WIP Wednesday

Well, this week has been yet another jumble of craziness. I worked on my next princess commission over the weekend, but I got so frustrated with the pattern that I angrily tossed it aside, lol. Here is how it looks thus far:

Hopefully you can tell it's going to be Cinderella. I'm using this pattern by Sahrit Freud-Weinstein. To say I'm having issues with the pattern is a gross understatement. The biggest problem I have is that the author uses steel crochet hooks. Regular hooks are very different in size, so I'm pretty much just guessing on what hook to use - this means that I've had to make each piece at least twice. I made the entire body/skirt only to realize how short it is - then I read where the pattern says it's designed to be only 5.5 inches tall. My problem is that this is going to be a set of dolls ... and Princess Jasmine is almost 8 inches tall! Cinderella would have looked pint sized in comparison, so I had to bump up my hook size in hopes of it coming out bigger. The skirt itself is still kind of short, so I've left it unfinished and I will go back to it and possibly add more rows to make it taller later on. I also have no idea how the author used the size yarn she used and got the results she did - I've used all worsted and sport weight yarns (size 3 and 4) like the pattern calls for, but the size 3 yarn was WAY too small - like it was riddled with holes. Totally not good for a doll stuffed with poly-fill. So, I've had to hole the light blue yarn in double just to get it to look right. Add to all these issues that I was watching a show so bad it was offensive, and you end up wanting to ditch the whole thing, lol. Anyway, I'll pick this up again soon once I've cooled down. Plus I have other projects that need to be finished first (*cough* zombie *cough*).

And what do you do when you have lots of other pressing projects to finish? Why, you start making a new dress, lol. I told myself I would be responsible and not start this until I finished my other obligations, but of course I was so excited about my muslin making success this weekend that all I want to do it sew it up. So Monday night I finalized my pattern tweaks and cut out the real fabric. Holy cow, what a job that was. I bought 3 yards of this fabric thinking that was plenty, but I'd never laid out the skirt pieces before - they are so wide that I would literally have needed 4 yards to fit it correctly - crazy. The Project Runway pattern (by Simplicity) itself is well drafted, but it's kind of annoying how the envelope just tells you how much fabric you need for each piece you add (i.e. short sleeves 3/8, dress bodice 1 1/4, etc). That's all fine if I'm only cutting one piece, but you can always lay the smaller pieces in the unused space next to bigger pieces (like the skirt). I spent over 2 hours figuring out a cutting layout and then cutting the pieces. I had to lay the fabric across my bed, lay out a piece, mark where it sat, then pick the piece up and repeat until I had all the pieces accounted for. In the end I made it work - only by cutting the back skirt and bodice pieces upside down. This fabric is so crazy that it's not immediately obvious the print is directional, so I'm not too worried about it. When I was done cutting, these were the only pieces left that were larger than 1":

One of these pieces is a sleeve I accidentally cut backwards - I almost cried, lol. Luckily there was enough to cut it again. I even managed to fit all the pocket and facing pieces out of the fabric. Granted the selvages are in my seam allowances, but at least it fit. Now I just have to get more time to work on this. Not only do I
Not only to I have my zombie and princesses to finish - I also have people coming over to dinner on Friday so I have been busting my but cleaning up my mess from trying to organize things. Last night I cleaned the kitchen to the cleanest it's been in months - tonight I tackle the dining room which is covered in mail.

Sorry if my tone sounds super complainy, lol, I'm actually pretty upbeat about everything in real life. I just wanted to give a proper representation of the process. It seems to be all or nothing - isn't that always the way it goes? Hopefully things level out soon :) That's all for me this week - head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to check out what others are making!