I Turned On The Sewing Machine!

This weekend was about fits and starts. But it ended we me actually at the machine - for five minutes. I was so happy. Let me say now that I really admire people who sew. I didn't start this thinking it would be easy or that I had a natural talent; I'm now proving both to be true.

But, I love the challenge. The thought of rocking a handmade something so fierce in both garment selection and fit that people ask me where I got it keeps me going. It's actually fun, once you get behind the machine.

However, before you get to the machine, you must prep fabric (did some of that yesterday and reorganized the stash). Then you gotta cut the pattern, tissue fit it and then cut the fabric. You know there's more, but I want to pause here and explain Saturday.

I woke up excited. Got an early start on the pattern. Then I got a little stuck. Are knit patterns cut smaller because of the fabric's stretch? This may be a dumb question with an obvious answer to you, but I was stumped.

This pattern was not fitting Ruby at all, even with the FBA. I knew I was taking my chances on the no-dart FBA because there's a max amount you can adjust, but damn. Then there was the issue of the backside and side seams. "Twas not pretty. What I should have thought of was adding width at the hips! Anyway, I traced the new seam line, got distracted and didn't come back to it until late Sunday afternoon.

I was getting ready to cut out the front piece of fabric when I realized that I although I traced a seam line, I never traced and cut the cutting line. I'm brilliant like that at least once a week. If you look closely, you can see the oops here. Learning that coasters make great pattern weights was a bonus.

Notice that black fabric. That was supposed to be my muslin. Totally didn't pay attention to the fact it had less stretch than my real fabric. Boo hoo. Start over. I pulled out the original muslin fabric for this top. (Once I got this piece home, I thought, "Muslin my eye. This is too good to practice on.")

Here we are all pinned up. Is there anyway to fix the swayback thing in a top?

Looks no worse than some RTW tops on me. I know that's not the point of this, but I needed a confidence booster. It's my first time adjusting a pattern, so whatever.

Next, I sat down at my machine to do the easing lines. I was excited to wind the bobbin! The 1/4" seam allowance? No biggie. Yeah right. Thought I could get away without marking the stitching lines. Nope. Why hasn't Crayola or Sharpie done something about the difficulty of marking dark fabric? I have chalk and the white pen, but there has to be something better. I guess I'll be getting one of those new ceramic sewing pencils soon

Okay. Marked all the lines. Let's sew. Easing lines done. What's next? Add interfacing to the shoulders. Hey, I read somewhere that you need to preshrink interfacing. Uggh! Got up from the machine to do that. The strips were so small, I was able to get them completely dry with a towel. Then I noticed on the packaging that it was preshrunk. So is only the type you buy by the yard that needs preshrinking? Anyway, let's fuse, baby!

Yea! Let's sew. Wait, something isn't right. This is because I pinned the wrong side front to the right side back. Then I pinned the wrong shoulders together. Then I realized I had not finished marking the seamlines on the back. (This is why I do all of my important thinking in the morning, I'm completely useless at night.)

The directions say to overcast the seams. I have an overcast foot. No problem.

Umm, problem. My foot isn't adjustable, so my seam allowance is now 1/8." Oh well. I suppose I could have trimmed everything 1/8" and then proceeded, but where's the fun in that? Duly noted for the real thing.

Perhaps I should have put the interfacing right to the edge of the fabric? I guess muslins are important after all *wink.*

And that was my sewing weekend.