cute clutch and a rethink

After the stressy rant of my last post, I am pleased to show a completed project.  A cute clutch purse which I have made for a friends birthday.  the pattern I used is by Keyka Lou.  It's really nice and easy and has a cool alternative method for sewing up a purse / bag with a drop in lining.

I have also decided to whip up a little buttercup bag of my own to take on holiday, as well as maybe a quick summer dress for the beach using this pattern Butterick 5216 (view C), and just making it a bit longer so it's a dress rather than a tunic.

It's elasticated so should be an easy fit / sew.

Hopefully this'll make me feel a bit better about my fitting torment and I'll have a couple of me made bits to take on holiday! I'm not sure what to do about getting better at fitting, but thanks for all the supportive comments to my last post!

Fitting, argh!!!!

Warning this is a word heavy post, but please do read it as I am in desperate need of some moral support, help me please!

Every so often I think to myself, “oh Laura, why are you so rubbish at getting your sewing projects underway?” 

Yes I have a bit of a thing against cutting out, all stemming from a childhood inability to follow the dotted line (I couldn’t colour-in very neatly either). But I am tackling that problem and have done ok, for example it only took me a month to get round to cutting out my Beignet.

But yet I avoid starting new projects like a small boy avoids bathtime.  And I had forgotten why, until last weekend when I decided to crack on with fitting the bodice for my frappuccino summer dress (I’ve decided to name it after my favourite summertime drink, plus the polka dot print is a light coffee colour so it ties in nicely).

My biggest fitting problem (figuratively and literally as well I’m afraid) is my boobies.  Previously mentioned here I struggle with full bust adjustments, and yet again the problem has re-emerged. 

The bodice I am fitting can be strapless or has straps that you adjust to fit you, so there’s no shoulder seam to hang the muslin from to gauge what length/width I need to add. 


The dress I am trying to make

 As far as I know you pin the muslin or tissue to the shoulder and the side seams when fitting and work out the extra width you need by measuring the distance from the pattern/muslin centre front to your actual centre front.  This also helps you work out if you need more length.  This is tricky to do with a strapless bodice as I have no clue how high the pattern is supposed to sit.

So I basically put the muslin as high as I wanted it and went from there.  Also I forgot to lower the bust fullness on the princess seam before making the muslin, so worked out where the fullness should be, then calculated the amount needed for the FBA by lowering the actual fullest part of the bodice to the right place, re-pining it there, and working out the distance needed to reach the centre front.

Confused?  I know I am.

Right so after all that I went back to my pattern pieces.  Firstly I moved the fullness down on the pattern piece based on the line I drew on muslin one.


lowering bust fullness

 Then I did an FBA.  I did have a look at the fab tutorial from Sewaholic.  I also referred a lot to Monkeysocks' post on bust fullness and FBA’s on a princess seam.  But these resources couldn’t help me as much as I would have liked.  This is because my princess seam is very much to side, whereas the standard princess seam sits on (or very close to) your apex.  So the standard FBA  is done on the side bodice piece, but my adjustment really needed to be on the front piece as thats where all my bust fullness was.  The main fitting book I use, Fit For Real People said that you can add to the front piece as well as the side if the princess seam is closer to the side.  I’d looked at the fit of my muslin and kinda guessed whether the room was needed at the side or the front.  I went for the front so did a different type of FBA, thankfully my book FFRP explained the process.


My FBA

 Lastly I added an inch in length to all the bodice pieces as my FBA didn't add any length and muslin number one was too short.


adding length

This is muslin number 2.  Does it look ok?

No it blinking doesn't.  The FBA created a massive amount of excess fabric at the front so this whole top is basically now a shapeless bag!

Not only that but the FBA also added an extra triangle of space near the side seam when doing the whole slash/spread thing.

In the book states that this spread will be minor, and gives no instruction to alter the side piece to account for the extra length in the seam, however on my piece it's almost half an inch longer than before the FBA, so now matching the front seams to the side seams is really hard, hence all the bumpy bits round the bust. 

I have pretty much run out of time to do anything to sort this out and sew up the actual dress before my holiday  so that plan was a big fail.

I’m not experienced at noticing fitting problems when trying on a muslin and have found tissue fitting impossible so have given up on that.  I don’t know how to fix any problems I do spot, and I am constantly confounded because I feel like the problems I have aren’t shown in books or online tutorials.

I am pulling my hair out, not least because as much as I love reading all the other sewing blogs out there it feels like everyone else breezes through these fitting issues and churns out dresses like there's no tomorrow.  Why do I find this process so hard?

Sunny Monday walkies

This isn't a sewing related post, but I have been using Picnik recently in the hope of improving the look of my blog photos.  I thought I would share some pics of a recent walk John and I went on along the South Downs, and show you what I've been playing around with.



A weekend of progress, and a weird interfacing dilemma

I have been quite a busy girl this weekend.

John went on a boys only camping trip (sleeping in a cave, no less) leaving me free reign to cover the flat in bits of tissue paper, scraps of fabric, threads, pins, and other such sewing related mess.

So what have I achieved?

Well first off, I completed one of my gifts, so here it is one Parisian buttercup bag (please ignore the fluff and lint, this fabric is like a lint magnet!!):

This is for a work friend who is off to live in Paris for 3 months (I am very jealous).  So this cute little print seemed to be the perfect choice for the lining.

I also popped to the shops and bought all I needed for my pretty summer dress.  I decided on a large polka dot fabric for this, and will use New Look 6457 view A, making the top band and straps out of a plain white cotton.

All the fabric is washed and ready to go.  Not looking forward to fitting the bodice though, it's my first attempt at an FBA on princess seams!

I have also (finally) cut out all the pieces for my Beignet.  So that's good to go now.

But, when I attched the interfacing onto the facing pieces, the fabric ended up being a bit bubbly / puckery. Have a look at these pics:

I swear I pressed and didn't iron the pieces, so I'm not sure what happened!  Should I cut new pieces and try again, or leave them as they are.? What might have caused this problem and how do I avoid it happening again??
Even besides the weird problem with my interfacing, I am feeling a lot more focused and productive at the moment, so hopefully I will do some sewing in the week.

Oh also, I found out on Friday that I passed my final AAT exam.  Woo, no more exams ever!!!!

Project planning overload! And I won something awesome!!

Ok ok so I have been very very slack with the sewing of garments recently.  My weekends have been quite busy, or really sunny, so I haven’t even finished cutting out my Beignet yet.

But I suddenly have all this inspiration plus reasons to sew.  I already wanted to finish my Beignet and the guilt of yet another UFO is too much to bear.  I must get cracking on it.

I also have two gifts to sew by the end of the month.  I have chosen Made by Rae’s buttercup bag for one, and this cute clutch pattern by Keyka Lou for the other.  I’ve made a buttercup before for my sister (sorry no pics) and the clutch looks straightforward, so that’ll be fairly easy. 

But I have just booked a last minute holiday in Corfu and I really really want to sew a dress that I can wear on my hols.  I love Scruffy Badger's dress here.  I would love to make something similar, but don’t think I have time to make a button front dress.  I do however have this pattern: New Look 6457.

And looking on Sew Weekly the other day I saw this awesome dress from Modcloth on Mena's “make this look” feature.  Which just happens to use this very pattern!

Source

I’d like to make it out of gingham or maybe with a polka dot and the white trim, like the modcloth version.

Lastly, the super lovely Ashley from Jellybeans odds and ends had a recent giveaway, which I won!!!   My prize: a Rooibos pattern from Colette Patterns.  Am I chuffed?  Heck yes!

I do need a work dress quite badly and Rooibos fits the bill.  Now that my college course is over I am back at the office 5 days a week, and my work outfit rotation is seriously lacking.  It just so happens that Colette are having a Rooibos sewalong at the mo, which will be great to take part in.

My question is though, what to do first?

Right I need to get updating my sewing schedule……