A Bit o' Whimsey

Arg and Ahoy! Thought Oi'd be passin' along that today be Talk Like A Pirate Day. If ye be wantin' a serious dose of sewing-related pirate-speak, ye can be readin' me personal favorite o' all me reviews. Arg!

But me own schedule 'as been subjected to th' passin' pattern tracin' whimsey; 'stead o' doin' th' much-needed 'ousecleanin' what Oi meant to do yestern, Oi jest kept tracin' an' alterin' patterns. Oi got a fair poile o' 'em now what's ready to cut, an' one what's ready fer muslinin'. Oi even got the alterations on that there FSG jacket pattern muslin, what's been 'angin' in th' sewin' room fer nigh on a year, moved over to th' sewin' pattern so's that 'un's ready to cut out 'o th' good stuff. Aye, 'twas a goodly productive day in that respect:

But Oi'll be walkin' th' plank come Friday if me in-laws arrive to accommodations what resemble the wreck o' the 'Esperus, doncha know. 'Tis toime, mateys, indeed 'tis past toime fer me to be swabbin' th' decks...

Arg!!!

One More for the Road

Shannon offered one more suggestion to eliminate the diagonal lines; a tuck between bustline and waist. I thought, 'Well, that's a simple thing,' and sat down and did it last night, before I started disassembling the jacket to mark the pattern changes.

When I first looked in the mirror, my reaction was 'Wow! they're gone!' I made DH take a photo.

When I looked at the photo, my reaction was 'No, they're still there.' And it's beginning to look a little over fitted. So I took the tuck out; we'll see what, if any, difference interfacing and lining make.
Meantime, I've been reading up on fold lines in sleeves and think I need to reshape my sleevecap slightly for the forward shoulder thing...hopefully that will eliminate a lot of that drapey stuff that's going on in the sleeve.

Disclaimer, just in case someone's thinking I'm going to too much trouble: This is not my normal fitting routine; I'm being extra picky here because I intend to use this jacket as a basic pattern. I've made...and worn...and been happy with...other jackets from other pattern companies that fit no better (or even worse) than this one did originally. Part of the reason is that I really, really want a well-fitted jacket; part of the reason is that I just felt ready to tackle and learn some more about fitting and I can't afford to spend a week with an instructor. So all you 'Internet Friends of the Lisa of the Laree' (:D) have been taking the Instructor's place.

For which I thank you from the bottom of my Janome. (Gee, if I used a Bernina it would've been so much more poetic...)

Extra Post: Muslin Update

The shoulder pads came today; I gave DS a quick lesson on fashion photography and took some pictures:





The shoulder pads really did make a difference. (Keep in mind, I have altered the right side front and back, but left the left side alone for comparison.) I cut in the front armsceye a bit more; putting the vertical portion on the straight of grain as best I could. It still looked a little saggy on the right...not in the same way as it did earlier...farther down. I thought about taking up the princess seam going into the armhole, but decided perhaps I'd overcompensated on the full bust adjustment. So I stitched the vertical portion back up.










Better, but now the diagonal pull lines are back. Perhaps half the orignal adjustment is what I need.

Anyway, it's looking very, very close. I think I'm ready for the linen tweed.

I'm Dreaming of a Pink Muslin.....

Literally. Dreamed about it all night, so, even though I'd planned to work on other stuff today, I got up and started working on the muslin. I incorporated a number of suggestions from various folks, on the right side only, and I can tell a huge difference.

But part of that may be due to the fact that I corrected a serious bone-headed mistake I made that resulted in the sleeves getting inserted, um, backwards. (oh, I'm SOOOO embarassed!) I pulled the original pattern and the tracing out and, sure enough, I had traced two notches where there was one and vice-versa. Why? Who knows? When I put the sleeves in, I really thought they should've been the other way...but I followed the notches. And wondered why that seam was in the front on the arm.

So, the sleeves really do fit better now ;)

But, aside from fixing the Stupid Mistake, I raised the shoulder seam by 3/8" at the armsceye and shortened it 5/8"; I took a deeper sideseam at the armsceye; I took a deeper seam on the side back only from the curve into the armsceye, eliminated the bumpy curve in the front/middle front seam, took up about 1 1/4 inch from the middle front/side front seam from about the waist down, tapering back into the original just below the bust and did a minor FBA at the front. I still need to move the shoulder seam about 3/8" towards the front at the armsceye and see about doing a slight rounded back adjustment (I need DH at home for that). I think I need to raise the whole armceye about 3/8", too.

I tried taking photos of myself in the bathroom mirror...um, it didn't work, but it was good for a chuckle.

But those adjustments look to me to make the jacket fit much better; at least as good as RTW, so after I look at some *good* pictures I may just transfer all the adjustments to the pattern and go for it with the test jacket.





ETA: Well, I did get DH to take a couple of pictures before he headed out to an evening meeting. Dunno how much better it really looks...some of the pull lines on the right front are gone (the right side is altered, the left side is not). I'm a little leery of overfitting; at this stage, with no interfacing or lining, I know the muslin is not a 100% accurate picture of what the final product will be like. I do think I could move a little more fabric out of the armsceye area, though; now that the FBA is in place, there's some extra again. I think.

And I don't know if it's a lack of lining that's causing the wrinkling in the back, or if I still need to do some work on it. Whatever that adjustment will be, it will be small (I think squaring up the shoulder helped; the almost-bump at the top is less prounounced on the right side.)

I have RTW jackets, dating from before I began learning about these things, that fit worse than this. ;)

Muslin Help

Thanks so much for the folks who made suggestions here and via PM's...I really appreciate it! I'm not sure when I'll get back to it; as I told one lady, I view muslins kind of like getting teeth filled...not much fun, but it will save much pain and expense later on. And I'm determined to get this wearable. I may try comparing it to my already-tweaked Today's Fit jacket (the one I did for SWAP). I didn't try that earlier because the pattern pieces are not at all alike, but the more I've thought about it the more I thought it might give me a little more insight as to what I need to do.

Next up on my list of things to make is the other set of waterbed sheets...and I WILL make something quick and wearable for myself sometime this week, too.

I hope. ;)

FSG 1945 Muslin

I had a little time to myself yesterday evening, so I whipped together the Fashion Sewing Group 1945 jacket muslin. When I put it on, I was surprised at how good it looked in the mirror, but now,looking at the photos DH snapped for me last night, I'm not so sure. It looks pretty baggy in the upper chest/armsceye area. I've already pinched out something like 1 1/4" in that area and my seams are beginning to do funny things, so I'm not sure I can easily remove much more. I think I still need to move the bust shaping down about 1/2"; there's just a little fullness above the bust, although the turned-back collar covers it up.

Length (it will be 2" shorter when hemmed) and pocket placement looks good; the shoulders themselves look good; I think some of the ripples in the back are because the unlined, uninterfaced back fabric is sort of flannelboarding to my knit pants. There's really plenty of room through the hips/tummy. But there are a couple of diagonal folds just below my arms that I'm not really sure about.

Y'know, not so very long ago I'd've been happy with the jacket if it buttoned without straining....amazing how picky I've become ;).

So now I'm trying to decide if it's good enough to go to the test garment stage; how much of that bagginess in the armsceye is just due to the unsupported fabric syndrome...will lining/interfacing help there? Or do I need more altering?

I think I'm going to ponder this for a couple more days. I feel like doing a little frivolous sewing; I guess that's a reaction to all the production work I've been doing.

Tissue Frustration

In Fit for Real People, the Palmer/Pletsch team state that yes, you can tissue fit yourself by yourself, although they recommend having a sewing buddy.

I went into the sewing room yesterday to work on costumes and saw the still-pinned-together FSG 1945 pattern and thought, "I'll just go ahead and make that bust/upper chest adjustment...it'll be quick...then I'll put it away."

Ha.

Moving the bust shaping down really didn't take much fullness out of the upper chest area...I pinned out two fishtail darts in that upper corner and then fussed for the greater part of my available sewing time trying to figure out how to get those darts into the seams. The tough part was that the shoulder seam itself was the right length; I couldn't just shave off the seam allowance. I marked where the excess needed to come off and struggled to get a decent, smooth transition from what was ok, to what needed to come off, to what needed to be added at my actual bust level.

Then after I put it all up I had a gnawing suspicion that I didn't do it right...I took some off of the front piece, which I probably should not have done. The rest came off of the middle front...each seam; and it was a problem getting things lined up and I was more frustrated than I want to be when I'm sewing. I worried about the problems I'd had keeping the pinned together pattern hanging straight when fitting it because the back wasn't supported and I began to wonder if I had overfitted...if the pattern had been on my body correctly...if I needed to trash what I'd done and start over. I just decided to go with what I had and make a muslin to check it. I keep telling myself once this pattern is fitted I will have a gem I can use over and over and over, so it will be worth the !!!! moments.

But I did get a little work done on the costumes...I changed the thread in the machines... sigh.

I won't do anymore sewing until at least Sunday evening; this is the Radiance Women's conference week...always a refreshing time and I can sure use some refreshing!

Labor Day Sewing

Of course, the plan is subject to change w/o notice, should DH and DKids decide on a play day... ;)

But I'm nearly finished with the two Bible costume pieces that need brown thread; I'm going to finish those out and then sew up my brown linen pants before I switch the thread in the machine. Then I'm going to fuse the interfacing to my pink tweed jacket. Then I plan to tissue-fit my tracing of the Fashion Sewing Group 1945 jacket...just to check for obvious problems. If I need to, I might cut a muslin of the jacket, but if the tissue fit looks reasonably good I've got some linen tweed in mind to make the first version. I don't expect to get that far today.

Ambitious plan, no? ;)