The Classier Parisian (Alterations For The Win!)

Well, it looks like all I needed to get my rear in gear with altering my Almost Classy Parisian top was to blog about it, lol. I wrote the post on Friday, scheduled it to go up on Sunday, then took it apart and fixed it Saturday after work. This was technically fixed by the time anyone reading my blog saw it. If only I hadn't posted those highly unflattering photos, lol.

To see the top before alterations, click here. I went into this alteration just knowing it was too big. I put the top on, pinned up the excess length, then pinned in the sides to follow my curves. I unpicked the bottom band, then sewed up on side seam to my new adjustments, and put it on to discover it wasn't just the body that looked sloppy - the arms did too. I ended up taking in the entire body of the shirt by 5/8" (sleeves, body, sleeve bands and hip band), making this top now a size Medium as the pattern is drafted. And it's still not tight tight, just "fitted". Now that the rest of the shirt fits well, I can see that the upper chest could come in to remove those wrinkles at my underarms and the collar is a smidge wide, so next time I make this it will be a medium all over. Me? A Medium? This is the first time in several years ...

See the difference in the sleeve? I still see that blasted crease in the fabric even though I steamed the heck out of it, lol. Oh well, maybe when I actually wash the shirt. No more bagging around the tummy though!

And there's still bra-back-fat, but you can't have everything in life. Not a wrinkle fest in the back! Huzzah! I ended up shortening the top by a full 2 inches all the way around and it's still a fine length. And I have a long torso! So strange. 

These are the pieces I cut off. It doesn't look like much, but man what a difference, huh? This even helped with the issue I had of the fabric clinging to the edge of my bra. Who woulda thunk!

Ta Da! A fitted shirt that no longer looks dumpy. This is much closer to how Julia Bobbin fitted this top, which is the blog post that lead me to purchase the pattern in the first place. I have two things that I really want to reiterate with this post though. 1) If something doesn't fit, it's not that big a deal to take it apart and try again. Seriously, I pulled apart the entire shirt except the collar and it only took about an hour to get it wearable. And 2) Fitted clothes are more flattering. It took me a long time to accept this, but no matter what your size, you will look slimmer if your clothes hug your body a bit. Covering yourself in too long/too loose clothes just makes you look bigger! So hug a few curves and show the body you have to its best advantage. 

I really think being more "fitted" like this looks better with this style of neckline and collar, don't you?

Muslin Monday - Simplicity 2444

No, this will not be a regular Monday post, lol. I just love alliteration :)

Well it seems I really have the sewing bug again. With all the cute printed cottons I've splurged on lately, I knew I needed a simple pattern that wouldn't break up the patterns to much (so I wouldn't have to match the print so much - I'm lazy, lol). Enter Simplicity 2444, the work horse of the sewing blog world. I've had this pattern for literally years and I never have put it together. I pulled it out of the stash and finally got my rear in gear. I would "allow" myself a tid bit of time each night last week to work on sewing in between other things I needed to do (like clean). I ended up prepping/tracing my pattern pieces one night, cutting out the muslin a night or two later, and finally sewing it up on Sunday before church.

Once it was put together, I was able to diagnose my issues. I'm beginning to notice I have some "usual" adjustments that I will probably have to make to every pattern forever. I had some gaping at the neck, so I did a 1.5" hollow chest adjustment - I just pinched out the excess and pinned it down, then made that my new center fold line of my pattern. I also had to go up to the next size - I was trying to compensate for the extra 4 inches of ease the big 4 pattern companies add and apparently I went down too much. I also had to lengthen the bodice by 2.25 inches - no seriously! I've never really thought of myself as long in the torso, but that was just to get it to hit my actual waist. Because I changed the angle of the center line, I wanted to adjust the darts back to where they were since they really did hit me perfectly right off the bat. Also, I had to extend the darts down to the new waistline. So, I measured the original distance of the darts from the center and shifted them accordingly. Then I lined up the original dart points with the new shifted spots on the waistline and drew a new dart. They seem pretty crazy long, but it did the job. I redrew the pattern with the new adjustments, and ended up with this:

Kind of a creepy smile, but I think it's obvious that I'm pleased, lol. This new muslin is almost perfect. I never tried to sit down with my first muslin on, and I realized that I need a tad more ease in the waist. I also had drawn the sleeves in the smaller size and I think I'll just go up to the next larger for ease of movement. I don't want to have to readjust the whole dress all the time when I raise my hands above my bust. It may look a little more wrinkly under the bust while I'm standing, but at least I know I will be able to move without worrying about it.

After all the problems I had on Butterick 5982, I am really excited to have a pattern I feel I know how to diagnose and fit correctly. Now I'm torn as to which fabric I'll use as the first full test! I am actually so excited that I may end up with 15 dresses from this pattern, lol, we shall see.

WIP Wednesday

Things are progressing (if a little slower) on my Miette Cardigan :) I've almost finished on sleeve.

To confess - the reason I haven't gotten more done this week on the sweater is ... I've been sewing! Well, more like prepping for sewing :)

I suddenly had the urge to sew up this pattern ... so I went with it :) This is the first time that I started a project completely the correct way: with a muslin (which is a mock-up of the item sewn with different fabric to check the fit before making the real thing). And my first muslin looked like this:

This is why we make muslins, lol. Yeah, that wouldn't look so good. Not only was it was too big, but it was gaping like crazy at the top too, which is why that flap is pinned down the center. I drew that blue line to show the edge of that flap - crazy! It turns out I have what is called a "hollow chest", lol. Maybe that explains why I can be a little heartless (ba-zing!). Anyway, I tried a few different "tricks" I found online to fix it, with no real luck until I watched my Fast Track Fitting class on Craftsy and saw someone else asked about the same problem. The proper fix is to make a muslin, pin out the excess, and then treat that as your new center fold line. So finally on my third muslin, I got this:

Woo hoo! Much better :) To get to this point, I took out that big wedge from the center (almost 5" at the neckline!), added 1/2" just above the sleeve hole, and lengthened the bottom by 2 5/8".  After all these changes, I had to "true" my pattern at the shoulder and neck so that it would still work ok, and then I had to add 2 darts to the upper back too because apparently I'm a hunch back, lol, and I had to lengthen the other pieces to match that 2 5/8". Also I had to go 2 pattern sizes down from what I first cut out (which was the size the pattern said my measurements would be - they added 4 inches of ease into the bodice! Crazy!)So last night I made up my final pattern and it looks like this:

Just to show you, here is my new bodice front pattern piece next to the original one from the pattern:

Isn't that crazy? I feel like a narrow-fronted giant with no waist when I look at this picture, lol, but at least I know it will fit properly so that's all that matters. After all those nights of working on this, and tracing/altering the pattern pieces at least 5 or 6 times each, my poor sewing room is in shambles. Here is my chair:

My 3 muslins are draped on the top (all with zippers and everything), and my many pattern pieces are just piled in the chair. And check out the floor:

Yeah, I look like a total slob, I know, but once one piece didn't make it in the can, I just went with it. I'll be doing a full scale tidying tonight. But after that, I am ready to cut my real fabric! I'm so excited to have this pattern fitted - it's such a basic design I know I will be able to make many iterations of it in different fabrics. I'm still a little weary of it not fitting quite right, so my first dress will be made with some thrift store mint green gingham seer-sucker that I grabbed for 75¢ for all 3 yards. It may end up a little cutesy, but I like it and also I won't be heart broken if it doesn't work out great. I'm also using a white sheet set from the clearance section at Target that I got eons ago, so all in all a really cheap make :)

I'm excited to get this baby made up! I can't wait!

That's what I'm working on this week. Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others have in the works!