I fought the Crepe & the Crepe won.....

Just keep sewing, just keep sewing, just keep sewing, sewing, sewing.....

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Well, I put the Crepe in a ziplock yesterday. We need a break. It's been slow going, and I finally just decided that I'm not enjoying the process. It has nothing to do with the pattern, or the fabric this time. It's me.

I can't seem to get the bust darts to be un-dimpled, the bodice fit with the sash is completely different than it was without. The back (that I've had virtually no problems with since the first muslin) is very baggy. And to top it all off, the back neckline facing on the left side is too short. I haven't the faintest idea what happened there. I cut both back neckline pieces together, they were the same size. None of my alterations should have effected that particular piece of the garment...yadda yadda yadda. I have extra fabric so I could cut another piece & give it another go but...sigh. I just don't have it in me.

So, into the ziplock she goes. I came to the realization that at this point, I'm harboring such animosity toward this garment that even if it turned out I'm not sure I would wear it. Which is a shame. Because, boy, did I put a lot of time into it.

I'm washing my hands of it & moving onto the cardigan of New Look 6735 for my Spring sewing. My fabric is all laid out & ready to be cut. I'm looking forward to working with a knit again. As much as they intimidated me at first, I'm finding that I'm beginning to prefer working with knits over wovens.

Crepe Sash & Piping: Need opinions

If I ever finalize which alterations to do, this is the fabric & embellishments for my Crepe.

Option 1: Fabric on far left for sash with coordinating piping. The piping & sash fabric colors don't match 100%, but I think it can work.

Option 2: Light pink piping with a self fabric tie.

What do you think? Contrasting sash & piping or self fabric tie & matching piping?

Crepe Muslin 2.1

And here you all thought that we were done with the Crepe muslin. You thought the next you'd hear of it, it'd be fully finished. That's ok. I thought so, too.

So what happened? I tried on my current bodice (the one with the fabric fail). And I couldn't help but think, Could it be better? Could I do better? I decided there was only one way to find out. I looked over my Crepe notes (and posts) and decided what alterations to keep and what additional alterations I'd make.

What stayed the same:

I took in 1/4" from the front pattern pieces
Lengthened the back darts 1 1/2"
Curved & shortened the front waist darts

New Alterations to 2.1
I got up the nerve to chop off my little cap sleeves & do a sloping shoulder alteration on both the front & back pieces. I figured, What's the worst that could happen?  Worst case scenario I'll just go back to muslin number....four? No. Must've been #5, or muslin number 1.2. Confused?? Me too.  After muslin number 4, I went back to my original muslin and tweaked it a bit.

Further Changes

Ugh. The front waist darts look pretty sad. I don't know if it's poor stitching methods on my part, or if shortening them would be the solution. Also, I still feel like the sleeves are slipping off my shoulders, exposing my bra/cami straps. Which I hate. I may add a 1/2" to the neck line. And I may lower the sweetheart neckline.

The Verdict
At first I would have said, absolutely, i's better. But I've been pouring over my muslin photos, and I jsut don't know. For each muslin, it seems like one thing improves while another gets worse. The shoulder wrinkles for 2.1 look the same as muslin 1. This version wasn't was fitted, but it certainly is comfortable. I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet & move forward. This indecision is driving me nuts.

A Bit of This & That

I'm almost ready to give the Pendrell another try. Tasia replied to my concerns very thoroughly & it seems that the neckline problem is likely due to construction. Which is a bit of a relief; I was concerned it might be a fitting issue of some sort. Tasia also suggested that I do a mock up of the neck & neckband to practice with, which I thought was brilliant. So once I do that, I'll be off and running with my fashion fabric.

I also received a package from Fashion Fabrics Club in the mail today! This was my first order with them & I didn't have very high hopes. They seem to have some pretty mixed reviews out there. But as for me-I'm very happy with the fabric I received (though I haven't washed it yet) and it arrived very fast. I ordered it less than a week ago! They also offer a thread matching service, so I got a spool of thread, too. I will definitely be ordering from them again.

This is the voile I bought (for my Crepe).

I love it! It's much more opaque than my original Crepe fabric, but I am still planning on doing an underlining. I think I'm going to try to find a dark purple for the sash. I think it will make a very pretty spring dress.

So, you're officially caught up. :) Can't wait to share my finished projects soon!

Just a quick post...

I haven't posted in awhile but I have been sewing so I thought I'd stop in real quick & post an update.

 My Pendrell muslin is going great! It may even turn out to be wearable. :)  I'm using a super slippery fabric & that has been the biggest challenge. I should have pictures this weekend or early next week.

Ah, the Crepe. I've done the facings & am at a stand still. I think I'm going to, sigh, declare this one a wadder. Simply because of the fabric. It really is too sheer. I'll never wear it. Even with a slip, probably. And in all honesty, I just don't have the heart to pour my blood, sweat, & tears (alright, that may be a bit dramatic) into something that I know from the outset won't work out. I still intend to sew the Crepe (and soon- this would be a great spring dress!) but only after I've found THE fabric. Oh, and I think I'm going to tackle the sloping shoulder adjustment. I'm working up the courage to slice that sleeve off & re-attach it.

So that's that. Consider yourself caught up.

Progress at last!!

I am excited to say that not only am I caught up on the Crepe, but I've actually sewn ahead a bit!! I stitched the darts & attached the front & back bodice at the side seam. :)

It was actually another project that brought my sewing motivation back. I'll post about that in a day or two. 

The only bad news about the Crepe is that because of the fabric,  I really don't know if it will be wearable. It is so, so sheer. It might work with a slip underneath. Either way, I plan on giving my all to the construction process both as a learning experience & also so I can donate it if it isn't going to work for me.

As for the Pendrell...I am very excited to get started! I received my yardage from Hart's Fabric (a black silk/cotton blend) & yesterday I got the pattern all traced out. In the next day or so, I intend to tissue fit & possibly sew up a muslin. I'm anticipating an FBA & also a sloping shoulder adjustment. I may also have to grade it up in the waist. We shall see.

Ramblings....

I'm really losing steam with the Crepe. I haven't even basted all the pieces of the fashion fabric & underlining together.

It isn't the design. Far from it. It's a fabulously versatile pattern with great instructions. It must be the fabric. Must be. It's very plain. And sheer. Very, very sheer. And fragile. It's just plain uninspiring. I'm determined to finish the dress, though. Even if I don't wear it.

Also not helping the Crepe are some fabulous projects I have in the que. For example, The Pendrell. Which, after HOURS of pondering & fabric shopping, I decided to go with a nice, solid black Silk/Cotton blend. I would have loved to do something with more of a 'wow' factor, but in the end, a nice black blouse is just so very versatile. And the ruffled version that I'm planning on doing will be great with a pair of jeans & heals or a high-waisted pencil skirt. And the fact that it is a silk/cotton blend combines the best of both worlds. The comfort & ease of cotton with the dressy look & feel of silk. Win, win. I'm certain it will fill a few holes in my wardrobe.


I'm also scouting out fabric options for the Sencha, which I ordered along with my Pendrell yardage (to save on shipping, of course).

Oh, also, I wanted to mention that I've been scouring the net for new places to buy fabric & I'm updating my "Fabric Shops" list on my sidebar, so if you're in need of some retail therapy, take a look!

Crepe Progress...

I got my fashion fabric cut out yesterday. It took me forever to iron the 10 yard of fabric (fashion & underlining) And have I mentioned how much I hate the cutting phase?

Crepe Muslin #4

Ah. Crepe muslin numero cuatro. Also to be known henceforth as my limit. I'm calling it. Final Answer. Leaving well enough alone, as they say. I'm very sick of darts. :)

A few days ago I got a really insightful comment. It had some how got filtered into my junk mail folder, but I caught it. I'm going to go ahead & just copy it here.

Jenna, I've just read about your muslins backwards and I hope you don't mind me saying but your first muslin of the front looks the best. This design with the cut-on sleeves is tricky and not really meant to be so form fitting.... If you notice in this muslin you have no shoulder wrinkles/creases as you do in the later ones. In fact the sleeves look perfect in muslin one. Beware over-fitting. If I were you, I would go back to the original muslin and just make a few changes to the back to eliminate some width and length as Vanessa above said. Good luck!

At first I thought it was crazy. No way was I going backwards. But once I looked at the pictures, I saw she was right. My first muslin was the best (as for the front, anyway.) Possibly even better than muslin #4. I'm going to be tweaking muslin #4 before I cut out my fashion fabric, but I won't be doing a whole separate muslin.

Muslin #4

Muslin #1

I went back to my first muslin & took in 1/4" from the side seams. I shortened & curved the waist darts. I also took an inch from the shoulders (which was way too much, I can barely get my arm through. LOL).

As for the back, I simply lengthened the darts by 1.5 inches. One of the gals from the flikr group said it worked well for her so I figured I' d try it.

After writing this post & agonizing over the pictures, I've made up my mind. :) Here are the alterations I will be making form the original pattern:

• Take side seams in 1/4 inch
• Take shoulders up 1/2 inch
• Shorten waist darts by 1 1/2 inches
  
• Curve waist darts

In all honesty, I think the fit (silhouette) is better when the waist darts go right up to my apex, but, I think it draws attention to, well, my apex. And I'd just rather not go there.

Now to get myself geared up to hand baste the underlining to the fashion fabric. Sigh.

Muslin 3: Upclose & Personal

The first time I put on my 3rd muslin I was incredibly irritated. For some reason, I expected it to be just right. Which makes no sense because I didn't do some alterations that I knew I should have. But I wanted to nail down the darts first. Which I did. Sort of.

Like I mentioned before, there is a wrinkle above my waist darts, right at my apex. Not good. Also, I am blown away by the amount of wrinkles at the shoulders. That being said, though:

Look familiar?? Yep. These diagrams are from Fit For Real People & they depict what sloping & broad shoulders would look like. I know from my body graph that I have both. Hence the wrinkles. Right? Gosh. I sure hope so. Because I think I'm going to have to fix that next. Which makes me nervous because, since these are cut on sleeves, the sloping alteration requires that the sleeves be cut off. *Shudder*

Onto the back. Mmm. Shoulder wrinkles present & accounted for. In this picture I had my husband do some tucking, but I think I'll ignore that until I get the shoulder issues fixed. So, all in all...3 muslins down. Minimum of 1 more to go. Sigh. At least I'll be able to give the darts another go & decide definitively if the wrinkles are there to stay & what needs to be done to evict them.

Muslin Update

Muslin 2 was a complete & utter disaster; much worse than muslin 1. However, I whipped up Musilin 3 last night & it shows promise.

Muslin #2: AKA: The Hot Mess

I had botched the waist & bust darts on muslin 2. I chose to completely cut out the bust dart & move it down, thinking (incorrectly) that using that method would be more accurate. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. On muslin 3 I simply redrew the point & kept the dart legs & it turned out much better.

I also chose to curve the waist darts on muslin 3 & had much better results. I do have an odd wrinkle right above my left waist dart. I'm not really sure if that's just me being bad at darts or if it is a fitting issue. I did not have that problem in the 1st muslin, so could it be that the wrinkle was caused by shortening the darts? I just don't know.

I now realize that I may have made a major mistake in altering the front before the back. Nothing to be done about it now. :) As for the back, it's quite baggy. I am hoping that simply tucking will be the solution. We shall see. Muslin 3 pictures to come.

Muslin #2 Plan of Attack

When we went to visit my in laws the other day, I took my muslin along to get some insight from my mother in law on the fit. I was mostly concerned about the shoulders & the disastrous back.

She thought that everything would kind of solve itself once the skirt was attached to the bodice, weighing it down. Now, I know I don't know much, but I wasn't sold. The other thing she mentioned was that the shoulders were sitting funny because the 'seam allowance' was sitting funny. Once you clip it, you should get a different hang. That did make sense.

So last night I clipped & ironed the seam allowances back & got a completely different result. It did not, however, 'fix' any issues. :) The sleeves now fall off my shoulders & (of course) the bodice is shorter-but I think it still fits into the ok range. I may change my mind, & add some length though.

Then I set about tucking & found that I was only grabbing fabric vertically. Can you tuck vertically? I wondered. It took me a few minutes to realize that I could just take in the side seams. So that's what I did. First I took in a half inch from each side & the front fit significantly better. But the back did wrap far enough (I had my husband secure the back, and when I asked him if it went past the dart, he confirmed that it did. Not really sure what happened there, but it certainly did not.) So I changed it to 1/4" & had the same results. Better front, worse back. Which is weird to me, because in my original pictures, it looks like the back is too big.

Since it was late-ish last night when I did all this, I wrote down my "findings" in case I forgot. So, this is my plan. For today. Hopefully the kiddos nap.

You can click to make it bigger, but here's what it says (numbers in parenthesis refer to page number in FFRP):

• Taking side seams in 1/4" on each side resulted in a much better front fit but made back too small.
• What if I took width from the front but not back? Start @ 1/4"

Plan of Attack Muslin #2

• Move bust darts (134)
• Shorten waist darts (134)
• Take in front side seams

Shoulders

• Sloping Alteration
• Take in additional ?
  

Crepe Fabric & 1st Muslin

My fabric arrived today & for better or worse, it is exactly what I expected.

I finished my muslin for the Crepe & already I can say that I am very happy about my decision to sew along. This is already turning out to be a great learning experience.

I'm pretty excited about the way it fits. I'd say that aside from the waist darts it's pretty wearable.

Amy mentioned that her bust darts are too high, & mine are too (according to FFRP they should point to the apex), but Patty's darts look to be a little high, too. Maybe that's how this design is intended.

Also, the waist darts are waaay too high. They go all the way to my apex, so I'll be shortening those, probably by an inch or so & that should be an easy fix.

There are wrinkles in the shoulder area, partially from uneven shoulders, I'd say. My right shoulder is visibly lower than my left (funny, never noticed it before) and also, it looks like my left hip is lower (gee, it's almost as if I've been carrying a baby on my hip for the last 2 years)

Back to my shoulders, though. The vertical wrinkles may indicate that my shoulders are narrow? Or could it be drag lines from sloping shoulders?

The back looks a little...disastrous. I'm going to have to look into that more. I may also try it on again & see if maybe the fabric was pinned wrong. As far as the wrinkles go, perhaps it is due to a broad back? (Is it possible to have narrow shoulders & a broad back??)

So, there it is. Being the "in training" seamstress that I am; any and all advice, suggestions, thoughts & comments are warmly welcomed.

Fabric Envy

My fabric isn't even here yet & I'm beginning to doubt my choice for the Crepe Sew Along. How's that for indecisive?

I mean, it's fine. It'll get the job done. I do like the color. But, the girls on the Flikr group have picked some gorgeous fabrics. Mine is pretty plain. Granted, yard for yard they cost about twice as much as the fabric I picked out (you get what you pay for??). Speaking of which. The fabric I ordered is now on sale. For $2.99 a yard. Now I find that just plum irritating.

Alas, I'll be sticking with the turquoise, and if I end up absolutely falling in love with this dress, well, I'll just whip one up in a more expensive fabric ;) And, come to think of it, this color would look beautiful on my red-headed sister. :) And she's about my size.

Crepe Pattern

The Crepe pattern was waiting for me at the post office yesterday. They shipped it on Thursday, and since they're are only one state away, I have a sneaky suspicion that it arrived on Saturday. No matter.

The packaging itself is just sweet. As I have heard, the instructions are a little booklet, with a vintage feel. I'd like to share what the 'Getting Started' page says:

The best advice for sewing is to relax, take your time, and enjoy the process of creating something just for you. Remember the old sewing adage: Measure twice, cut once.

At first glance, the cutting layouts intimidate me a bit. For one, I've never used so much fabric in one project, also, it seems that there are a lot of pieces. If I had to guess, I'd say the most pattern pieces I've ever used on one thing is 5. Maybe 6.

Aside from that, the construction appears very straight forward. I'm looking forward to diving in.

My fabric is scheduled to arrive on Friday & though I did order some muslin, I had planned on using an old sheet for this project muslin. I got the pattern traced, and the muslin cut out & thread traced yesterday. And, if anybody is curious I cut out a size 0 (according to my upper bust measurement). Which was just bizarre for me. I've just gotten used to being a 10 in pattern sizes :)

I was really curious about the darts. I've never used them in a project & I don't think any of my current RTW wardrobe consists of them either. I mean, I understand them in theory, but just hadn't seen them put into practice. So, I went ahead & pinned the darts in my front bodice & what do you know, my fabric grew boobs. It became three dimensional. Just like that.

Other than that, I'm hoping that I have thread to match my fabric, but if not, I'll just pay my mother in law a visit & raid her stash. :)

Gertie's Crepe Sew Along

As disappointed as I am to have dropped out of the Endless Combos contest, doing so has opened up the opportunity to Sew Along with Gertie as she tackles the Colette Crepe dress pattern. I haven't fully decided to participate, but geeze, it seems like a great opportunity to learn some new techniques while getting my hand held along the way. Gertie has scheduled the Sew Along to start on the 6th, which gives me about a week to get my pattern & fabric. It probably won't matter to much if I start out a day or two behind (surely I'll fall behind at some point).

There are downsides. The primary one being cost. The pattern is $19.40 including shipping & minus 20% off with Gertie's coupon code. Now maybe I'm cheap, but I've never spent more than $1.99 on a commercial pattern. However, Colette patterns are well known for their in depth instructions.

Also, being a wrap dress, it requires a lot of fabric. Over four yards. For each the shell & the underlining. But, I love me some fabric. So I've done some shopping. Here are my options.

First up is a really pretty Red Swiss Dot from Fabric.com. It occurs to me that I don't have a red dress. And I got to thinking that maybe every girl should have one. Now, Fabric.com doesn't have red batiste, but moodfabrics.com does, so I could order the underlining from there. Of course, that means paying separate shipping. Fabric.com does have ivory underlining, but since the Swiss dot is semi sheer, I don't really want to 'tone down' the red. I figure if I'm gonna go for it, then it's gotta be red all the way. :)

Next up are a couple voiles. The first one is pink with white dots. Pretty cute, but the description says that the dots are painted on. For some reason I envision them flaking off with time. Would that be accurate or am I just imagining things?

And lastly, a turquoise voile. I really like this color. I'd get ivory or white underlining for this one & the pink. Also, I'm going to do the tie in the same fabric, so I don't have to worry about choosing a contrasting fabric.

So, what do you think? Red, pink with white dots or turquoise?? I find myself leaning toward the red, but I don't know. The other two seem to be more versatile.