When Life Gives You Lemons, Make a Muslin

I have been working on V8699 for what seems like forever.  It's a Custom Fit, so no FBA needed and it came in a 24 for my hips. This was going to be easier to tackle.

Then came the dreaded sway back alteration.  I made a 2" wedge.  The side seams were straight and the CF matched mine. The round back alteration worked like a dream. Dealing with forward shoulders on a shoulder princess was no walk in the park, but I think I got it.  All of this was done on Swedish tracing paper.

I whipped out my prized ponteroma knit and began cutting.  I made it to the sewing machine, knocked out the staystitching and basted the top together. Tried to get fancy and add clear elastic to the shoulders, but I did it wrong. No biggie.

I anxiously tried on the top this morning. Y'all know what I forgot to do? Pay attention to the placement of the front princess seams.  They were INCHES away from my apex; waaaay too close to the side seams.  Wait, I forgot about how I didn't actually complete the round back alteration.  I made the dart, but forgot to widen the back shoulder. I would have been able to save the top if it wasn't for that.

Oh well. I have a nice stash of ponteroma here and there's plenty more at Hancock. When I replace this fabric, I'll get to use less because the View B tunic is not the look for me. I knew better! I've been reading The Science of Sexy (I'll review it later) and I fully agreed that pear-shaped women should not wear long tops. But I really liked the shaped hem on the tunic. Lesson learned. I'll be making the View A top with long sleeves.

All is not lost because I'm continuing to fit my 'new' muslin. I'm happy with the front and lower back. I added a CB seam for my sway back. I've had to take even more length out.

I think I've had enough for today.

Getting Started -- Burda 8269

I finally got all the pattern pieces cut out for the next skirt, Burda 8269. (The pattern has been discontinued, but you can get the smaller version as Burda 8407.) Getting the pattern pieces ready for alterations is the part I dislike the most I about sewing. (I know this is not an original thought.)  I like to trace all of my patterns onto Swedish tracing paper.  You can sew and even wash this stuff, so it's pretty durable. My evil plan is to use it rather than making a muslin.

It also takes me a while because I include some markings for sizes 18, 24 and 26 (on the appropriate pieces) until I figure out what size I really am and where. Well, the pieces are all cut. I can start the super-easy fitting process now. *side eye*

A Little Progress

I've been busy today. I've been trying to figure out how to do an FBA on a top without a dart. Is anything simple when sewing? I'm not frustrated because of the work; I hate I ran out of time. Had to work for an hour and then spent a couple of hours in the kitchen. Dinner was tasty.


Anyhoo. I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but I'm proud of the attempt. Let's see first, I dug through the trash and found the large and extra large cutting lines. Score for Kwik Sew. Real paper made reattachment easy.

Humpty Dumpty is all put back together again.

Now, once I taped everything back up I brief agonized, and I do mean agonized over how to get from a medium to an extra large. Here's what I'm most proud of, I decided to tissue fit the pattern. Not only that, I traced the pattern onto sewable pattern paper. This may not sound like much to you, but this is big stuff for a girl who was baffled by understitching a few months ago.

I got lazy with some of the markings. Who needs the cutting lines for medium, large and extra large anyway?

I'm sure this will come back to haunt me, but I couldn't tape the pieces together smoothly. Here are the pins.

Let's see if I can draw the cutting line. I pined the 1/4" seam allowance.

Shoulder too.

Now comes the FBA. Here's a random line. Well, not really random, but kind of because I had to make up where I thought the dart should go. Of course there was no apex on the pattern. I made that up too.

Now from that line to this, I'm not really sure what happened. The one thing I do know is that I'm prioritizing a dress form over car repair. I just have no idea what I'm doing when I try to fit myself.

The above looks like the book, Fit For Real People, but I'm completely guessing with the measurements. I really did try to add an apex to the pattern and measure center front to center front, but it was all too much. When I sliced the pattern, I just pinned some random distance. I'll figure it out next weekend.