Myrtle Sew along

I'm a bit late in posting this because I've been super busy, but a few weeks ago I joined a sew along over on sewalongs.com

Remember the secret new pattern that I posted about? Well, I got an email from the designer's newsletter letting everyone know that there would be a sew along for it, and I went and signed up right away. Unfortunately, it took me a bit longer to get the money for fabric together than I would have liked. (That's always the case isn't it?) So I just got my fabric for it at the end of last week, and I'm almost positive I should have been starting the sewing for it by then.

By the way, how do you write sew along? Is it indeed "sew along" or is it sew a long, or sewalong, or sew-a-long? Ever notice how if you stare at the word "along" long enough it looks wrong?

Anyway, I ended up getting two fabrics. One as the muslin for it, because I've never sewn knit fabric and I'd rather ruin the cheaper of the two first. :p

           This dusty rose has more of an antique look to it in person, but believe it or not, it only cost me about $4 per yard, and when you need three yards, that's a wonderful deal! So, this is my muslin, and here's hoping everything fits wonderfully and I'll have two different colors of this dress.

This is the color I actually ended up choosing. I know that it's not a color I picked before from that post, but I couldn't find any jersey knit in those colors, except the white, and I couldn't decide because green looks fabulous on me! So, I let my husband pick for me. Aren't I nice?

Today I'm going to finally get around to washing my fabric and tracing my pattern pieces, and then cutting them out, while reading the sew along posts so I know what I've got coming.

 

PS- We got a new kitten on Saturday, and boy does she make writing blog posts difficult!

Bailey Gwyndolynn

Finished: Colette Patterns' Meringue Skirt

I finally finished the Meringue Skirt! The muslin took way longer than the actual skirt took. Partially, I think, because I already knew what I was doing the second time, and I wasn't really procrastinating as much on it as I was with the muslin. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I was afraid of with the muslin.

I know that half of the fun of finished projects is seeing them modeled, but...

I don't have a full length mirror to take selfies in, and I feel really narcissistic asking my husband to take pictures of me.

Alterations: I hacked off two inches in the length because I'm a petite, and I wanted the skirt to fall just above my knees, not below. Overall, I'm happy with the skirt and I wore it right away on a walk around the neighborhood with my husband. I am looking forward to pairing it with a butter yellow top that I have to bring out the yellow in the skirt, but that top is in the wash right now. :)

I should have taken in the waist a couple inches as well, but since I'm really new to this, I didn't feel confident in making that kind of an alteration. So instead of it sitting on my waist like it should, it comes down around my hips, which suits me just fine because that's where I wear my pants. Being a petite, high waisted things on me make me look shorter in the torso. I feel like Urkel. This means that those two inches I took out in the length pretty much mean nothing. In the models, the skirt falls a couple inches above the knee. On me, the bottom of the scallops hit just below my knee. But at least it's not that awkward few-inches-below-the-knee length that looks like it's supposed to be mid-shin but it's not...like it would have been had I not taken out the length.

To me, this skirt looks way bigger than what it is, but honestly, I know I have some body issues. I weigh more than I would like, and my shapes are not where I want them to be, but in my head, my body image is slimmer than what I really am.

The next pattern in the book is the Pastille dress, but if I'm really this big, and I google the dress and see others of my body type that have made it, I'm not happy with the results. I bought a really nice fabric, and I don't want to "waste" it on making something that I'm not going to love, all because I'm bigger than I would like to be.

For the record, this is not me being unhappy with the social standard of what I should look like vs what I really do. This is me being unhappy with the way I look because I know how I have looked in the past...and I want that back. I was a healthy size 4 (off the rack) at one point. I still jiggled in places, so fear not, I was not anorexic. Bacon cheese fries are far too delicious for that. Now, I'm a size 10. I can get into a size 8 pair of petite skinny jeans (I tried this past weekend) and they fit, but they don't make me feel comfortable with myself, and I know that if I were to have sat down in them, I'd have that doughnut tummy going on.

So for now, I'm going to stick to sewing skirts and keep working on my body until it's more where I want it to be. Shopping is great for pulling out your imperfections, especially in ready to wear. Every time I go shopping and am really honest with how clothing falls on me, I get really depressed. This time though, I knew what it was going to be like going into the "experience" and I feel that I'm coming at the issue from a much more mentally healthy standpoint.

I'm almost 100% sure that I have sewing to thank for that. Sewing sizes run much larger than ready to wear. I cut the skirt pattern from a size 14 based on my largest measurement, which is my hips (thanks to two children).

So my whole thing about sewing the entire Colette Patterns book will have to wait. I'm incredibly unfit and lose my breath easily. So while I build up to that, and slim down in the process, skirts it is! ... and loose dresses because Myrtle looks pretty amazing, even on the bigger model!

Shut up, Mom. You know why.

WIP Wednesday

I think I may be done with the Nerd Wars. I really love the idea of doing it, but I'm not really one for creating on someone else's schedule. I don't mind being given deadlines for things I want to make, but being told what to make really kind of blows.

That said, if you have a ginormous queue that you want to make, you could probably find ways to make it work. Moreover, if you're doing an afghan or a hexipuff quilt, this would be great for that. You could do one square/hexipuff for each challenge, get points for your team, and progress on you WIP.

Yesterday, I decided to cast on a new project, instead of finishing something already on the needles. What I currently have going on isn't really inspiring me to work on it right now. I do have a few balls of yarn that I need to soak and then let dry to give them their shape again, so I may do that. That partly involves working on one of my WIsP. I knit a hat way back when I was first learning, and it didn't fit because I didn't change needles for the brim. Years later I've taken it apart, and I need to soak it so the yarn can relax.

The new project that I cast on is the Indigo top by Mishellee Zaharis Poulin. I'm having some gauge issues with it, because I want to make it in a cotton/bamboo blend, and this schtuff grows like crazy! My swatch doubled in width, but remained the same in height. I may decide to save the pattern, but choose something else that was meant to be used with cotton and already should have the growth taken into consideration.

Just to prove to you, because it is WIP Wednesday, that I am indeed working on the Meringue skirt, I have a photo of my nearly finished muslin! I can tell already that there's going to be some fit issues. I've lost some weight since I took my initial sizing measurements, and found that the mark on my sewing machine plate that I'd had marked for the seam allowance, is 1/4" too small. It might all work out, but when holding the muslin up to my waist, it feels like it's going to be too big.

Meringue Skirt muslin. My house is not this messy, just my crafting area.:)

All that I have left to do, is stitch the part that's hanging down below the scallops, adjust for fit, and then make the real thing! I feel like making the muslin took me forever, but I know that I put it down for about a week for a couple more instantly gratifying projects. It makes me wonder why I procrastinate on things that will make me happy... like new skirts!

I'm looking forward to this skirt so much, that I even took the time to pull out the fabric, scan it in, and then resize and crop it down to something easier to look at.

 Isn't it adorable?

New pattern goodness!!!

I've just pre-ordered the new pattern from Colette Patterns! I'm really excited for this one because it's absolutely gorgeous and labeled as a beginner pattern. I've been sworn to secrecy until they do the grand reveal, so I won't say any more than that. Time to start browsing for fabric! WHEE!!

I'm thinking either white, or one of these colors:

I'm really loving these colors right now, and they're pretty much my go-to colors, but I don't care!!

Sewing is Addictive!

Oh my gosh, it's seriously been almost a month since I wrote a post, not counting moving the crochet dish cloth pattern here from wherever it got lost on the internet. I didn't write, because at the time, I had really nothing to write about, and I don't want to have a bunch of filler posts just because writing-a-post day has sprouted up.

I've been sewing a lot, and my knitting has been suffering for it. I really, really love the thrill of having a project done in a day. Making clothes for my daughter totally fulfills that. She's got two new skirts to prove it.

I've almost finished the muslin for the Meringue skirt from The Colette Sewing Handbook book. I got to the part about putting in the zipper, and kind of freaked out. I've sewn in one zipper before, and it was into a makeup bag that I was making for my daughter to put her pretend make up and brushes in. It didn't turn out. Well, the zipper was okay, I think, but there was a misunderstanding of the instructions, or the instructions were written badly for a "beginner" audience.

The first skirt that I made for my daughter was a circle skirt style. I botched up putting on the 1.5 inch elastic waistband a little bit, but you can't really tell. She absolutely loves it. I added some tulle underneath to give it some poof and a bit of modesty, but since she's a wild little thing, she still needs to wear shorts under it.

Jimmy Bean's

This is one of the main reasons why I love buying from Jimmy Bean's Wool (dot com):

I ordered this 3 days ago, and it arrived today. I paid $4 for shipping. The only thing I have ever been disappointed about with Jimmy Bean's is finding out they're no longer going to carry anything sewing related. It's yarn from now on. Given that I knit and stuff, I am happy about this because there's more room for more yarn, but it means that my go-to place for fabric, notions, and freaking fantastic customer service now gives me a sad.

I'll still shop here, happily! But I'll have to find somewhere else to go for sewing.

Now, onto some great news. What's shown here would have cost me about $100. It cost a hair under $50, because it's all on sale. Since they're not carrying sewing things anymore, they're selling it all from 40-50% off. Great things some times come from a sad.

As a side note: I love that Colette patterns come in little booklets like that. They're totally cute!