Friday, February 29, 2008

"I've been kidnapped by life"

I was just reading some recent posts at Sew Retro blog this morning. The title of my post is a quote of a comment made by someone posting there. I love it! That is exactly how I feel.

Let me say that work has been challenging of late, too much so. Last night I was the last to leave for the evening (7 pm). So driving home I try to think about sewing related things. This helps. When I got home, DH gave me the mail and there was a Vogue Pattern Magazine and Threads. I thumbed through both issues after eating as I was just too wiped out to do anything sewing related much less read blogs about sewing.

So my jacket sits in limbo until this weekend. I have been concerned that the weather is going to turn warm and I will only get a little wear out of the jacket and dress before it gets too warm to wear. However, the past two days have been extremely cold so spring may not just be around the corner.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

McCall's jacket progression

This is the project I am working on. This fabric is somewhat like a boucle, stitches get lost in the fabric weave. I serged all the jacket edges as it starts to ravel when you move it around to sew.

The pattern adjustments I made were FBA and the resulting side dart I decided to keep. The added width to the waist dart I ended up letting some of that out from waist to hip area to give a better fit through this area. I pin basted the jacket for fitting.
You get see the jacket bodice in the following photos.

I can't remember the last time I sewed plaids. I don't really like plaids much but this fabric worked so well with grey fabric used in the recent Vogue dress. Plus I have seen a few plaid items in Lucky and other magazines, thus wanted to give this a try. It is an uneven plaid. I worked to make sure the front pieces lined up and cut the fronts using a single layer. I cut the sleeves on the bias, this idea came from a recent article on sewing plaids in Threads or Sew News or Stitches. Can't remember which one.
I cut the upper collar on the bias also. This collar is from View A which is a gathered collar. I draped the fabric using the bias on my dress form. I liked the look of the collar gathered and on bias. The collar is completed next and attached to the neckline. I hope to work on it some this evening. I read the instructions for this collar and a lining is used as stay for the collar after it is gathered. It is then attached to the under collar.
It feels good to be sewing again. Last week was not a great week for pleasure. Work was all encompassing and some things at work were most unpleasant by the end of the week. Sewing again helped me to put some of this in perspective and to actually forget about some of it.

My new purchase

For some time now I have wanted to buy a tripod to use when taking photos. I saw a Gorillapod some time back and kept thinking about buying it but never found a good deal. I got an email from Kodak about specials and there it was. I got it for $15, usually sells for $29. I ordered it around the 14th and I received it on Tuesday!
Isn't it a cutey?


It is so small, but you can put it anywhere, twist the legs so that is grasps what you are putting it on and then set the timer on your camera and then put yourself in the scene.

I tried it out this AM and to fully document that I was SEWING AGAIN!!!!

This photo was taken with the camera and pod sitting on my cutting table. Using the zoom, I took a close up of me at my sewing machine. This is my usual routine on Sunday AM. DH still asleep, me having had coffee and then going to sewing room while everything is quiet!


This is a shot with the pod hooked onto my dress form to get a side view of my sewing. The legs on the pod bend and I enclosed them around the neck of the dress form. I then angled the camera down.




Friday, February 22, 2008

No sewing here

Work and things going on at work have been all consuming of late. Thus when I come home I have no interest in doing anything sewing related and end up reading about what others are doing or in some cases not doing. I also have gotten in a rut of sitting in front of the TV!

I hope to be motivated this weekend. We have to do some family stuff on Saturday so that will consume a large chunk of my time. I put the lining fabric on my cutting table to cut out for my jacket; one small step for sewing.

I did buy a piece of fabric yesterday from Vogue fabrics. First fabric purchase for 2008. I am going to keep my plan of starting to sew for spring when I start and finish the jacket.

I know I sound blah, and I am very blah today. Going to strive to get to a better place mentally today. As noted above, things going on at work have been all consuming and are adding to my SADD!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Post 500

I just noticed that is my 500th post when looking at the Blogger Dashboard. There are some posts missing due to converting over from the old and new. I thought I had backed up the old but alas, a lot went missing.

So for this post I just wanted to announce that my Vogue dress is finally, finally finished!!!!!! I will not repeat the saga of this. You are free to go back to previous month's post and review for yourself. You can go here and here to see the dress hanging. Not a great view of the completed dress. I will be taking it to the dry cleaners for a good pressing before I wear it.

Here is the fabric for the jacket I will wear with the dress and a photo of the pattern. Collar will be from View A, the jacket otherwise will be like the model's.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Back home and in the mood to sew

Well my business trip to DC did not allow any time for pleasure shopping. My hope was to make it to G Street. I got lost twice and found some nice stores and shopping center but no luck with any of these being sewing related.

Since arriving back home, I've been trying to catch up on emails, blogs and postings on Stitchers Guild. Also have been looking at online clothing catalogs. I have seen a lot of spring dresses, jackets, etc. I am going to start and finish my jacket project as I think this will be a nice transitional piece. Then I am going to focus on spring sewing.

I plan to go through my fabric collection for inspiration and of course I have been checking out Gorgeous Fabrics, Fashionista Fabrics, Fabric Mart, Fashion Fabric Club and more. If I don't have it they will!

Off to my sewing room, more later.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

No sewing

I traveled to DC yesterday. Glad I traveled early as we are iced in at this time. Hopefully warmer temps are coming and traveling around will be better. I did some reports for work late afternoon and early evening. I then took afew moments of time to review sewing blogs. That is the most sewing related thing I have done since Sunday.

Have several meetings this AM and early afternoon. Hopefully I can do some personal things while here in DC but the weather is not good.

Monday, February 11, 2008

My jacket choice(and yours)

Thanks for responding to my poll. Most responders chose McCalls 5527. That was my choice yesterday and what I was starting on yesterday prior to power outage. I pin fitted the pattern and found I needed to do my usual FBA but only one inch adjustment. Swayback was also a given. I need to pin front and back together to check that these are the only adjustments. I probably will do a forward shoulder adjustment but when I initially tried this pattern on, I did not think I needed this. However, lesson learned and posted about here, particularly Item #2. So with these adjustments I will retry the pattern to make sure if I need or not.

All of this will have to wait until later in the week as I am traveling to DC tomorrow (driving) on business and will return on Thursday. I hope I get to make a side trip to GStreet while there and then maybe not. Depends on meetings and timing.

Blowed away!

Yesterday was going to be one of those days where I finished my dress, it only needed to be hemmed to be complete. I was also going to start on cutting out my jacket. Then the weather took over and we were without power from 3 pm on. At 5:00 AM this morning, my husband and I checked ourselves into a Ramada Inn that had power. The temps dropped to 17 degrees overnight. We were at least able to shower and be warm and get to work fighting our way through blocked off streets due to blown down trees and such blocking the roadways or even powerlines lying around. The prediction was that we would be without power for about 2 to 3 days.

The wind gusts were 50 to 70 MPH during the day on Sunday. Trees knocked down all over the area, causing power outages. Our neighbors tree fell and just missed our fence and coming over into our yard by a "smooch".

The extremely good news is that we have our power back; it was restored sometime during the day. So I went and got our things from the hotel and checked us out. It feels great to be back in my home with power, lights, computer and my machines.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Thanks for comments

I really appreciate comments from readers. It is always nice to know there are others out there with sewing issues and to read how they have solved things.

Marji commented on the jacket included with the dress pattern. I agree that the jacket is just not for everyone and is not necessarily my style. I was thumbing through the Talbot's catalog last night and found a sheath style dress with a jacket that is very much like this one from McCalls. It looked a little shorter and was shown with a sheath style dress but with a different neckline.

I also have this one in mind, using View C but collar from View A. And this one and modifying the collar as I think it will be overwhelming on me.

I also like this Vogue one but all the views are shown with pants, so may not work with sheath style. Or maybe a duster style like this one?

Give me your thoughts by voting below:
What jacket should I make to go with the dress?
V8260
V8464
M5594
M5596
M5527
None of these
  
pollcode.com free polls

Monday, February 04, 2008

Success and finish line is around the corner!

Yesterday I worked on the dress and I made some real headway on this. Here are some things that I learned from making this simple turned difficult dress:

  1. Listen to yourself when you say, this may need adjusting. Make sure if it does or not. My shoulders are no longer the broad shoulders they were when I was younger and more athletic. I am petite/short, so are my shoulders. Drop shoulders on me may need to be shortened. I thought this, know this but did not listen to myself.
  2. Make the adjustments on the pattern and if you use the FFRP fitting method, repin again and test the adjustment to determine if that was what you needed to do. Then when you cut out the fabric, you don't have to figure out how to adjust. I know I can hear some of you saying, make a muslin, that's even better. I don't disagree but if I did that I would be sewing two months to make a garment. Pin fitting works for me if I use the method correctly.
  3. I can make adjustments when I have sewn a lot of the garment and it is close to being finished. With this dress, I ended up having to undo the lining to the sleeves. This was due in part to the style of the dress and the sleeves not being the normal curved sleeveless type but ones that come to a V and require some extra seaming steps. I ended up taking deeper side seams in the upper bodice piece which hits right at the bust area. This adjustment led to turning in a deeper hem on cap sleeve which in turn shortened the drop shoulder and made for a better fit.
  4. I learned that when you change the pattern and add a lining that some of the sewing steps must be modified also. I learned from all the changes that I made that if I should make this dress again I will tackle the lining differently. The pattern calls for a lined yoked but not the rest of the dress. Next time I will line the yoke and bodice/bottom seperately. This will work best for this dress.
  5. I now know that I can think through processes and discover a solution. In years past, I would hit that wall, worry over things, then quit the project. I refused to give up on this and I am glad I did.
  6. Striving for quality instead of quantity is a good goal and the resulting garment will reflect the quality.
  7. Sewing is a journey and sometimes there are by-passes and side roads that one takes to get to the final destination.

All that is left for me to do is hem the dress and the lining. And decide on what jacket to make! I am considering the jacket that comes with the dress, but the collar has to be adjusted from the look of it. I also pulled out about four other jacket patterns from my collection and added a couple that I have just recently purchased. I would like to wear this dress and jacket before it is spring! I want to get the jacket started this weekend.

Photos soon.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Listen to your inner voice

When I was fitting this dress, I thought about how the shoulders were going to fall. I even pin fitted the yoke and bodice and thought perhaps I should shorten the length of the drop shoulder on this dress. Somewhere in thinking and cutting I put the thought aside. Only to pick it back up now that I am up against finishing my dress.

The shoulders just drop off to much. The added bust was not necessary I had added to the bust area in the side seam using the seam adjustment method. In taking up the side seams while continuing to perfect the fit, it made the all in one shoulder/cap sleeves look, well like they are too big, too long, too yeck!

I improved the fit of the dress back by taking deeper darts in the upper back where it looked and felt too full. Now I need to take deeper side seams in the bust area tapering to 5/8 at the hip. This is now requiring I redo the shoulder/sleeve area. So I have undone the understitching and stitching of the lining to fabric part of the shoulder/sleeve as I need to turn under more of the drop sleeve to work with the deeper bust side seam.
At this point, I am working on one side at a time. I have in my head what exactly I have to do to fix the shoulder/sleeve and then side seams hopefully to make it all go together easily. When I look at the pattern photo and the line drawing above, this shows topstitching around the sleeve caps so I think I will be able to reattach the lining to the fabric and topstitch it. I decided to walk away from it for now. Will resume later.




Family

Most Friday evenings I do the grocery shopping along with DH and then we have a quick bite to eat. When we get home, I usually go into my sewing room for the end of the week, start of the weekend sewing. Not this Friday though.

Yesterday was my dad's 80th birthday! He is in the early stages of Alzheimers. He lives in an assisted living facility in NC. My uncle and aunt live 10 minutes away from him and do a great job of looking in on him and taking care of many of his needs. I am so appreciative.

Because it was his birthday, they brought him to Danville, VA for a birthday dinner at a local seafood restaurant to be with other family and friends. I left work a little early to travel to Danville to join in and to celebrate his birthday. We had a great time and it is good to spend time with his side of the family as we have at times been estranged from each other.

So sewing will start sometime today. My goal is to finish the dress!!!!! I am still on the fence for the jacket.

August Sewing Simplicity 7295

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