I made a sack!

Progress is slow but steady on Burda 2012-10-118A.  I had to grade this dress up and I did an awful lot of flat pattern measuring, measuring me, comparing to the chart, figuring ease, etc.  I marked the seam line, I cut wide seam allowances.

For some reason, I don't trust any of that work when the needle is going in the fabric.

This weekend I sewed up the side seams and it looked, well, like a sack.  You could see both bra straps, if I bent over you could see right down to my panties.  Not so good.  I didn't take any pictures because I really don't want to see it. Without any shape to the dress all I see is a fat sausage in the mirror. It's like I'm drowning in the dress (particularly since in a fear of cutting it too short it's about 3" from my ankles) like a little girl in her mom's high heels.  Not a bit of it was doing my ego any good.

This is not to say is a wadder.  The issue is that I made it too big, sewing in the big seam allowances rather than trusting my seam line.  I didn't take the back darts in enough.  The side gathers could start higher (that's a petite issue).  I have seen improvement just taking in those darts and side seams, but more will have to be removed from the dress before I put the sleeves on.  I do like the way Burda have you put the folded fabric of the cowl front into the back like a little sandwich, it's very tidy on the inside.  And when I cut away some of the extra seam allowance and moved the seam up, both bra straps were hidden.  I think it's always going to be the kind of cowl that you can't lean forward in, but at least we've moved to a little cleavage rather than panty viewing.

In other news...  Blood work for STD screening has been done for both Mr. Lina and I.  Wednesday morning I'm going for the sonohystogram and probably going to work from home.  It seems my doctor will be doing it which is good and baffling.  He's running a clinic with 3 satellite offices, that's a lot of patients.  There are other doctors who work in the clinic who could do tests like this freeing him up for other things, but I'm not going to argue, I like him.  However, I do not like that in order for him to do this, my appointment is at 7:10am.  That means I have to get up at 5:30 (because I know I'll hit snooze and get up at 5:45) to leave the house at 6:25 to be sure I'm there in time with Advil already coursing through my blood (while not the worst test, it's not fun) and breakfast in my belly (I feel remarkably stupid without breakfast).  On the plus side, I paid for it on Saturday so I don't have to add that time prior to 7:10.

Friday we're hosting a house concert with Tim Williams (side rant, why can't people commit?  We could have 8 people at the show or 22 based on all the replies of "maybe"), Wednesday night we are going to listen to Henry Rollins speak.  On Sunday I went to make something for lunch for us and realized I had no milk, no eggs, no tuna, no salmon, no cereal, it seemed like nothing at all.  And yet I had a cupboard full of food, a cold room full of food, freezers that were full.  The cold room is admittedly full of my mom's pickles, pickled beets, tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes.  The upstairs cupboards?  Well, I found a lot of expired food.  It felt good to clean that out but it did mean a stock up trip was in order last night.

With a busy week like this, I couldn't see J. P. Hoe in Toronto last night nor tonight (bowling).  Bah.  He was so good at OCFF, so personable, I really want to go but it just was adding one too many things to my plate.  Hearing him on CBC2 this morning was like salt in the wounds, so close and yet...  I can't go.