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Sewing Diversions

Why is it the smallest breaks seem to throw my routines out of whack? A short Easter break (plus an extra kindy-free day for Jacob) and the house is a mess and I haven’t achieved anything this week. Well, that’s not quite true – I just haven’t done the things I planned.

With Kids Clothes Week coming up, I headed to my local fabric store with a list of things I needed for an ambitious “to sew” list. I mostly stuck to the list, but got distracted by this knit fabric for myself. Slinky and soft and the colours are just perfect for me. So I bought 1.5m, with no real plan for what I’ll make with it.

KnitFabric

Heading home, I dug out an old pattern for a knit dress with a cowl neck, thinking that might do. But then I got distracted again, and googled knit dress patterns. This lead me to the Hope wrap dress on Burda Style. Unfortunately, the pattern’s not my size and as I started playing with it to fit, I thought it’s about time I properly draft a top to fit me perfectly. I’ve wanted to do this for AGES!

I followed the directions in Design it Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch, but it turns out measuring yourself in a room with no mirrors results in some dodgy numbers (who would have thought?!). So muslin #1 (from some knit fabric in my stash) is in the refashion/turn into kids clothes pile (the benefit of having kids!).

Next up, I carefully measured myself in front of the mirror and made another muslin. This fit much better but had saggy fabric above the bust, which I kind of pinched out into the side seam, for a much better fit. The armholes also came in way too much, so muslin #2 is destined to be a tank top for bedtime!

Onto muslin #3 with armholes corrected and a much better fit. Then I started thinking what is the proper way to do the bust adjustment –hello internet, bye-bye a few hours!

Then I discovered “Pattern Making for Fashion Design” has three different methods for drafting knit tops (depending on the fabric type) which includes dealing with the moving of the bust dart. Morals of the story: the solution to the problem was right behind me all along and start with the pattern-making bible first! I’m still debating whether I should stick with my self-fitted version or draft another version the “correct” way.

I was meant to be tracing and cutting out fabric for Kids Clothes Week and went off on a completely different tangent (and am really no closer to making a dress!). Life in the sewing room can be like that, but I think I better venture out to the rest of the house and do a bit of cleaning…

What has been distracting you lately?

One Comment

  1. Story of my life…I seem to get frequently sidetracked. 🙂 But look at all you learned!

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