Update

I've tried on the blouse muslin with the proper undergarments. It has some problems. It fits great across and under the bust but there's something wonky with the shoulder seam. It's much too far forward for me, so I will have to investigate that. The back neckline is also bad. But that's my own fault for forgetting to scoop it out. PMB doesn't make nice back necklines IMO. Finally, the front seaming is a little bit off compared to the actual pattern makes I've seen so I will adjust that. (Have you seen Laura's review today?? OMG - it's gorgeous!) These changes will mean a new print-out and definitely a trip to Joann's since I squeezed the first trial out of my last remaining muslin.

All of this to come later as I'm being poked in the knee by Chili who is reminding me that we're late for our midday walk. He keeps better time than my wristwatch and never lets me forget it. Did I ever mention that when he wants something he pokes at my leg with his nose like he's tapping on my shoulder? It is the most adorable thing, except when you're trying to type a quick blog entry.

Oh, and Lisa, yes … DS was wearing a pair of the brown/orange/red boxers I made and everyone had quite a view. Thankfully this happened in 7th period so he didn't have to walk around the entire day with his behind sticking out. Although he really didn't seem to mind it one bit. ;-)

First Impression

Boy, this looks terrible in the photo, even for a muslin. But the neckline seam allowance is still on the top so it was really hard to get it onto Zillie. And apparently my pinning-evenly skills were sorely lacking this morning. (Speaking of Zillie, I really need to spend an hour with her getting her back to matching me. As she is right now, she really only matches me in the bust.)



While my bust is low thanks to gravity, the black dots are not marking the bust points. Those were my quick marks for pivot points when sewing the pieces together. The underbust seaming really is symetrical and would be in the photos if I had taken more time to smooth things out before pinning. Oh well. I'm not going for perfection here. It's really just to let you all know that I am actually making some progress on this. ;-)

I haven't actually officially tried it on me yet. I went to my sewing room before hitting the shower the morning and so the girls aren't properly supported yet. I did quickly put it on over my PJs and the circumferences seem to be OK, so fingers crossed that it won't need too much tweaking overall once I'm wearing a bra. (That's TMI, isn't it?) But my general impression is that it's going to work.

For the heck of it, I timed myself from pattern sheets fresh off the printer (fresh meaning 4 days ago!), through taping them together, cutting them out, and then cutting the muslin. I know that one concern about pattern software is "taping all those sheets together."

I had a total of 21 sheets of letter-size paper (similar to A4 for non-U.S. readers). It took me 8 minutes to align and tape the sheets together to form my complete pattern pieces. Yes, 8 minutes. It takes me longer than that to unfold and press pattern tissue and then wrestle what I'm not using back into the envelope.

Here's what the layout looks like before it prints. The yellow shows the pages that I've selected to print so I don't end up printing blank pages which would have nothing on them but a footer and alignment marks.



After taping the pattern together, it took another 5 minutes to cut out the individual pieces with a rotary cutter. Then another 10-15 to cut out the muslin. And finally, about 30 minutes to sew it all together, including changing my threads to use up non-matching, nearly-empty bobbins and pressing seams as I went. So, about an hour from print to muslin. Yes, I have practice because I've been taping sheets together for a while now. But it never has taken that long or been a major drag. I still haven't sewn a sleeve or the collar area, which I intend to do, but that won't take very long either since it's just a muslin and it doesn't have to be pretty.

Carolyn, of course you can have a copy of this pattern. But keep in mind what you'll be getting! It will be worse than a BWOF pattern. There are no notches on my "custom" pieces and some of the curves I drew I just smoothed/trued when I cut instead of fighting with the limited curve drawing tools in the software. Which means they will look rough on paper.

Parting shot: Remember DS's jeans that I patched the other day, except for the back pocket per his request? Well, this is how they came home yesterday. Ahem. Maybe sometimes mother does know best?? ;-)

Could Be a Blouse

I started doodling this BWOF blouse almost a month ago. I finally opened the file again and finished it this morning. It's printing as I type. I'm hoping to get the pattern taped together and a muslin cut today, but losing that hour last night feels more like I lost four and I'm already behind on my day so I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that it will actually happen. I'll also need to reshape the collar to match the magazine pattern but I can do that manually at some point before I cut real fabric.

To refresh your memory, the blouse is this one, #108 from the 01/2008 issue of Burda WOF:



Here's the progression of my pattern. More details are in the February 14 post linked above.



I went to Joann's yesterday to pick up some thread. It's been a long time since I've been there alone or without anyone waiting in the car outside. I got my thread and then I wandered over to the pattern books to see if any Simplicity patterns caught my eye since they were still on sale. I ended up with these four:



I'll probably never make the Project Runway pattern (3530) but I wanted to look at the short sleeve pattern pieces since they caught my eye. 3684 is a multi-cup size bibbed-front blouse which may be Plan B if the self-draft above doesn't work out. 3874 has a cute jacket that looks like a fast sew to make a casual cover-up for the blast of A/C in stores and restaurants here during summer. And, finally, 4122 will make a perfect dog walking top. It's probably not going to be my most flattering style and if not, I won't be wearing it where I'll run into lots of people. But it looks so airy and cool that I'll trade fashion for comfort when it's 95 degrees and 400 percent humidity. The donkeys, goats and horses won't care what I'm wearing, especially if I bring carrots.

I also looked around at the fabric while I was there. It wasn't for lack of trying, but I came home with nothing. There wasn't one single bolt of anything that I wanted. In fact, there were lots of empty spaces on the shelves so maybe I missed all the good stuff. Yeah. Right. ;-) That's OK. I have plenty of fabric to keep me busy. Except I totally forgot one reason I went, which was to buy a bolt of muslin. ARghhhh. I really don't feel like going back today so I'll drag out something ugly to use in the interim and maybe try to make it to J's during the week when it's less busy.

Another blouse pattern on my radar is this McCall's 5522 I bought a month ago. I'm not sure if I'll make this actual pattern or morph my TNT self-drafted pattern so that it has the underbust gathers. For now, the pattern envelope will just be eye candy and a visual reminder of what I hope to make.

Not a Blouse

This is not a blouse. It's the now-repaired crotch of DS#2's jeans. You'll probably notice the pocket is not repaired. That was upon request. Teenagers!



These also are not a blouse. Three are more mom-made knit boxers for DS and the striped pair is RTW, now repaired and once again ready for action. When he wears the jeans above, the boxers will peek out of the pocket hole. I think I'm supposed to be happy about that. ;-)



Adding a sideseam to the boxer pattern changed my order of construction a little bit but I think I actually prefer it. For one thing, I can sew the fly area while the pieces are still flat — always a plus. For another, it's so much more fabric-efficient. Timewise, it's probably about even between the two. The no-sideseams are faster to cut out but a little more fiddly to sew, and vice versa.

So, as you've probably figured out by now, I've made absolutely zero progress on any sort of blouse for me. Maybe tomorrow. But at least I've cleared off the sewing table.

Mail Call

I'm still in a slight sewing funk so not much has been happening in the sewing room besides mending, cleaning, and sorting. But the mailbox hasn't noticed. Friday, the latest Threads arrived and yesterday was a bonanza of Stitches, Burda WOF and Ottobre Woman.

This issue of Threads is one of the best in a while IMO. The articles are more in-depth and not just 2-pagers with lots of white space. I loved the two costuming articles even though costuming is not one of my true interests. And how cool to find out that the Cirque de Soleil's production offices are nearly local to me. There's also a jeans article from Sandra Betzina which, of course, caught my eye. It was interesting to read how her process differs from mine (construction order, mainly). And I like anything Kenneth King writes so another welcome article there.

Australian Stitches, on the other hand, seems to be going in the other direction. I'm sad about that because I've really enjoyed not just another sewing magazine but one with an international flavor. Aussie girls … I know you're a few issues ahead of this one, can I hope for better things to come?

Both the Ottobre and Burda magazines have patterns I'm putting on my (neverending) list. Pattern Review is running a fitted blouse contest this month so maybe I'll pick something from one of these and actually get it made before the deadline. Or maybe it will be another pattern. But I really do need and want to make some summer blouses and I'm hoping to get my act together this week and make some progress.

While I'm waiting for the magic spark, I do have 3 more pairs of boxers for DS cut out and I'll work on those this afternoon. I traced the no-sideseam pattern so I could add sideseams. That took all of 10 minutes, and now the big scraps from the first round of boxers have been used efficiently and are not going back to the stash closet.

Oh, before I forget again, I'll answer some comments:

"May I ask what brand of bread machine you use and if you would recommend it/buy it again?" I have a Black & Decker, but it's at least 8 years old. I know it must've been updated since then so I don't know how the quality compares these days. But I'd definitely buy my same machine again, if I could.

"You'd think I'd know what you mean by "cook the chicken", but I'm wondering if you saute/fry it? bake it? nuke it?" I just stir-fry it with a bit of cooking spray in the frypan.

"Can you tell me where you got the midget sunflower seeds?" They were part of the "Artisan" mix from King Arthur flour.

"What program do you use to outline your work on the computer? I have such a hard time with Adobe Photoshop Elements." I'm a Corel girl (I used to do tech support work for Corel way back when) and I use CorelDraw and Photo-Paint. I also use Illustrator and Photoshop, but not as much and not for quickie things like those outlines.

(Re the purse accessories I made for my mom)"Did you use in the hoop embroidery techniques or just make them from scratch?" Just from scratch and no pattern. I used a tape measure to measure around a pair of sunglasses and a tissue pack.

(Re the Burda wrap top) "I look at those wrap tops and think, "yeah right!" But that one looks really great on you! I might have missed it but what fabric did you use and from what source?" Thanks, and the fabric came from Melody at Fashionista Fabrics.

If I missed your question, I apologize. Please feel free to ask again. :-)