More Outfit Pics

Are you getting tired of seeing me posing in the mirror talking about clothes? Don't answer that.

I think it was Julie who asked how I do good mirror shots. Well, Julie, as you'll see below — it's a total crap shoot. I turn off the flash, try to hold the camera as still as I can when I'm too lazy to get out the tripod, and then snap a billion of each pose and weed out the best. I'm not always successful. Some of these are the "best" of really bad and blurry.

So, this is what I wore today. I think this is my first repeat at the office, but I didn't take a pic of me in it the first time. It was Monday, I stayed up too late last night, and I knew this would be comfortable — plus it was clean, pressed and ready. I also remembered that last Monday I was almost too warm in a sweater. Today? I was cold again. I really need to make or buy some sort of shawl that I can toss over my knees in the afternoon. It's my bare/un-PH legs that get the coldest.

I made everything. The top is Vogue 8118 (OOP), which I made 3+ years ago. The skirt is the half-lined Burda I just made. And the cami is self-drafted and made from ivory Powerdry. I'm so glad the cami fits again. The top is sheer, but not as sheer IRL as it looks here. I even made the undies I'm wearing but I'm not modeling those.

Although I said I'd do pics on me when I had the coordinating skirt sewn, I went ahead and snapped a pic with today's skirt because I hadn't even tried on the finished blouse after closing up the sewing room last night. It was too late and I was in too-big pants that wouldn't have looked right with it anyway. I'm very happy with the fit and style and I'll be making another top from this pattern very soon, with a sleeve cap fix.

Next, on to another Walmart purchase. This is the Before so don't panic, and I know it's completely unflattering in this state. But it was only $7 on clearance and it's my colors (brown and teal), and I'm thinking I can refashion it …

… to something like this:

It's got a shirred elastic waist but I think I can just cut the top off above the elastic, shorten it, and hide the seam in the blousing. Plus take in the sideseams and sleeve seams. For $7, it's worth a try.

Here's what I'm wearing now, from the back of my closet. Both of these will be going in the too-big box after this wearing. The top is an Onion pattern and is quite baggy and too long. The pants waist comes up to my bra line. Hah. (Speaking of bras NancyK, I don't need an actual "fitting," since I'm pretty good at knowing if a bra fits me properly. I've already bought a few in smaller sizes so I'm good in that department.)

Tonight I'm going to catch up on some DVR'd TV shows so there won't be any sewing. It was also pouring rain on the way home so I didn't stop at Joann's either. There's always tomorrow. I think before I make a skirt, though, I'm going to be making a quick top that I can wear with a sweater I bought last week. And then a denim skirt for Friday, although I'm thinking that Rachel skirt would be great for a denim skirt (especially after seeing Julie's), so you may just get me yet Carolyn. ;-)

Oh Sure!

Yep. As soon as I chop off the sleeves, the weather forecast is for cold tonight and tomorrow. And by cold, I mean sub-70. ;-) It's supposed to drop to the 40s tonight, so that's cold even outside of Florida. Back to 80s by the end of the week, though. I now love this shirt again with its new short sleeves so I can wait on the weather.

I finished the skirt this morning. I ran out of steam last night and decided to read one of my Adele Margolis books instead. How to Make Clothes That Fit and Flatter: Step-by-Step Instructions for Women Who Like to Sew. Lots of fun and interesting information about styling so far. Oh, and girdles. LOL! It was written in 1969 after all. I'll write more about the book another day.

The Burda blouse is out of the wash and ready to be ironed. I'll do that later and try to snap some modeled pics this afternoon. Right now I've got to go clean up the remains of an empty serger cone that Dani snatched out of the trash basket and chewed into shreds. She is such a thief in my sewing room, and so I have to be really careful about what's in her reach. I kinda knew she'd go for the cone and I'd clean it up later. Since there's no real harm, I let her have some fun. Better that than another pillow. ;-)

The O Tees Finis

The tops are done. I took the pic of the Onion tee this morning and the Ottobre tee this afternoon. As you can see, the pants got progressively more wrinkled as the day wore on. And, yes, I am in North America and wearing capris and flip-flops in December. Hey, it was 85 degrees here today. I've been hearing about the snowstorms happening in the U.S. and I feel little jealousy pangs as I'm sweatin' walking the dogs. The grass is always greener (or whiter!), isn't it?

First up is the Onion:



A close-up of the buttons:



And, on me:



Next, the Ottobre tee. I think I've already said it, but it bears repeating. This fabric is so nice. Wonderful drape, easy to work with, and half the weight of EOS Buttermilk. Poly isn't my usual first choice in fabrics but this is obviously a modern poly and will be quite comfortable, even on a hot day like today. I know I'm going to be wearing this one often; it just plain feels good.



Look ma! No brown binding!



And on me, with a goofy smile:



Now off to edit my pattern reviews on PR to get those u-g-l-y Butterick muslins out of the sidebar widget queue. Or at least moved down.

Button, Button, Who's Got The Button?

Certainly not Joann's. Hmprhf. I hate the button selection (or lack thereof) at Joann's. Yes, hate is not too strong a word. Unfortunately, it's the only game in town and I don't have any online choices either, that I know of (anyone??). There was not even one choice for dark brown buttons. Luckily for me I had pretty much decided before I got there that I was going to go with lighter buttons. But still. How can it be with the hundreds of buttons hanging in the two button aisles that there are no dark brown buttons? Yes, at first glance it looks like Joann's has lots of buttons — and they do — but I can never, ever find buttons that call to me or match what I'm making. It's always a second choice, a struggle. One of these days I'm flying to Melbourne to go button (and fabric) shopping with Belinda. ;-)

So, where was I before the mini button rant? Oh yeah. The Onion top is finished and is sporting (boring) buttons from one of the above cards, but I'm waiting until the Ottobre tee is finished too before I take pics. It's almost done so I should have pics this afternoon. I substituted Ottobre sleeves for the Onion sleeves and narrowed the shoulders just a smidge more this time. I like these changes much better. The Ottobre sleeves have a better shape (and flatter cap) for me for a tee. I walked the seamlines of both the sleeve and the armhole and they matched perfectly, so nothing further needed than to just fire up the serger.

Speaking of my serger, while at J's I did pick up the new upper knife and installed it. This pic below is my old knife. (Blogger has posted a workaround for photos so you can actually click on mine again to make them larger w/o getting that download dialog.) Look at those nicks. I think we were overdue, don't you? After putting in the new knife, I immediately folded up a scrap of denim into four layers and tried it out. Like buttah! I think I actually heard the serger smile. ;-)



I just finished applying the binding around the neckline of my Ottobre tee. What a pain in the you-know-what. I love the fabric, but it's slippery with a mind of its own. Not the best combo for running through a CS binder attachment. So I forced it into submission by fusing interfacing to the back of the strip. Much better. Went through the binder this time with no sassing back at me.



All that's left for this tee is to put in the sleeves, sew the sideseams and hem. I need to cut out 10 more of these RIGHT NOW and just sew them up.

The "O" Tops In Progress

The second Onion top is almost done. I have to sew the sideseams, hems, and add the buttons. But I'm taking a break from finishing it because I need to run up to Joann's to pick up the new upper knife for my serger that I ordered last week. Yep, after 5+ years, I finally managed to run over a pin and it wasn't pretty. Overlocking still works fine but cutting through thick layers doesn't. It was fun (not!) finishing up the seams of my brown jeans last week. While I'm there, I'm going to look at buttons for this top. I haven't decided if I want brown, or beige like the background of the print. I'll probably get both and decide while looking at the top on my dressform. And yes. Yet another top for me with a brown neckband or binding. ;-)

While cutting the Onion top, I also cut a new Ottobre gathered front tee with plain short sleeves. This is it below. (It won't have brown binding!)



The fabric is from Melody (my cutting table inspiration) of Fashionista Fabrics. I ordered it from FF last Wednesday and had it on Friday. That's fast service! I really like the fabrics I ordered so I'm hoping Melody will keep adding to her inventory and feeding my addiction ;-) … although there are still a few nice earthtone prints (my favorites) in stock that are also whispering my name.

Speaking of my cutting table, Nancy asked in the comments if I had photos of it finished. She must've missed that entry, but no problem … here it is. Oh, and she also asked about my jeans pattern. It's OOP Simplicity 4068.

And Blogger still hasn't fixed the photo download dialog box problem. Grrr. There's supposedly a workaround but I'm too lazy. So if you want to enlarge the photos from the last couple of days you'll have to click Open on that dialog box.

Fully Cooked Onion

(I couldn't resist one more play on the pattern name.)

(Edited to include a new photo.)

I finished the top last night and sewed on the buttons this morning, after a 20-minute dig through my button stash to find suitable candidates. My review is here, and photos are below. I'll take a pic of me wearing the top soon. I snapped a pic of me wearing the top tonight, before I changed into my bake-blueberry-muffins clothes. I've added it below.

I really like this top and the Onion pattern. None of the other Onion patterns are calling to me yet and I have a lot of other garments in the queue, but based on my experience with this one, I definitely recommend Onion. I purchased mine at Shop Onion. The delivery from Denmark was very fast, the price and shipping reasonable, and a downloadable PDF English translation comes with the purchase. (If you're going to order, please note that Maria, the Shop Onion website owner, is on vacation until 29 October so shipping is delayed until her return.)

Full Busted Onion

(I just love the name of these patterns and playing with them in my blog entry titles.)

I'm in the process of sewing up my Onion. I'm foregoing a muslin and forging ahead with the good stuff. Mostly because, truly, I have lots of good stuff and if this somehow doesn't cut it, it won't be the end of the world or even a small dent in the stash. But also because a comparison of my final pattern pieces against my TNT Ottobre tee pattern is purty darn close so I'm purty darn confident it's going to work fine.

The promised non-earth shattering FBA pics and narrative follow. Or would, if Blogger would cooperate. Grrrr. I'll come back later and update this.

* * * * *

OK, Blogger is still hiccuping, but I managed to get the pics uploaded.

This is the Onion upper bust pattern, unaltered (obviously!).




I traced that and made an FBA, resulting in the dart highlighted in yellow, below.



I then slashed from the shoulder down to the bust and rotated the horizontal dart to the shoulder, which resulted in the new dart opening highlighted in yellow, below. The new dart opening on the pattern is filled in with tissue and will be sewn as gathers onto the back shoulder seam.



Next, I added the extra width needed at the sideseam to make this piece match up to the width of my Ottobre tee, and then I laid the puzzle piece of a pattern on top of a new sheet of tracing paper and traced it, adding seam allowances too. Voila! Done. The new extra length of this upper piece will be eased into the sideseam at bust level.



You'll need to click this photo so you can see the detail in the larger version. This shows my Ottobre back pattern piece under the Onion tracing. You can see (I hope) the original Onion width, and the 2" I added. The original Onion shaping is very similar to the Ottobre, with just the overall width being different. Which is to be expected since I'm wider than the largest Onion size. ;-) (The Onion XL size in inches is 42-35-46.)



If you're going to do a similar FBA for this pattern, be sure that your results for the top bodice measure 1/2" narrower than the bottom piece at the empire seam (circled in red, below). The neckband makes up for this difference.



For the sleeve, I eyeballed it using my Ottobre sleeve pattern width as a guide. It's a knit, it's forgiving, and I was too lazy to do a "proper" sleeve adjustment. This will work fine so I'm not worried about the Alterations Police hunting me down. ;-)



When I was getting ready to write the entry earlier, this is where I had stopped. You can see that my altered upper bust pieces do hit at the proper empire area, i.e., below my (Zillie's) bust. Since Blogger wasn't cooperating, I went back upstairs and continued sewing so I'm a lot further along now. I expect to finish it tonight and post a photo or two tomorrow.



Since my Ottobre tee pattern pieces were handy, after I cut out the Onion pattern, I cut out another Ottobre tee too. I'm planning to bind the neckline with the fabric in the upper left corner but it's nowhere near as bright orange as it appears here. It's more of a duller pumpkin orange. I really wanted to bind it with brown, but I think every top I've made lately has been bound with brown, including the Onion in the works, which might be verging on Too Much. Or not, since I do love them all.



And the best news is that while I've been sewing, DH has been in the garage building me a new cutting table base, with SHELVES!! Woo hoo! I don't think it will make it into the sewing room before next weekend since it will need to be painted, but it's close and I'll just have to be a little more patient.

Tracing an Onion

I'm about to leave for the weekly Friday football pre-game meal duties, but I did manage to squeeze some tracing time in this morning.

I like the lines of this top and bought the pattern, even though I could probably copy it pretty well by just morphing a TNT tee. There's nothing like the call of a new pattern, eh? Although I'm pretty sure I have learned my lesson for pants patterns!

I laid my TNT Ottobre pattern pieces over the Onion pattern sheet and could see immediately that things weren't too far off. Yes, I'd need to add width since my Otto tee is plus-sized and the Onion isn't, but it would be a straight 2" per side seam (according to my eyes and the Onion pattern measurements), so nothing too hard there. Everything else seemed to line up very well. Except the bust area for the front empire piece of the Onion. But I knew that would be the case, so I was expecting to need an FBA.

That's where I'm leaving the pattern for the moment. I've already slashed/spread for the FBA. Now I just need to rotate the resulting dart up to the shoulder seam where there are already gathers. I'll do that between meal and game time when I get home later and I'll share pics (although it's nothing complicated so it won't be earth shattering) probably later tonight or tomorrow. After the alterations, I'll sew an ungly knit muslin to test out the altered pattern.

Now it's off to the races …