Bustin' Out

Still working on this dress. I need to hurry up and finish it :-)That brings me to the next challenge -- the armhole. But first, let me recap what I'm happy with:

• Shoulders -- seam placement and length. Although please tell me if my narrow shoulder adjustment was too much or too little. It's amazing how confused I get.
• FBA and side bust dart. Crafty's Adjust the Bust really helped me get the dart placement right. It ends a whopping 5.25" away from the bust point.  
• Sidebar: I have discovered the Butterfly Bra from Ashley Stewart. If your girls are ... let's say substantial and you have an issue with bulging under your back bra band, this is the bra for you! It's the only bra I'll consider wearing with close-fitting knits. I have two only complaints -- the amount of padding in the cup; it adds inches compared to my old bras. The second complaint is the colors. There's nothing in white or beige.

                                     

As you can see above, I needed to add a lot of length during the FBA and I wasn't quite sure how to true it with the side seam. It's still a work in progress.

I wasted time with the broad back adjustment; I didn't need it. I forgot that knits are supposed to be a bit snug. The good news is that without that adjustment, the shoulder seams match. This is a relief because I couldn't seem to draft a back shoulder dart and my gathering technique still needs a little work. I can't seem to keep the presser foot from crushing them and making them uneven.

Now we come to the next challenge: Gaping front armhole. I've read that the larger the bust, the bigger the gaping. Thanks Butterfly Bra for the extra inches. Anyhoo, here's me trying to pin out the excess. Not bad huh? 

                

The side view might be a different story, but I will chalk this up to trying to fit myself as I wear the garment.

                           

So today task is rotating that dart to the side seam. I have a couple of resources:

• Subtleties in Drafting Sleeves
• Add Side Dart to Fix Gaping Armhole

Wish me luck.

A Break In the Action

Still working on alterations, slowly and methodically. I always thought my waist and hips were challenging, but it's amazing to see what all I have to do to get a bodice to fit. Because these are new alterations for me, I had to go to a garment with a more basic bodice -- my double knit dream dress, B5523. I made a completely rookie mistake by starting with the wrong pattern size. What a testament to how much weight I've gained.

Anyhoo. This is a small break in the action for some celebrating. It's my birthday! Anyone who knows me knows I am obsessed with pink (and green). It may not agree with my skin tone or hair color, but I loves it! How fortuitous that my birthday is in October -- the pink month. I do my part by snatching up Breast Cancer Awareness sewing stuff. This year, I found pink Wonder Clips. Who wants my old red ones?

Now for those who may not be able to stand all this pinkdom, brace yourself.  How awesome is this??!

                           
Even though I have a steam generator, I briefly tried to justify purchasing this iron. My workroom is pink and pewter. I'm just saying. Sadly, reason and good sense won. Boo. However, don't let me stop you ...

Back to reality. My sewing machine is in one room, but I do alterations and cut on my dining table. I'm always leaving something in the wrong room, so I've been thinking about an apron for a while. I found this cool pattern on Connecting Threads.
       
                                                      
My workroom is pink and pewter, so I headed over to fabric.com in hopes of finding fabric with that color combination. Just look at this loveliness.
           
                                     

I went to Jo-Ann's after church Sunday and what did I see? A sewing basket just for me! Talk about absolutely meant to be. So below is my first round of birthday-stuff. Yep, I celebrate all month long.  What you don't see is my wool crepe. I got some tan yardage for practice and some black for the real thing. 

                            

Oh Happy Day!

Still At It

This is muslin 4B.  I think I have the shoulder seam placement and neckline right.  I really did need to lower both the back neckline and shoulders 5/8". I raised the front shoulders 5/8".  Not sure If I needed to raise the front neckline too, but I did.  What's odd is that I had to do a very tiny forward shoulder adjustment; it wasn't even 1/4". I also discovered I have narrow shoulders. I took 5/8" off the length.

Time to move on to the back. I did add 3/4" to the upper back earlier, but it wasn't enough. I figured that since 3/4" wasn't enough and I needed to taper to a size 22 at the waist anyway, I would try adding the difference between the 16 and 22 across the whole back. That's 1 1/2".

The pattern has a 1" back shoulder dart. Does this mean that the dart now needs to be 2 1/2"?  I'm having a difficult time drawing the new dart, so I am going to make a new muslin, attempt to pin it in and then adjust the pattern. Of course, all of this is academic if it turns out I don't need 1 1/2" across my upper back. I'm torn by this. Awesome because it would mean that I'm smaller than I gave myself credit for, but boo because I'd have to change the alteration.

I didn't realize I'd made so many muslins just to fit my shoulders. Who cares because I'm so happy I figured out what to do to get the shoulder seams in the right place. I am a little nervous because the front bodice is self-facing cowl and doesn't have a neckline seam. You kind of need a neckline seam to make shoulder alterations. I just hope I can join the front and back properly when I'm done with all these alts. It looks a hot mess now. I'll definitely have to make a least one muslin with the self-facing.  

The only drag in this process is that my cotton muslin from Jo-Ann is off-grain! It's the only muslin I have left and the cheap in me won't go and buy more. I purchased it months ago and have used quite a bit, so I can't take the rest of the bolt back. I have torn it from the bolt instead of cutting. I have pulled opposite corners. I have tried to coerce with steam. Sigh. I threw the remaining yardage in the washer hoping for a miracle. I haven't used it since, so we'll see what happens today.

Fall hit Chicago like a ton of bricks two days ago. I'm already thinking about B5523!