Off the Clock

The saga continues on this dress, but I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. I was up sewing until 12:30 last night and I'm down to the homestretch. Daughter tried on the bodice yesterday and the poufs at the sides of the bust are more pronounced in the fashion fabric than they were in the muslin, likely because of the multiple layers. She didn't mind but I want perfection, darn it! This dress definitely needed a full bust adjustment for her but I have no knowledge of how to do that with the style of this bodice, so once again I just flew by the seat of my pants and added darts to the sides of the bust. I also sewed the white bust sections together for an inch or so at the front to make it a little more modest. Daughter is so busty that you could see through her cleavage almost to her waste. Ok, bit of an exageration, but you get the point. She is coming over tonight for a final fitting. In the mean time I have the skirt assembled and attached to the bodice. ...

Point is starting to look pretty good I've been continuing on with Butterick 6049 for daughter. I was having difficulty getting the points to turn out nicely, so a few more trials were in order. I didn't find anything in the sewing books I already had on hand, so I researched what I could find online. I found what I think is the best advice in this video . After getting a decent point I wanted to adjust the pattern for the gaping under the arms. Daughter is quite busty and I think that is what was causing the gaping. I decided a couple of darts were in order. I darted the muslin and had her try it on. There is still a little bit of puffiness in the triangle but it's not really obvious. I had done the full two inch adjustment in one dart on one side of the muslin and divided it into two darts on the other side. She and I both preferred the double dart as it seemed to absorb the extra puffiness better. Next up was to transfer the darts to the paper pattern. I was h...

I occasionally visit kijiji.ca looking to see what people are selling under a "sewing" search.  Usually I find sewing machines with very little detail or description.  Sometimes it's a sewing table, or a batch of thread, or sewing lessons, but usually nothing that makes me want to jump on it.  That is until I saw this collection of sewing books from the Singer Reference Library. I first saw it a few weeks ago.  When I noticed it is still there this weekend I made an offer - and got it!  There were 25 books first listed but it turned out one is missing (working with different fabrics or something like that).  So 24 books for $40.  They come very highly rated by all the reviews I could find.  There are lots of pics and detail.  I have only started reading the "Sewing with Knits" one so far but I picked up several new things after just a few pages.  And people have very good things to say about the pants fitting one.  I suspect this ...

Daughter was over tonight and together we got started on the muslin for Butterick 6049 . This is her first time following a pattern so I had her trace out the pattern pieces and cut out the muslin fabric. Then she did some initial sewing before I tried the tricky bit of joining the colour blocked bust pieces. It's a good thing we started with a muslin because the "easy" rated pattern is quite challenging in this point. This is how the points are supposed to look: And this is how mine look: And this is all the directions you get for this point: Even Gertie says  "Warning: those points are a little tricky to sew!"  Fortunately we've got some time so I can do a little research and play with some scraps before cutting into the fashion fabric. I so want her first project to be one she will be proud of!

I've been thinking about changing the name of my blog again. For some reason it just seems more appropriate to call it "the thing that I screwed up today". I bought two yards of ruffle knit at the Novi Sewing Expo the other weekend with the idea of making a tee. I did some googling and decided that a sleeveless tank would probably be the most flattering in this fabric. I (of course) used New Look 6735 . I eliminated the back seam because of the ruffles which made this a three piece top including the neckband. I was careful cutting it out to make sure that all my ruffles were laying in the same direction. then I basted a 1/4" from all edges to keep the ruffles flat while basting the top together. All in all it went together really well and I was really happy with it. Then, of course, disaster struck. I usually really like my serger, and I like all the knit tops that I have been able to make with it. Yet for some reason I STILL keep catching fabric that is not sup...

Mom and I went to the Novi Sewing Expo last weekend. Overall the show was smaller than I expected. Perhaps because previous shows I have been to there have been RV shows or snowmobiling shows that tend to be huge and completely fill the expo space, I was expecting there to be more vendors. For example there was only one thread vender that I saw but although they had a lot of product I didn't find any wooly nylon. There were some nice fabrics and some that were simply so-so in a variety of price ranges.  The "Chico Twist" Neckline I took a one hour class in the morning, "Wow Necklines for Knits" with Londa Rohlfing. Being a one hour class there isn't any hands-on and there isn't much time to cover a lot of things, and there are not detailed instructions provided so there is an assumption that you already know how to put in a knit neckband or will buy one of her patterns. I did come away with a few ideas to try such as the "Chico Twist". ...