I've been busy! Not only stagemanaging two different shows (whew!) but sewing many new goodies. First up is a dress.
This dress, to be precise. Found at Value Village for the astonishingly low price of 69 cents! I was in love. Top it off with a yummy flannel sheet for $2.99 and I was set. A dress for $3.69? Can't beat that. It was several sizes too small in the bust as most everything is these days. I'm still not quite at terms with that. When did I end up with such a large bust? I know when, I'm just not okay with it. Going from a 36" to 41" is not okay in my book. *sigh* Anyway. This pattern is cut out at a size 10, (36" bust) so I knocked out a muslin just to see how woefully smaller it was than me, and it really wasn't that bad. An inch or two here and there and I was back on track.
First off I played around with tracing the original pattern onto newspaper and adding a couple inches here and there when I realised it looked exactly like my Sloper project from Spring Semester. A sloper is a basic body fitting garment that you draft from your measurements and can alter easily to suit other projects. Out came Slopey and into the trash went the molested pattern. A little tweaking and it was ready to go!
I cut out all my new pieces (revamped the skirt a bit too) and blithely proceeded to stitch it all together. The skirt went like a docile sheep, pockets included, but the bodice was rather a troublesome creature. Had I bothered to pause in my onslaught and use a ruler to measure things out, it would have been perfect the first time. I am headstrong and don't do that sort of thing often enough. It came out too big even after fussing the front darts into perfect place. I'll dart it again, I thought, along the underarm. After pinning that into place it didn't look right at all. I let the concoction sit a few days until Sonya could come over. She took one look at it and said, "Oh honey, you just need to take in the side seams."
I glanced at my dress form and mentally smacked my palm to my forehead. That was exactly what I needed, and precisely one of the many reasons I adore working with Sonya.
Miraculously, the waist and the lower edge of the bodice matched up without any major fussing. That was another thing I forgot to measure. A crucial place for fabric to be the same size!
I also cut out a neck facing (a little bit of fabric to finish off the neckline and make it lie flat and nice) basted that down, and then hand stitched it into place. It turned out quite nicely. I haven't decided how to finish the arms yet. If I want to bias bind them or fuss up a sleeve.
So for now, it is sitting happily, and I have a new dress pattern that fits me. It's also yummy flannel, did I mention that? Soooo soft!
Up next is a shirt dress, because I don't have one and I enjoy how they look. And a couple of blouses because I have oodles of tee shirts, but not any everyday blouses.
Yesterday I found this lovely. I squealed and did a happy dance complete with clapping. Why? It's a lovely pattern and all, but why? Because, my dears, it's not only in my size (AHHHHH!!!!!) but it's UNCUT. That's right. You heard me. UNCUT. I'm still kind of pinching myself. Even though that's not the best part. Guess how much it cost?
Yep. $0.69 cents.
It retails at JoAnn's for something on the order of $16-$20.
Also, I need to do a post on the children's clothing patterns I am collecting. No babies on the horizon for a while, but I can snap up cute patterns for them in the mean time. Also, whoever Lily is, she had an awesome Grandma. There were scores of patterns marked "Lily" from little girl up to a prom dress. I'm sorry that Grandma probably passed away, but happy that Lily got to be so loved.
Sorry for the picture heavy post (well, not really) but I've been lacking in maintaining bloggy posting lately. More on stitching later. I've got a muslin to fuss over!
Love, Anna
