Still a work in progress

This is the front of the dress.  I still need to take up the side seams a little more through the waist area to have a little essence of waist.  This is really a shift (sack) dress.  I still need to add the bias binding at the neck, hem the sleeves and the dress.

Here is a shot of the back of the dress and will need to add hook and eye.

Whole lot ta tweaking going on!

V8805 is progressing nicely.  I attached all front and back pieces and then basted shoulder and side seams for my first fitting. Let me say that this dress has a potential of being a sack. That is not the look I am going for.  By doing this fitting I realized that  I failed to take a horizontal tuck across the upper chest and upper back pattern pieces; I had taken a 3/8 vertical tuck as for my petite frame this drop shoulder can look pretty droopy without doing this.  To remedy the failed crosswise tuck, I took an additional 1/2 inch seam allowance at the shoulder seam.  This worked well.

I decided I needed to taking a deeper side seam just below the bust dart and stopping right at the hip line.  I needed some essence of waist with this dress.  With my second fitting, I decided I could still take a deeper waist area seam.

I was able to get the side seams to lineup well.  Will show this later in some photos.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I wish I had just sewed a lining for this dress instead of the underlining.  It has created a few sewing hiccups along the way.

All I have left to do now is sew seam binding around the neckline; hem the sleeves and dress.  Even with my sewing hiccups, it is exciting to know that I was able to sew this up fairly quick.

Photos to follow.

V8805 progress

Yesterday I took a vacation day to spend some time with DH who has been having some health issues and doctor had him out of work for needed rest.  After getting my hair cut, we went to one of our favorite restaurants for a light lunch; then grocery shopping and then home.

The next few hours were spent basting the underlining fabric to the crepe fabric.  With 20/20 hindsight I wish I had just sewed a lining and attached at the neckline.  The process I used, though I thought would be quicker has proven to be tedious as the crepe fabric can be somewhat difficult to handle along with the slippery lining fabric.  Nonetheless, all the top and middle fabric pieces have been underlined now.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the bottom piece is thicker crepe fabric than the cream and pink so I am not underlining that piece.

Next will be to attach the front pieces together; then the back pieces and then attach front to back.  That is not how the pattern instructions would have you do it but I prefer my method over those instructions; any fitting adjustments I need to make will be easier to do.

More later.

I wore the Vogue top and McCall’s skirt

Today I finally decided to wear the Vogue peplum top and the McCall’s skirt.  I received numerous compliments about the colors and the summery floral print.
As to wear ability—let me say that I will wear this again but there are a few things that I will adjust when making the next peplum top.
First, I will shortened the width of the shoulders.  It felt large.

Second, I will lengthen the bodice by an inch to 1 1/2 inches.  It feels short-waisted but that appears to be how it looks on the pattern envelope.  I felt myself pulling the top down after I had sat in my office chair for awhile.

Third, I had folded out about a 1/2 inch in the upper chest and upper back to bring the underarm seam up for a petite.  I still felt the underarms were low.

Other than that, I did like the top and skirt together.  The skirt felt a little loose in the waist but not too much, actually it proved to be more comfortable as they day went on.

Here are the photos I took before leaving to go to work:

Underlining

I cut out underlinings for the cream fabric and attached.  I also cut out underlining for the pink fabric but have not attached.  I was so fortunate that I had this in my fabric stash. 

I decided to use an off white, somewhat cream colored thread on the serger.  I did not want to thread and rethread the serger using threads that matched each section.  I started to use each color but felt that pink and lavender may be seen through the cream fabric even with it underlined.

More later.

Vogue 8805 Progress and lessons learned.

I pin fitted the dress pattern yesterday and determined I needed 1/2 inch FBA.  That was an easy fix.  I also had to make my usual upper round 5/8 inch adjustment, forward shoulder, shorten hip length, add back 1 inch to the hemline due to shortening hip length (I tend to forget to do that, as I usually take out about 2 inches) and swayback adjustment.  Because of the dropped sleeves and my petite size, I folded out 3/8 inch at the shoulder for the front and back pieces.   I completed all of this last night, taking about 2 hours from pin fitting to actual adjustments.

The dress is now cut out and basically ready to sew.  The cream colored crepe is very "see through" as the crepe fabric is on the thin side so I plan to underline with cream colored lining fabric.  The pink fabric too was thin and will underline that also.

I had some real issues cutting out the pink fabric; fortunately for me I normally buy more fabric online than a pattern calls for "just in case".  This was one of those just in case situations.  I used a quilting marking pencil to make the new marking on the pattern piece for the bust dart; it "bled" out on the front fabric piece. (I laid the pattern piece faced down on the fabric, never thought the marking would come off on fabric.  Lesson learned).   So I cut out another one but the crepe fabric was somewhat slippery so piece was cut out incorrectly. (Another lesson learned.)   Third time was the charm.  Back piece from same pink fabric was easy peasy to cut; proving an old dog can learn new tricks.

The lavender crepe has more body to the fabric, so I will probably not underline it.  With this piece being the bottom piece, this weight will serve well at the bottom and hemline.

I am now taking a neck and shoulder break. I cannot spend hours on end while in sewing room; I need to take short and frequent breaks.  My physical therapist will be happy to know I have also learned that lesson.

Liking this pattern

Normally before I start to sew a certain pattern, I read through the instructions to get a feel for how it goes together versus how I thought it was going to be sewn.  I then think about their method and my method if different.  Many times I have chosen to prepare the garment using the instructions and other times I don't.

I pulled out the pattern instructions for the upcoming 3 color block dress and was thrilled to see that the pattern has B, C, and D cup sizes.  Whoohoo!!! I either did not pay any attention to that when I purchased the pattern or just simply forgot about it.  That makes pattern fitting so much easier.

I have decided I am going to use the cream, pale pink and lavender fabric for this dress When I purchased these fabric pieces I bought more of the cream fabric as I wanted to make two versions of this dress.  Yet if I decide not to do that, I have it for something else.

For now I am off to CURVES.  I am so happy that my neck and shoulder pain has pretty much gone away.  It is still under the surface a bit, but I know how to manage it.

Updates to follow.

Most Recent Fabric Purchases

I have been on a fabric diet of late.  I keep seeing so many fabrics in my sewing room stash just waiting for my attention that I have forced stopped myself from clicking on the cart purchase at various fabric sites.

I really liked the look of this pattern as soon as it became available, so of course I purchased it.  I thought about using some double knit fabric but I have not found the color combo I wanted in double knit, so decided to acquire some crepe fabric and took advantage of a sale at Fashion Fabrics.  Here are the fabrics I acquired because I could not make up my mind as to the combo I wanted besides wanting to use a cream color for the top piece.

Cream, pale green, lavender

Cream, pale pink, lavender

Cream, pale green, light rust

I am not sure what combo I will use.  This will be my next project.

Skirt is complete!

Yeah! my skirt is finally complete. I used this technique to attach the lining to the zipper; a different way of attaching from how I normally do.  I then attached the facings to the skirt and then tacked the facings at various seams to the lining fabric.

Just a few shots of the skirt

I plan to wear this to work this week and will take the "wearing" photos then.

I resume this previous broadcast...

As previously posted, the power outage interrupted my previous sewing momentum.  After being home finally after a week in a hotel and getting food restocked and some resumption of normal life, my sewing mojo somewhat disappeared.

This past Monday I traveled to Richmond for a state government committee meeting in the late afternoon getting caught up in heavy duty rain, driving through areas where roadwork slowed down traffic to a crawl along with the rain; coming up on a wreck which slowed traffic some more and getting caught in a heavy evening commute, my usual 2.5 to 3 hour trip took me 4 hours.  By the time I got checked into the hotel, I was too tired to go to Hancock's Fabric as is my habit or even Short Pump Mall.  I went to dinner and then returned to my room to do some work that needed my attention via the computer.

Tuesday's business meeting went well but long.  After a quick trip to Nordstroms, I drove back to Roanoke without all the travel woes I had traveling to Richmond.

The rest of the week was pretty hectic work week and my sewing mojo was just gone.  Thursday night was my ASG meeting and after not attending since February, it was nice to have dinner with ladies who like to sew and I got to sit and talk with our guest speaker, Mary Ray.  I was prepared to think this was going to be more about quilting and she does incorporate quilting into her garments; I was delighted to see the garments she has made and some were made using quilting techniques, but the garments are far from the boxy shaped jackets with lots of piece work and the like.  Many of her garments are showcased in Threads magazine which was nice to see them up close and personal.  I walked away from the meeting feeling my sewing mojo to be on the rise. I even purchased her skirt pattern.

With all of that said, I spent about an hour in my sewing room yesterday.  I attached the lining to the skirt and  now only have a few more steps to take to finally complete this simple skirt.  I have begun the process of looking at fabric stash and thinking on to the next few projects; that for me is a clue that I am going to resume my sewing time once again.

Sewcation Derailed

Last Friday, I was so excited that I could spend the weekend completing my McCall's skirt.  DH was late getting home and I had gone grocery shopping after work so that would reduce my time to do that chore on Saturday.  Once DH was home, we ate a light dinner (supper) and watched a little TV.  He decided it was time to take a shower as it was close to 9 PM.

While watching TV, the floor lamp light near where I set, flickered a few times and I thought then I really needed to get some new light bulbs.  When DH went to take a shower, the power went out, then came back on, then out again, on again and finally out for the night.  We were able to sleep through the night in spite of the high temperatures. Saturday was suppose to be close to 100 degrees.

Saturday AM-still no power.  We decide to go out for breakfast.  Let me say that power surges and outages are somewhat typical for our neighborhood; no rhyme or reason to be given to us from APCo for this in the 9 years that we have lived in our house.  So not having power did not truly phase us until we go out for breakfast and see the storm damage all around us.  Tree limbs broken-new and older trees.  One tree limb laying across power lines on the road that leads in and out of our neighborhood.  Fortunately the tree was only blocking one side of the street and power lines were still intact but could have easily snapped.

Two of our favorite breakfast places were closed due to loss of power.  Several other chain restaurants were open but crowds and waiting time was 45 minutes to an hour.  DH proved to be the smart one and called a hotel to make reservations for us to spend the night based on what we were seeing, hearing and briefly reading about, this was no typical storm that came through.  When checking in, wait time for checking in was over 30 minutes due to long line of people that were in the same situation as we were-no power.  While standing in line, DH called reservation 800# and extended our stay for another day, smart move and smart man.

As it turned out, we have been without power since last Friday, a week ago.  The stay at the hotel has been extended several times, power came back on last night and we will be back in the house tonight.   Today I spent time washing clothes, and scrubbing out two refrigerators as we lost all of food.

Many of you who may read my blog have experienced some of this as the storm came through WVA, Southwest VA and into DC.  I am grateful for the other states (NC, Florida, Indiana) who have sent power crews to assist in this repair and restoration.

I have always felt empathy and concern for others when they have undergone Mother Nature's wrath; I have learned you can not fully grasp how difficult those situations are until you go through it yourself.

I am thankful that I know I will have some more sewing days ahead; sometimes life just takes a different course and derails your plans.