First Shirt Done Finally

 I have finally finished Simplicity 3684. It was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I have a few things I need to tweak about the construction and also the fit but nothing too heavy. I waited until I started this shirt to watch my Shirtmaking Techniques DVD and also start reading Easy Guide to Sewing Blouses and Shirtmaking: Developing Skills For Fine Sewing. So before I start my next shirt I WILL take time to do some research so it look and go together a lot better next time. I main places I had problems or just don't look as neat as I would like are the collar and the cuff.

As far as fit, I love it. Its the only shirt I own that doesn't pull across the bust. All of my RTW shirts have this problem, some are so bad that the buttonhole has stretched so much it won't even button across my bust, but they fit fine in all other places. The only adjustment I know I need to make is length, I like my shirts a tad longer, so for the next one with this hem shape I plan to add 1 inch. Also I feel that my buttons are too big for my liking but again a minor issue. This is my first shirt in years as a matter of fact one of my first items as a beginner sewist was a shirt and it took me three weeks to make it. Even tho it wasn't perfect I felt it looked pretty good for someone who was new to sewing and had no lessons just using books and common sense to figure things out. And I wore it proudly and had it for years I think I just lost it when I came here 2 years ago. Even tho by that time it was not wearable outside the house, I really liked it.

So here is my second shirt almost 10 years later. This one is made from a Japanese cotton shirting I got from fabric.com a few years ago. I always knew I wanted to use it to make a shirt but for some reason  never got around to making one. I think the biggest fear I had was for the very things that I need work on and is apparent in this shirt, collars and cuffs. I won't fake the funk they do make my shirt look homemade, but won't stop me from wearing it, I'll just never to get creative and cover them some how. The cuffs are not as obvious as the collar so maybe a simple scarf will do.

The pattern has a few other variations of this top but for me I just wanted a basic fitted shirt, I still may try the bib style shirt but with the plain sleeves. The instructions are pretty straight forward an are easy to follow even with the multiple views I never had to bounce back and forth on the instruction sheet. All in all I love my shirt even though it is not perfect, its only motivation to keep improving until it IS perfect.

Here it is paired with my last skirt .

Until next time, happy sewing...

March Plans

So my sewing plans all center around black and SWAP. I'm hoping to finish my shirt before the start of March, so I can start with a fresh plate. I still need to finish the other sleeve and add the buttons so I'll be up tonight trying to get it done in time.

So for March I have:

• Black sateen skirt
• Denim skirt
• Black and white dress
• Black floral tunic
• Black cardigan

Until next time happy sewing...

McCall's 5138 ain't happening

Let's put it like this after many Bart and Homer ( why you little....)moments with this pattern and garment I had to call defeat. I just don't know enough about fitting to make it work. So it was off to finding a new pattern, I needed a pattern that would be somewhat easy to fit. So I decided to try Simplicity 3684 it already has the FBA done for you. Since I was already using Simplcity 2599 I thought I knew which size to sew up, a size 12 with a D cup. I am SOOOOO glad I decided to make a muslin first. I used the same size as Simplicity 2599 and made the same changes. Well talk about a big surprise. The neck was fine a little tight but fine the hips again fine, bust was whole different story. Wasn't enough pulling going to get that thing to meet in the middle. Talk about feeling down. Here I want to sew for myself, I love to sew and yet I can't fit to make the things I want. I have no one here to help me so what was going to do. Am I confined to knits and loose fitting or ill fitting clothing.  After reading a couple of reviews, one reviewer noted that the shirt is very fitted, so I decided to retake my measurements and found that I'm between a 12 and 14. After that last shirt muslin I was just done with looking or even tracing another shirt pattern. I knew that after the McCall's shirt fail I wasn't going to be able to fit the dress pattern I had picked out, so I decided to try Simplicity 4118 a very fitted dress in a size 14,while tracing I noticed that the difference between a  size 12 back and a size 14 back was exactly half a inch,the same amount I was broadening the upper back on the size twelve. So the only adjustment I made was to lower the bust dart 1 inch and to ease from a 14 in the bust to a 16 at the hip on down. It was late and it had already been 4 hours in my sewing studio almost  5am and had not been to bed but I just needed to see how this was going to turn out. So I gave myself a half hour to pin, cut and sew up the muslin. I really didn't have my hopes since the 12 was so bad and this seemed more fitted. Well when I tried it on, I had to make sure I was still awake, it fit so well I could not believe it. I mean it looked almost as it was made for me. I took it off right away and went to bed thinking its something I'm not seeing no way this is fitting that well. So the next morning I tried it on for my husband to take pics from different angles so I could see all the way around. The only think I could see I needed was a swayback adjustment other than that it was almost perfect. So now I'll be changing my dress pattern to Simplicity 4118 and I'm hoping to make a muslin of Simplicity 3684 size 14 sometime this week. I'm more hopeful now that things will be much better.
 Until next time happy sewing.....