterns. I do not understand why Vogue could draft patterns like this in the past, but cannot do so today.

This is my first Burda blouse pattern. I have high hopes! I'll be putting this one together this evening.

Naughty Stripes

At first glance my striped fabric appeared to be an even stripe, meaning that the stripes were symmetrical. After a little study, I decided that it was in fact an uneven stripe. Of course I had to prove this to myself with the mitered fold test. Hopefully the blue stripe on my ironing board cover won't confuse this too badly.

First, I folded the stripe back on itself at a 45 degree angle to get a true bias fold:

Next I folded it up onto itself and looked carefully at the result.

 

You can see that the biggest stripe is symmetrical, but the smaller stripe is not. This is one of those things that can create absolute havoc if you don't discover it before cutting out your pattern. I use this same test on plaid fabrics also.

 

Ask me how I know.

 

In other news, I am still putting together ideas for the wardrobe and I bought Burda 7189 during my recent trip to Joann's.

 

This top has a neat folded effect in the upper bodice as well as a very interesting sleeve treatment in the cap sleeve version. It's also a cute dress (which I really have no need for) and a nice long sleeve version. The front button band has a great little detail also.

I'm going to work up a muslin of this top in the next couple of days. I want to see how the Burda armhole will work for me. I've been thinking a lot about armholes and sleeve caps lately. And crotch curves. And crotch depth. And princess seams.

And mostly, I've been thinking about stripes.

Back With A Wardrobe Plan

I'm back, once again. This time I have an actual sewn wardrobe plan.

This wardrobe will fit my new life, to wit:

No more job, no more grading papers, no more writing lesson plans, no more worries, no more money.

Plenty of hanging out at house time, sitting on the porch time, chilling on the patio time, cooking for the hordes, massive laundry piles, cleaning a huge house, petting eight cats constantly.

And no, these are not my cats. I don't know whose cats they are. But all of them call me "Meeemamaow". Smart little boogers.

In my real life:
 I wear pants and capris.
Rarely a skirt.
Love loose dresses for the summertime.
Like to wear tights in winter.
Refuse to wear spanx.
Love shoes
Love necklaces and bracelets.
Want/need/desire to be comfortable day in and day out (see above about no spanx)
Wardrobe needs to be casual, since I am at home 95% of the time.
Rarely go to grocery store, department stores, any other stores.
When I do venture out, I want to look nice, stylish, and well put together.

My new life is almost perfect--husband, house full of menfolk, daughter, granddaughters, cats, extended family nearby, and the flexible time to enjoy it all. Only thing missing is comfortable stylish clothes to wear while I do all the fun stuff.

I need four grunge outfits--two for yard work and fishing and two for cleaning and painting.  
 And that's it. Except for the shoes, of course. Not wearing spike heels to the Wally World.

So I'm pulling fabric for me out of the stash. Have one sewing machine in for service at this very moment. Found the instruction book for the new serger. Plenty of new sewing machine needles and about 30 recent Vogue and Burda Style patterns.

Camera is charging. Photos of fabrics to arrive shortly.

Fall Colors in the Fabric Stores Yet?

Long time no see. Such is life, I guess...

At any rate, this of course is probably very old news to most of you, but here is the Fall 2011 Pantone color report:

I really, really like this year's colors. The most surprising thing to me is the lack of black! It seems that we are supposedly going to see more earthy, rich, feminine colors in the stores this year.

Have you ever had your colors "done"? I did, about 25 years ago, and believe it or not I still have my little color swatch book. It is in my purse as I speak.

I'm planning a little road trip soon to a not-so-local fabric stop (JoAnns or Hancock Fabrics), so my mission is to see if these colors are in the fabric stores or if we will have to wait 3 years for these color palettes to show up for home sewers.

If you've seen these colors out there for purchase already, give a girl a holler out in the comments and tell us where!

Creating a Wardrobe, part 1

I've been thinking a lot lately about about the SWAPpers out there, and it occured to me that many women entering the workforce (or changing careers) might suddenly have a need for a new wardrobe for a new job. Perhaps a promotion, a change to an authority position, or simply transitioning from a SAHM to a working girl. At any rate, I know a couple of folks who are faced with the problem of changing a wardrobe to fit a new job, and I thought it would present some major problems if one had to suddenly start completely over.





So I've been thinking a lot about how I would start over with a wardrobe. Given limited time (to buy or make) and money for a new wardrobe, essentially the question is where to start.





So this has been cooking along in my little brain for a while and then I happened across this in Time magazine. It is a painting by Wassily Kadinsky, created around 1911:

The more I looked at it, the more colors I noticed. Blues from midnight to royal to sky to palest ice; red from burgundies to rose to pinks, purples, periwinkles, orchids, chocolates, golds, olive green.

Look how many different colors are present. Then notice that they all work together.

So I've decided that a painting that one likes could be used as inspiration for a new wardrobe, just as it could be used as the starting point for decorating a room in your home.

Anyone done this before?