two wrong sides?

Couldn't capture this in a photo, but perhaps you've encoutered something similar: a fabric with two wrong sides.

I'm muslining the Jalie 2908 stretch jeans in a too-stretchy something I picked up for 1.99 to test the pattern with. It's an icky pale blue, light-denim weight but not a twill; the weave on one side looks exactly like the "wrong" side of real denim. The other side looks exactly like the wrong side of something else. What, I don't know.

While cutting the fabric I changed my mind several times as to which side was the "right" side, and finally decided there wasn't one. I picked a side and decided to go with that. Today, basting up front/back for a quick try-on, I went the other way.

Not that it matters. One glance in the mirror was enough to convince me that light-colored stretch anything is not a good choice on my butt, especially in a jeans fit. Unless I wear a tunic over it, which is a possibility. I wasn't going to stay in them long enough to find out, though, as it's too hot in the sewing room for trying on pants for more than a nanosecond.

I wish I'd remembered to cut the muslin with extra-wide side seams. "Boot cut" and I are not friends, so I straightened out the taper, adding some width at the knee and bringing in the flare to a straight line. The end result would be fine if I were slimmer through the hips, but as things are now the narrow leg makes my wide parts look even wider.

On the whole, though, not bad for a first muslin. I'm already thinking these could be cute at capri length, under a tunic. If nothing else, it might be worth finishing these pants for those days when I don't feel like working out. I could put them on instead of my exercise clothes and admire my rear view for a dose of instant inspiration.

Speaking of pants, I finally got the Marrakesh pants pinned for hemming. It took about six tries, spread out over ... how long has it been? 10 days? Felt like for-frickin'-ever. Anyway, as of this morning they are pinned and ready to hem. As soon as it cools off enough to plug in my iron I'll press them and try to remember how to use the blind-hem foot on my machine.

I've heard that every blog post needs a picture, so here's my little cutie enjoying one of his favorite toys. This box had one open end for pantry use, and when he became fascinated with it I cut a large hole in the other for greater play possibilities. He likes to "hide" in there (sticking out both ends) before pouncing.

Inching along

OMG I got no sewing done at all, this week, in spite of waking up every morning determined to fit a few minutes on something wardrobe-related into the day. The thing is, I'm deeply into some important-to-me (but dull to you, so I won't go into details) work projects that I long to complete, and that's been keeping me busy until it's too late in the day to attempt sewing without a too-large risk of stupid sewing errors. I've ended up collapsing on the couch to watch such intellectually challenging shows as Wipeout, which is good for a few belly laughs at hapless contestant expense every time. I find the compulsion to laugh at pratfalls fascinating, and the more laughs I can fit into the day, the better.

So, onward: here's where I'm at with the Marrakesh pant:

I ran out of actual muslin some time ago, this is rendition #2 from a sacrificed set of old cotton sheets. Believe it or not, I think I almost have a muslin that might possibly result in a good-enough-to-wear fit. I say "almost" because I have not dealt with the elastic/drawstring casing at the waist. What I did was cut a very tall front/back leg (literally about 6" extra at the waist) so I could do the thing where you tie elastic at the waist and pull the muslin up/down here and there until something looks right. I tried to get the elastic at where I'd like the pant drawstring/elastic to be, then took a black gel pen and marked at the bottom edge.

You can see in the photo above that the center back seam on my almost-fitted muslin is about 3/4" higher than the side seam. I am going to have to firmly remind myself, when I cut my fashion fabric, that as wrong as this looks it is right for me. The good news is that after making several muslins, each from the last without reference to the paper pattern, it looks like the back waist casing is a pretty close fit to the pant I've ended up with.

Not so much on the front, though. I'm going to try the front waist casing at the size 14 length and see how that goes:

Next up, cut casing pieces from some one of the previous muslin-fails lying around here somewhere, and sew those on for a final (please God let this be the last one) fit. I've read all kinds of reminders that when fitting pants it is imperative to include the zipper and fly at the muslin stage, but the thought of doing that makes me want to put a gun to my head. Seriously, I've been fooling around with this pant for about as long as I can stand. Dealing with fly extensions and a zipper is just too much. Plus, the waist isn't exactly "fitted" on this one, so I'm going to wing it.

I'd really like to get this next step done today, so tomorrow I can try to figure out length (my muslins are cropped to flood level because having to roll or pin up the bottom was driving me nuts) but it's about as hot and humid and sticky as it gets here. Where's a cool and drizzly day when I need it for comfortable sewing conditions?

Speaking of which, on recent cool and drizzly late afternoon I looked out the window of my home office and saw this fabulous double-rainbow (part of it, anyway; I grabbed my camera and climbed up to the top of the empty lot next door to capture the whole gorgeous thing):

What I saw from my house was more like this:

Liverpool Shirt - in process

Not so hot and stick today, but that doesn't mean I'm in any mood for modeling. So, herewith, a work in process on the hanger:

This is the popular Amy Butler "Liverpool" shirt/tunic/dress pattern. Believe it or not, this is the shortest -- "shirt" -- length, with the 3/4 length sleeve option. It's not hemmed yet (or even pinned up) but even so. It's a long shirt.

It's either going to be awful or wonderful, and right now I'm close to hating it. On the other hand, it's a muslin, so marginal fit and questionable fabric choices aren't the end of the world at this stage.

You might think I''m nuts to use such a yummy fabric for a muslin, but it has been in my stash since the dawn of time, and for good reason: it's a tightly woven, super-crisp cotton, poorly suited for garment use. I got about 3 yards of it several eons ago at the Pierre Dieux store on Madison Ave. in Manhattan (I think that location closed long ago, but I could be wrong), where they used to sometimes put bolt ends and remnants on sale at normal-people-can-almost-afford-it prices. The print is "me" in that over-the-top way, and I love it enough that I was getting sick of seeing it in the stash. The urge to use it for something, anything, came over me while I was rooting around in the stash for a fabric to test this pattern with.

The contrast trim is a kooky quilting cotton, also of ancient vintage, with abstract football-ish shapes in blue-red-yellow on brown. I like that it almost has a leopardy look to it from afar. There's a good chance I'm the only person on the planet who thinks these two fabrics go together. On alternate minutes, when I'm not wondering what the *&%$#! I was thinking.

As you see it here, it's all done except for buttons/buttonholes and hemming. The front edges are pinned together, as it will look when buttoned. I left off the sash, BTW, and the cuff buttons.

You'd think 6 darts on the front would result in good shaping, but eeesh, the shape of this shirt is not matching up to my shape very well, in spite of great efforts taken with flat measurements and pattern adjustments. I cut a size L, but used the lower, XL, dart positions, because I need more length in the torso and the L darts were clearly too high. I also moved the waist down a half-inch.

Something about the waist is still not right: the widest part of the fish-eye darts is now at my waist, but it still looks like it's sitting a little high at the side seams. And I either need to open up the side seams and put in the sash I left out, or add a couple fish-eye darts to the back, which is schlumpy and shapeless compared to the front.

Usually a size L top is huge across the back on me (and too narrow across the front), but this one is too large (though not too wide) in front, and pulling across the shoulders if I move my arms. The armscye is way high, to the point that I almost have to wriggle into the sleeves, and couldn't possibly wear anything but a sleeveless T under this. Which is a problem, as at this point I'm thinking that getting a good fit buttoned up may be impossible, but it has possibilities if worn open as an overshirt.

This may sit in the UFO pile for a bit. I think it's salvageable if I:
1) Fiddle with the bust darts, which point straight in from the side seam (odd), and I think they need to be at an angle
2) Fiddle with the fisheye darts: I think there's too much nipping in at the waist for this fabric; slightly narrower darts might ease the poor draping (although this crisp fabric will never, ever drape well)
3) Experiment with adding small fisheye darts to the back, which is huge at the waist
4) Lower the armscye (no idea how to do that, but I've got several books that cover that kind of thing) enough so it doesn't pinch, without losing mobility

Ugh. None of those tasks is the kind of thing I feel at all enthusiastic about. On the other hand, I've come this far. And look what a nice job I did matching up the print on the L/R front pieces... abandoning it will feel like a loss.

I need to focus on sewing some clothes for my trip, and I don't think this one is going to make it. Unless I get around to muslining jeans out of the sky-blue stretch twill I got super-cheap for that purpose. In a perfect world this shirt, over a light blue pant, might end up feeling groovy.

Chances are slim, at best, that both "muslins" will turn out wearable, but I can dream, can't I?

Frankensizing

(warning: another long and rambling post that may be of little interest to anyone but me...)

I spent a good chunk of yesterday "muslining" the HotPatterns Marrakesh Pant ("straight leg, relaxed fit" with one of those HP combined elastic-drawstring + zipper waists: sounds forgiving, right?).

Some of the reviews over at PR suggest that this pattern is not for pants newbies, but the fly front, faced pockets, etc., do not intimidate me. It's true that after muslin #2 I and ended up with a worse fit than I'd started with (resulting in some profanity and a creeping sense of despair), but none of the style details have anything to do with that.

I am not giving up, however. Here in Hawaii I can get away with wearing skirts every day in public, and yoga pants (at home only) in cooler weather, but pulling that off during my October mainland trip will be difficult. I dearly, dearly wish for at least one pair of medium- to light-weight pants that fit, and since RTW will never deliver on that dream, I have no choice but to keep on until I can make them myself.

After walking away from utter failure yesterday, I regrouped and spent an hour or so browsing sewing forums for advice and re-reading my two pants fitting books...:
~ Pants for Real People, which is highly praised but did not deliver good results yesterday; I got caught in a feeback loop of pulling up at the waist to resolve problem A, which made the cr.curve too high, recutting which resulted in problem A again. After going through that two or three times it was clear I was heading for no improvement in fit but with a waist at the armpit and the pants hem somewhere around my knee. I do appreciate the "real people" approach, but none of the real people in the book are shaped anything like me. Heads-up folks, some of us pudgy middle-aged ladies carry our excess in a very curvy bum, not so much the belly and hips (not as slim as they once were, but still a long way from huge).
~ Easy Guide to Sewing Pants, from Taunton Press, now available as PDF download, which is quite detailed, with many diagrams of how to change a paper pattern. More photos/diagrams to help identify the problem to which those pattern fixes refer would be helpful.
... and the Threads magazine article (#142 July '09) on fitting pants to a curvy figure, which so far has been the most helpful.

As frustrating as the unsuccessful muslins have been, I now have a significantly improved understanding of my fit issues, and that's an important first step. Here are some problems and hiccups I've encountered:

1) "Choose your pants pattern size by your hip measurement." Um, okay. I'm exactly halfway between a 12 and a 14 hip on the HP chart for both waist and hip measure. Based on my Kyoto skirt experience (and even a passing glance at my hip profile in a mirror), however, I know I'll need extra butt room. I decided to go one size up and cut a 16, figuring I could trim if/where necessary.

2) But wait, let's take a gander at the crotch length measurements. I am "long in the hip" (more distance than average between a low crotch and a high waist), but had not realized that on the HP chart my crotch length is between size 18 and 20, and cr. depth a solid size 20. My "center front" (floor to waist) BTW, is a whopping size 22! Gee, do you think maybe that's why the incremental pattern adjustments my resources recommend were not delivering a good fit? According to a flat measure of the HPMP pattern, the size 16 back crotch length, point to (low) waist, is 2.5" too short for me.

I'm not going to try a larger size because the only successful revelation of the muslins so far is that they hang better if I take at least an inch off the outseam (bringing the pant leg down to somewhere around a size 10). Going further up in size seems likely to deliver so much extra fabric at the back of the thigh (already an issue) that it won't be worth any hip/crotch improvement.

3) In the absense of one of those flexible ruler things to capture the full glory of my curves, this morning I followed an online tip and twisted up a coil of aluminum foil, pressing it firmly front and back. I don't expect it's truly accurate, but take a look at it overlaid on the pants back from my original HP size 16 muslin (no adjustments yet):

As you can see, I am not exaggerating when I say my butt is "curvy." My curve is so far off the pattern I'm not even sure where/how to line it up; either way it's somewhere between fascinating and appalling. When I am slimmer this profile does shrink some, but the basic shape remains unchanged. Where this JLo-worthy shape came from is a mystery, BTW: I am the product of a solidly WASP gene pool in which the most exotic contributing element is a scant touch of French from way, way, way, way back.

However, this does help me understand why the unaltered muslin is snug in the butt while I can pinch a half-inch or so extra out of the hip (two fitting issues that seem as though they should be mutually exclusive, a situation that utterly baffled me yesterday).

Anyhoo, now that I've taken a break to write up this post and play with the photos, I'm going to give the "Threads" slash-and-spread method another go and see how I do. I'll post more pics when I'm a little closer to a wearable solution. Wish me luck.

Kyoto Skirt (muslin) photos

Yeah, took a while to get these taken. Here it is all, in all its a-size-too-small glory. I don't normally go around in skin-tight anything, but wanted a short-ish top for the photos, and this one was handy. I figured I'm documenting how I look in a skirt that's tighter than I'd wear in public, why not continue that theme on the top half?

Not a bad looking skirt, from this angle. I might even wear it, if I can shrink down enough to eliminate the slight pulling across the hips.

This back view's okay, too, considering.

I'm liking the pockets today. All these pastel florals are a bit frou-frou for me, but I might actually wear this some day. If it weren't for this view:

I don't know if this is just too much godet for my booty, or if it's purely a size issue, or if it's just starting at the worst place on my butt.

It didn't occur to me until I saw this shot that godet placement might be a problem. Ordinarily I add at least 1" to any skirt, often 2", as I'm 2"-4" taller than patterns are designed for. But this one I left alone, because out of the envelope it's exactly the length I was going for (the front hits just at mid-knee, which is shorter than as shown in the illustrations and HotPatterns videos). On the other hand, I'm wearing this about an inch below my "natural waist" since that's where I like my skirts to sit. So you'd think those two factors would cancel each other out.

I do still want to make this from a solid, lightweight twill, with all the bias trim and top-stitching. But I think I'll put this pattern on back burner for a bit. Going up a size is easy enough, but I don't like all of those folds of fabric bursting out of my butt, and will need to mull over what to do about that.

Kyoto Skirt preview

The Kyoto "muslin" is done. Here's a preview (it's midday, but dark and rainy at the moment, not good for anything but a quickie on-the-hanger snapshot. I'll model it for you as soon as conditions improve and I can corral Mr. de H. into photog duty.)

As you can see, my fabric choices started out a bit silly, and got worse, which is what happens when you decide to make a muslin from all the stuff in your stash you aren't likely to ever use for anything else.

I didn't bother with elastic at the waist, just made some ties. I forgot to leave the little tie openings in the side seams when I sewed them up, so figured, "it's a muslin, what the h*ll, I'll just put the openings in the facing and put that on the outside" -- which is a design option, not just me losing my mind.

Once I'd done that, I figured I might as well put the hem facing on the outside, too. It's a bit much. I kinda like it ("a bit much" is not necessarily a bad thing in my world), but can't decide if the overall effect is waaaaaaaay too young for me, or overly grandmotherly, or somehow both.

I almost left the pockets off, but I'd already made them (double-layer, with the polka dots on the inside), so slapped 'em on, and discovered that patch pockets alone made the whole thing look too much like an apron, so I added the polka-dot pocket flaps, too.

You can see the godet in back hangs lower than the front, which I gotta say is one of my fave features of this skirt. Booty issues mean that a "straight" hem ends up not straight at all on me, unless I make adjustments. With this skirt, all that is a non-issue.

I was a bit optimistic when choosing to muslin a size 12, which is snug around the belly and hip area. But you know what? It's a bit less snug than when I first did up the main seams a couple weeks ago. Another month or two of workouts with Tony *, and it might even be wearable. 

* Totally not my idea, but hubbie's into it, so I've been doing it too. Even at my wimpy pace it's having a nice effect.

Future project #2

Here's one reason I haven't posted any tutorials yet:

I love this ironing board. It's extra wide, and super sturdy. My old one used to collapse on me on a regular basis, which led to much hissing and/or yelling of obscenities on my part and a refusal to ever iron anything. But this one's great. Except that I've been using it for several years now with the default muslin cover that came with it. Which has not stood up well to the great blasts of heat and steam that come from my super-duper iron.

From time to time I start to photograph the steps of something that might become a tute, but inevitably some pressing is involved, and I think, "cr*p, I can't use a photo of this hideous thing."

So, future project #2 is to make a new ironing board cover. Easy project, but the only fabrics in my stash of long enough length are pricey designer cottons that I'm not willing to sacrifice for this purpose (unless the day comes when I decide I'll never get around to making whatever it was I thought I'd sew from them, which is entirely possible but hasn't happened yet).

I'd run right out and get some fabric except I'm about 40 days into a 120-day fabric-and-pattern embargo. And I really mean to stick with it this time.

On the other hand, once the embargo is over, a splurge on a suitable length of something pretty to re-cover the ironing board would make a nice reward for honoring the embargo for the complete term (for once!).

In the meantime, my ironing board remains blotchy and scorched and discolored, and any tute photos that involve pressing will have to wait.

What's that? How's the Kyoto Skirt coming along? Um, well, I sewed up the patch pockets for the muslin this weekend. A grand total of about :10 of sewing time put in over the past several weeks. So it still qualifies as an "active" project (incomplete, but not a UFO just yet), although progress is slow.

Wishful thinking...

... has grabbed me in the butt. Literally. Who'd have thought the Kyoto Skirt, with its generous waist, would be so fitted through the hips. Bottom line (pun intended), is that I need more space, especially in the mid- and high-hip, if I want to sit down comfortably, although the problem is at least as much across the front as in the rear.

It would have helped if the pattern had a standard hip point marked and finished garment widths provided (grumble, grumble). Plus, my flat measure appears to have been off (yes, I did exclude seam allowances, including the wide back seam), as my finished hip width is smaller than I thought it would be. I suspect I measured too low, or what I thought was straight across the oddly-shaped back pieces was really at an angle.

I also didn't flat-measure the high-hip, which clearly I should have, as that's where I most need more space. The "fashion" fabric I plan to use has some stretch, so it's okay if my non-stretch muslin is a teeny bit snug, but the 2" of ease I've got now is not enough for sitting. Plus, I might want to make this again from a non-stretch at some future point. So I'd like to get the muslin to a point where I'm comfortable with it.

I'm going to take a closer look at the side seams and see how far they can be let out. For the stretch fabric taking a narrow side seam might be enough. For a non-stretch, probably not. Then I'll take another look at the pattern, and decide whether to go up to a 14 or just adjust the 12, which would be easier than retracing the whole thing.

However, it's now Monday morning, and I need to set sewing aside and do some business-type stuff. Might do some fiddling with Kyoto in the evenings, this week. Or not. We'll see how it the days go.

Kyoto Skirt Muslin

My Kyoto Skirt pattern has finally arrived, and I'm ready to jump in.

Almost. I've decided to "muslin" before cutting into the fabric I have in mind. Don't really want to, but gut says I should.

Do you ever feel like you've got an imp on one shoulder whispering: "You don't need to make a muslin! It will be fine. Cut the good stuff already and let's get sewing!" And on the other shoulder is your guardian sewing angel, trying to get your attention: "Don't listen to her! You'll be sorry if you don't make a muslin first."

Sometimes I listen to the imp, some days I heed the angel. I've decided to heed the angel this time because this is my first Hot Patterns pattern, and I don't know how that line will fit. Going by the HP size chart, length should be okay, but my waist and hip measurements are smack dab in the middle between a 12 and a 14. So which is the best choice? Since this is not a tightly fitted garment, I'm going to try the 12, because who doesn't want to sew the smaller size? Based on flat measures of the pattern I should end up with 4" of ease in the hip, which isn't huge, but ought to be enough. We'll find out.

First up, what to muslin from? As you can see from the photo above, I've gone a little goofy with it. The main fabric is the Kaffe Fassett "anemone" in pink/purple that I decided not to use for my hexies quilt project. A bit of an odd choice for this pattern, more so if I make patch pockets from a piece of uber-girly Heather Bailey print from the stash. And why not throw some polka dots in there, while we're at it? (I had the insane impulse, just for a moment, to make the godet from the Heather Bailey print, too, but even at my goofiest I don't need to walk around with an explosion of flowers coming out of my butt.)

My inner 4-year old is going to love this skirt. Assuming it turns out wearable. I might even go totally wild and make the bellows pockets and flaps. Just for the hell of it. Since this supposed to be a quickie muslin I'm skipping the piping and top-stitching, and won't bother with interfacing all the curved edges (isn't that what stay-stitching is for?), although I'll edge-stitch the yoke curves and godet seam for stability.

If this one lives up to expectation, I'll go ahead and cut into the dark olive twill I've been seeking a purpose for. That one will be a more sedate version.

Vogue 8232 - muslin

I whipped up a muslin of Vogue 8232 this morning. I've been wanting to make this dress since seeing Cindy's version, so when Vogue patterns went on sale a few weeks ago I snatched this up. I'm not doing a maxi yet, but if this turns out to be the "TNT" dress pattern I've been looking for I will add a long version to the projects list for sure.

This is my first time adjusting a princess-seamed bodice pattern. I started by making the front a size larger than the back to accomodate my barrel chest, and added 1/2" length to the center front piece, tapering to nothing along the front-side pieces. This worked out better than I'd hoped. The waistline hangs perfectly all the way around, and the fit through the bust is good. And the skirt back sits well, so the "swayback" (i.e., big butt) adjustment was a good idea, too.

It does need tweaking, though. The front shoulders are too wide (which means they are really wide, because I don't have narrow shoulders), and I need to "pinch" about an inch out of the center front neckline. I'm going to have to play around with the center front pattern piece to figure out how to fix both those fit problems without messing around with the bust fit, which is pretty darn good for a first try.

The entire back is just a tad big, although the length is fine for once (thank you, Vogue!), I need to study my rear reflection in the mirror a bit more and ponder potential fixes. I think a minor adjustment to side back seams, and taking out a bit at the center top on either side of the zipper will do it.

Don't know that I'll get back to this today. It's midday, now, and a bit sticky for any more trying things on until it cools off a bit. I think I'll cut a new center front piece to get the adjustments right. Back torso fixes I think can be done by taking a slightly bigger seam here and there.

So far, though, this dress is showing tremendous potential, so I'm thrilled ... even though I'm horrified at the size I had to cut, and am feeling a bit like a whale lately.

I also don't know what fabric I'm going to make this from when I get the muslin tweaked to an acceptable point. I have a dark pink provencal print that's been in my stash for over a decade (!), but it's much crisper than the muslin and I suspect the skirt might not drape well. Which is why it's still in the stash.

I have a ton of fabric in my quilting stash, but no large pieces. I might have to go fabric shopping...