Meh....

 I finished the white-linen - rayon-crepe tunic outfit a week ago and meant to wear it to church last Sunday, but, as it turned out it was one of those odd damp coolish days so I put it off for a week.

It is NOT the most flattering thing in my closet by a long shot, and it has clear construction issues,  although it is comfy and fun to wear.

 The biggest problem I had was that the fabric was crazy unstable.  It wouldn't even lie square on a single layer. It was just a beast to try and work with.  Hindsight...I shoulda starched the daylights out of it, but I didn't even think of that until I put the finished product on.  I think if I had starched it into paper stiffness, I would have had much less trouble with things going whopperjawed on me as I was first trying to cut it out (and I used a sharp rotary cutter) and then trying to assemble it.

The second issue is...it really would have looked better with out the waistline seam, although that allowed me to line the bodice, which I really wanted to do due to the sheerness of the fabric.  I need that double layer on top or I would have to wear a tank top or cami under it.  And because of the shiftiness of the fabric, the two layers kinda fight each other; hence the ripples in the top. Sure wish I'd thought of spray starch a little sooner.

The inspiration pattern had the seam above the waist but I left the top waist-length because I didn't want a gap between the top of my pants and the seam showing through the sheer skirt layer.  A little higher seam likely would have looked less frumpish, but then there would be that color shift underneath. So I picked the lower seamline.

The white linen pants are great...even though the construction details (pockets, seam allowances) show through the fairly  substantial fabric (Fabrics-store.com 4C22).  I thought it was stout enough that it wouldn't be a huge problem.  Never underestimate the shadow factor of white fabric... well, best worn under a tunic, lol.   

So, yeah, lessons learned and maybe I'l wear it on really hot days despite the problems.  Like I said, it's comfy and floaty, and if I keep moving...who will notice? LOL.  I wore a lightweight linen knit long cardigan over it...air conditioning and all... so I think a lot of the issues were camouflaged a bit.

I did cut a couple of scarves from the remnants of the green print; that might be a better use for that fabric.  Instability won't matter much there...

Decisions, Decisions...

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet or not...but BOTH SONS are getting married late this summer.  

There's five years difference in their ages.  Who'da thought they'd get married within 6 weeks of each other?

At least it's the guys.  I don't think I could have managed if the girls had pulled that on us, lol.

Anyway, I have need of two Mother-of-The  outfits.  

And I need the first one in about three weeks.

I have been ordering crazy fabrics this year...and somehow it has always been more blingy than would suffice.  

Not sure what's going to ultimately happen to that blingy fabric....but that's a discussion for another day.

The wedding in three weeks is likely going to be the less formal of the two;  it's in a small country church, with the reception in the church basement.  Very classic.  The bride's mother has a rayon dress... a pretty print with a blue background.  I ordered a small floral print rayon in the right color, but it didn't have that nice silky finish that really nice rayon has...it has more of a cottony feel. It  just didn't want to play with the pattern I had in mind at all; the print was a little too ditsy for an elegant pattern and I wasn't sure it would hang right; more floaty than drapey.

After much deliberation, I've decided to frankenpattern myself a dress and hope it works, lol.  I'm going to use my Cutting Lines Design My Heart's Aflutter shell top, which has a design seam just below the waist.

I decided to shorten the upper part to my actual waist, then add ruffled tiers ala the Hippie Earth Mother Skirt, omitting the lower band bit.  I already have a linen jacket that I can wear with it.  

I decided to self-line the bodice bit;  that avoids the unruly facing issue and is less trouble in the long run than making bias tape to bind the openings. And it will help support the weight of the skirt.  I have the bodice pieces cut out, one pocket, and one skirt tier.  I need 7 more skirt tier pieces and the other pocket.  And I probably need to run by Joann's and get some blue thread after work one day this week.

I have actually been meaning to give that frankenpattern a go; I think it will make a nice summer maxi dress.  I had just planned to do it on something that didn't have to be in the spotlight quite like a Mother Of The dress, lol.

The second wedding is on a the terrace of a local state park; a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River, with the reception to be in the lodge.  The bridesmaids will be in black, so as to show up against the sky behind the bluff in the pictures.  I think the  brides' mom is wearing a full length black dress.  SO...that's going to be a bit more formal.

I am still waffling over the possibilities for THAT dress as I work on the rayon dress.  Found a piece of black guipere lace on a crazy sale this weekend...to add to the pile of fancy fabrics I have ordered over the past few months.  We'll see if I can overcome the aversion to wearing black to a wedding...or if I'm going to use one of the blingy fabrics that is already in the stack.  I may do something rather simple for the dress and make a jacket/ duster out of the blingy stuff.  

I have until I finish the tiered dress to make up my mind, lol.

But with all this fancy stuff I probably won't need to buy any more potential formal wear fabric for the rest of my life.

Actually, who am I kidding?  I really probably don't need to buy ANY fabric at all for the rest of my life...

All of this pivoting means that I currently have way too many half-started projects lying about.  I keep getting interrupted by something more urgent.  I don't know when I'm going to get to finish them up...right now, the calendar is pretty well booked until Nov. 1.  I might get a wee bit of time here and there...hopefully it will add up.  I don't like UFOs...

The denim dress...

Ok, just for grins, here's what I started with.  The pattern is for a shirtdress, with a copyright date of 2001.  Um, Yeah.  2001.  It's been in the stash a while.  But I have always liked the lines of it, so when I was looking for a pattern to use for my denim shirt dress, it was the one I ultimately pulled.  

Here are the pattern pieces I had to work with:

 

There were optional fisheye darts in the front and back; the sleeve length options were full length, elbow length or sleeveless.

I cut the dress off at the 'lengthen/shorten' line, which ended up being right at my knees...pretty close to the length I wanted to end with.  The first muslin showed that I needed to move the bust shaping down about an inch, and shorten the dart considerably as the point wrapped way too far past where it should.  And I needed to give myself just a pinch more ease.

Because it was going to be a wide, fairly short dart, I decided to rotate that puppy to a princess seam.

I will add that this is the first time I have tried this, and I did learn a lot.

I had to lengthen the center front section...and this was after it had already been lengthened once for a full bust adjustment.  I thought that was odd, but walking the seam after I closed the dart clearly showed that I was going to have to lengthen it.  Also, the top buttonhole was pretty much at full bust level, so I moved the collar shaping up about an inch and a half.

Wouldn't you know, the next muslin showed that the bust shaping was now about an inch too low.  So I moved that back up to where it started, basically.

Hind sight...maybe I used the wrong pivot point?  I might should have researched that a bit more.  I didn't put the sleeves on the first muslin since I was just checking bust dart placement and girth, but the second muslin showed that there was too much ease in the sleeve cap; the sleeve had to be slightly gathered to fit the armsceye (not shown at all in those lovely smooth sleeves on the pattern photo...).  So I shaved down some of the curve, and cut a bit of the length off the front underarm so that it matched the dress (not sure if the mismatch was my fault or the patterns at that point).

And, of  course, I added an inseam pocket.  I also eliminated the front facing and just cut the center front pieces twice so I could sew the facing into the princess seam. Plus, I wanted a shirt tail hem, with the back slightly longer than the front, so I curved the hemlines accordingly.

However, I was somewhat short on fabric and I had to shorten those curves a bit from my original plan just to get it to fit on the fabric.

Here  are the pattern pieces I ended up with:

 

The fabric was an indigo blue cotton/lycocel from JoAnn's.  Not at all cheap, either, at about twelve and a half bucks a yard.  But I'd bought it for one thing and ended up using something else for that project, so it was available.   I was disappointed to see that it wasn't square; I tore both ends for a straight edge and when the fabric was laid out with the ends even there were terrible ripples down the fold.   I had to offset the selvege ends by about 2" to eliminate that rippling.  So I am attributing any wonkiness in the hang to that little issue. 

I had to change up the sewing order considerably; I sewed the CF and CB together at the shoulder seams; added the collar and put the facing on and pressed it well; basted together the raw edges on the CF seamline.  Then I put the pockets on the side front...putting on the facing piece, then the pocket so the pocket opening is finished off and the pocket becomes the sideseam. Then I sewed the side front/side back together at the shoulder seams, then sewed the sides to the centers.  Then I did the side seams and inserted the sleeves.  Hem, button holes and buttons.

Sounds simple, eh? LOL. 

 The dress, emphasis on the added pocket:

 The June outfit, bracelet, earrings, shoes and bag as well:

The bust shaping still feels a shade low to me.  Not enough to really worry about, but I'll probably adjust it if I make up the pattern again.   The sleeves bind a bit if I raise my arms, but that is just something I ALWAYS deal with on woven garments.  I haven't yet figured out the magic combination of ease here and fitting there to keep that from happening.

And you can't tell about the shaped hem at all; it's just not pronounced enough to show, although it does look just  a wee bit longer in the back if you look close.  

These pics were taken very late last night, after birthday festivities, so it is a bit rumpled.  But it was very comfortable to wear.  I expect to wear it at least a few times this summer.

I hate making muslins.

Really.  I don't like using fabric on something I'm going to throw away, ultimately, even if it's long-stashed fabric from the now-defunct dollar table at Wal-Mart.  That fabric could have been an nice shirt...someday, right?

I don't like taking the time to cut out a muslin, sew up a muslin, and pin up a  muslin to see if the alterations I made to the pattern are gonna work.

But do you know what I hate worse than muslins?

Wadders.  Garments that I had high hopes for but then didn't work.  Spending time on fabric that was NOT a dollar a yard, only to find that the garment doesn't fit/hang right.

So I'm making muslins of the whacked up McCalls shirtdress pattern.  I am dragging myself kicking and screaming, but I AM making a muslin.  I would be beyond stupid to just assume that all this pattern whacking is just miraculously going to work.  I mean, I took a bodacious front dart and rotated it into a princess seam.  Not a minor adjustment.

SO...I have the second muslin about half cut out; I need to get ON with it because I run out of June in a week....and this IS the June outfit.

Between what's left of tonight and then tomorrow after work, I'mma gonna be workin on the muslin.  Because I don't want a wadder. 

I recut the CF and CB from the original muslin, but the sides gotta start fresh....

And I want to make sure the pockets are in the right place.

And the combined collar is going to work.

And the sleeves are the right length.

Oy.

Denim dress (June Outfit) progress

Well, this is the pattern I selected as being closest to what I envisioned.  It's from, um, 2001 and LOOKS like there are some bodacious shoulder pads in it, to my eye, but shoulder pads are not called for in the pattern.

There is also a knee-length cutting line, so that's what I used (LOL...in hindsight, I realized that is the shorten/lengthen line.  But it worked).  Did a FBA on the pattern and threw together a quick muslin.  Now, the P/P patterns come with a 1" seam allowance on the side seams...and, as you can see, the largest size in the envelope is a 12.  Well, I haven't been a size 12 in a NUMBER of years, so I used a 3/8" seam allowance in stitching up the muslin and omitted the front and back waistline fisheye darts.

Well, firstly...that bust shaping has to go down about an inch.  And the dart was way too long.  So  I lowered it an inch and shortened it up.  Much better.  It doesn't seem to be too small, but I think one more inch of wearing ease would give me some breathing room.  So I'm going to add 5/8" to the side seams, which will let me increase the ease by 1" AND use 5 /8" seam allowances...much better for adding an inseam pocket.  Which you KNOW I will do.  And the shoulder seams are about 3/4" too long...which is common for my absurdly narrow shoulders. I do NOT have to do a square shoulder adjustment...the square shoulders on the photos were true square shoulders, I suppose.

So that pretty well takes care of the fitting.  Except, I now have a short fat bust dart, which I believe will be nigh impossible to press without a dimple at the end.  So I've pretty much decided to convert the dart to a princess seam.  And cut the front double instead of using a front facing.  If I want to sew the facing into the princess seam ala Loes Hinse's techniques, I will need to create a princess seam on the back as well, so I can  just do the center bit and sew in the collar before sewing the princess seams.  Thinking on that one.

But I've a bit of styling I want to do differently, besides just adding the side seam pockets.  I want a shirt tail hemline, with the back a wee bit longer than the front.  And possibly cap sleeves.  Gonna pull out a shirt tail hem to copy for the bottom...and I may find a cap sleeve to copy or I may just play with cutting the existing sleeve down.  All decisions that will be made on the fly.

So, that's my sewing project for this weekend...finish hacking the pattern.