A Few Corrections

Still working on the top! I fixed my puckered darts. They are all nice and smooth. They needed a ham and generous steam. What I'm most proud of is resolving my interfacing mishap.

I guess I was careless in my placement and ended up with this

Which translates to this

Perhaps on a thicker fabric it wouldn't be an issue; but it ruined this top because you could clearly see the interfacing from the right side. :-( I'd already started to steel myself for the replacement fabric purchase. (Purchasing new fabric is usually a joy, but I'm actually trying to be a bit better about sticking to my budget. Replacement fabric is not cool.)

I thought trying to remove the interfacing would damage the top.  I guess I was a little too apprehensive. Anyhoo, I got to pulling *gently* and removed all the interfacing below the seam line.  My duckbill scissors helped too.

Much better!

Sewing Along

I signed up for the Cake Patterns Pavlova Sewalong. Of course life leading up to the start was manageable. Once it started, all hell broke loose. I will not go into the sucky details because this is my happy place.

The sewalong was so well run! Lots of great info and encouragement along the way. Stephanie was great at answering questions. I do like the idea of dedicating time every day to finish a project and accountability.  What I have realized is that 30 minutes a day, for my slow self is an hour+. What killed me was laying out my rayon jersey. It had a curly life of its own. I also lost more time than I care to admit on a very simple sleeve binding. It was so simple that I over thought it by miles.  

Well ladies and gents, tomorrow is the last day of the sewalong and I have a new top -- almost. When I stitched the sleeves, I forgot to check to see if things lined up correctly. Accidentally perfect on one and really wrong on the other. I've ripped out the stitches, but I think I'm just sleepy enough to make another foolish mistake, so I'll save it until later. I need to hem it and it will be good to go.  My darts points were a bit bubbly. Hope I can fix that with a ham and some steam. Pics later! 

The skirt is great, in my head. In reality, I have a traced, but unaltered pattern. I was hoping to make this for Easter, but time's a wasting ... I wanted it underlined and lined. I just really don't want to wear a slip and I'm dying to try some of the techniques from Craftsy's The Couture Dress.

Changing Lanes

I'm taking a break from the Burda skirt. When I first tried on the muslin, I think I was just excited because I'd managed to stitch something together. Upon closer inspection, I realized that I would have to figure out solves for wavy side seams, crooked darts and getting the waist right. The good news is I don't feel defeated; I know I need to refresh and retrench. The good news is I have resources lined up that are helping me understand what I need to do:

I've mentioned this Burda article before.

 

This article by Kenneth D. King is like the holy grail.



However, it took Craftsy.com to bring it on home. I was so unbelievably thankful to receive this:

Linda Maynard is simply awesome! There's now a tie for new favorite instructor and new favorite class. Like Susan Khalje in The Couture Dress, you learn because she demonstrates in an organized and methodical way. Sandra Betzina's classes are great; it's just that at some point, you find yourself feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm extra pleased because Linda's models have my fit issues. This class hits some of my major hangups!  

As I'm letting all of this info sink in, I'm going back to KS3740. I have attempted this top a gazillion times. I'm claiming a breakthrough this weekend. The finished version will not look like this!

I will be much obliged if anyone can tell me why my shoulder seam is too far forward at my neck and what is causing the wings over the girls. Are they the result of my square shoulders?

Last but not least, I need some cold weather gym attire. I ordered these two Kwik Sew patterns:

     

It is with great sadness that I report the patterns are on white tissue paper. I haven't been excited by the newer Kwik Sew pattern releases. When I finally purchase a couple of patterns (more for necessity than style), they come on tissue. (I also got two page three instruction sheets in the sweatsuit pattern.) Thanks McCall pattern company. When I learned about the merger, I was hoping to see more of Kwik Sew's construction methods shared with the BMV brands, but I don't think that's been the case. Seems like Kwik Sew is getting the worst of the deal. The one bright spot is that the new pattern envelopes aren't glued at the top, so you don't have to damage the envelope to get to the pattern.