Victoria Day List

Provera is making my head rather fuzzy, paragraphs are challenging so let's go for a list...

• It's actually Friday, not Tuesday!
• 4 of 7 pills have been taken of Provera
• No hot flashes, no tears, no apathy
• Horrible brain fog.
• Grocery shopping with brain fog is not very efficient or effective.
• I wanted to buy non-paper tape for wrapping up my toe (it still aches with some motions) and Mr. Lina's hand.
• I am sure I looked at cloth tape
• I am sure I priced out that the roll was cheaper than the tape dispenser.
• I bought paper tape.
• It's a long weekend - Victoria Day.
• We have an unofficial early close, if nothing is due, you can leave early.
• Like I should be trusted to get anything done without errors when I can't buy cloth bandages.
• I am 7lbs down from my high weight and feeling rather happy about that.
• The strategy to make better choices is working and one good choice reinforces wanting to make the next good choice.
• My pants fit better, I don't feel bloated, it's good.tr
• I think I felt a small earthquake this morning.
• The Pattern Pyramid has arrived, post and contest to come soon.
• It's almost time to go!
• Yay!

Weekend Reboot

• I woke up and hit snooze
• I don't have to wash my hair this morning, I can sleep a little longer.
• I hit snooze again because it's Friday, meh.
• My drive is predictable on Friday, snooze a 4th time won't hurt.
• I finally got up and turn the radio off. 
• It's Friday, no need to reset it for tomorrow.
• I brushed my teeth and thought about the upcoming long weekend.
• I'm not ready for camping, so it must be next week.
• 'Cause, you know, it's Friday.
• I got into the shower and start to wake up.
• And realised it's Tuesday.
• Tuesday.
• 3 days to get through before it's Friday.
• That's a whole lot of time.
• It's like my brain wants a reboot, restarting from May 10th.
• Sigh.

I mentioned we did a lot of visiting over the weekend.  On my quest to make better decisions for my health, I think I get a shiny gold star.  Twice chips (a serious weakness for me) were around and I ate a grand total of one handful of chips.  It did help that at the second party they didn't refill when the first chips were gone.  I had lots of fruit, vegetables, small piece of birthday cake, was the DD for both events so no additional alcohol calories.  Actually, I did such a good job of having normal portions, my stomach was grumbling at 1am both Friday and Saturday night.  We stopped for late night food both nights but I aimed for smaller portions, cheese quesadilla (LOTS of salsa and cilantro) that I shared with Mr. Lina and a small chicken wrap at Wendy's.  I managed to weigh a little less this morning (I didn't weight myself Monday, I needed a full bladder at 8am for the ultrasound, I start drinking the second I wake up) than Friday, so again, a weekend win.  Tonight I'm going for a walk with a friend I carpool with to bowling.  We both want to get moving and it's more fun to do it together when schedules allow.

I've just confirmed we'll be hosting with Home Routes again in the fall/winter.  I don't know all of the artists that we'll be hosting, but I'm super happy to have Bill Bourne coming to my house in November.  He's from Alberta, has a very wide range of styles (so hearing one song is not really representative of everything), and a great stage presence.  I get the impression he's kind of quiet, we'll see if that's true.

WIP - Alma

What a week.  It's flown by so fast it's hard to catch my breath.  I have made some progress with my Sewaholic Alma, I have a few WIP pictures to share.  Not very flattering pictures, but that's what WIP and (hopefully) wearable muslin is all about.  Mr. Lina took these on Wednesday night but I didn't have a chance to post.  I made a little more progress last night but let's see where I was on Wednesday...

You'll notice the left and right don't look the same.  I (clearly) am not a small busted Sewaholic pear shaped model, a rather sizable FBA was needed.  Based on high bust measurements I cut a 16, but thinking about Myrna cutting a different size for front and back, I actually cut the size 14 for the back to see how that worked.  I added my FBA (can't remember how much, 1.5" maybe?  I think I needed about 3").  The thing is, I did a crappy job of lining up my darts.

What a mess.  My darts are way too low, there is extra fabric to pinch out and the lower darts aren't lining up with my bust.  I was rather disappointed but I could at least see where to start. 

So I marked my bust apex, redrew my darts and moved the waist darts to under my bust point.  (Side vent, after the terrible shaping above, I wanted to verify the right angle for bust darts and reference after reference would just say "and redraw darts to the correct place", and that correct place would be...?).

Don't I look perkier?  Not perfect but so much better.

Coming back to the top picture again...

On the right side I've pinned where I want the new dart to go under my bust (purple circle that looked far more noticeable when I added it).  The arrow points where the dart is.  When I did the FBA, I didn't think about how the lower darts would also need adjusting.

Last night, I fixed up both sides - tweaked the darts, gave them a better press and I based on the little sleeves to get a better sense of it without pins.  I didn't want to take it off.  I think I'm going to like this pattern. 

One question for those who have made it.  When I basted the side seams to check the fit, I started by leaving the zipper side open, but it seemed loose enough so I sewed it shut.  I don't need a zipper to get it off and on.  Am I leaving too much ease?  Is this normal?  Or is the zipper more important for the full sleeve options (I'm doing cap sleeves)?  I'm going to sew up the sides but I'd like to hear if there is a reason to add the zipper I'm not seeing.

So not much left to do.  I have not looked at the back with a critical eye, but it is not the obvious disaster that the front is.  There is space between my lower back and the blouse but I think it suits the style.  I think the most I'd want to do is end the back darts a little higher.  The sleeves need to be added on permanently and finish the side seams properly.  A quick hem and I believe this will be a truly wearable muslin, possibly even this weekend.  I don't think the pattern pieces will be going away prior to cutting out another one.

Is it the weekend yet?

Oh and not much to update on the FET.  I had some communication with the clinic about medications etc.  I will have 3 doses of Humira prior to transfer (so May 9th AND May 23rd - I'm going to need to buy more, $1,730 was for 2 pens not 3).  May 13th (Day 21) I'm in for blood work & ultrasound to see if I ovulate (doubt it) because that determines if I take Evil Provera or not.  Until then, I'm doing really well at taking my metformin, vitamins, (even flossing!) etc and making wiser choices eating.  I had some pretty bad PMS bloat going on with that period, I've lost 6lbs this week and I am quite certain that is not fat.  It's a good start that I'm aiming to build on in a very healthy way. 

You must read Falling Through Your Clothes today, it's exactly what I'm thinking about right now.  I'm not counting calories or following any stupid restriction (I am consulting a nutritionist, good timing for my work to offer up free access to a nutritionist for 6 months, no?).  I am simply paying attention to being hungry (which I have not been this week) and picking foods that are good for me.  I'm not happy at this weight, it does not feel comfortable.  My comfortable weight is higher than most charts, but it's a spot I can (generally) maintain and feel good.  That's what I want.

I wanna be in pictures

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted.  Aft Agley has given me a Liebster Award and I have that post almost ready but not quite.  And it's the not quite that has held me back from posting.  It's been a very busy week chez Lina.  Fortunately I did get a chance to tell you all to enter in the contest at Falling Through Your Clothes because it was that entry that won the fabric.  Super cool!  Thanks, FunnyGrrl.

So what has gone on?

• Two dinners with my SIL and my niece.
• Sadly they are heading back to NWT today, hopefully it goes well as Toronto has snow this morning and freezing rain coming as the day warms to +4C
• My parents have headed south to Florida
• Which means I can do a little cheap-shipping online shopping this week (yay!)
• Last day of principle photography for Mr Lina's next movie was Saturday
• I did sew 24m of fabric into 3 backdrops - more on that below
• Corin Raymond released Paper Nickles - his Canadian Tire funded album, we went to the Wednesday release party
• A bowling tournament yesterday. 
• I did not bowl well but it was nice to bowl on wood.  The lanes I usually bowl at are synthetic, it's just not the same.

Busy, busy, busy.

So those backdrops.   They took way longer than I thought a few straight seams were going to take.  In short, these needed to be 9' high and light blue would be 15' wide and two in black about 7' wide each.  Mr. Lina wasn't sure how they were going to hang so flexibility was key.  I still wasn't healthy when we bought the fabric so some math was not quite right.

9' = 2.7m so we did buy 3m per panel leaving 30cm for a hem etc, 4 panels = 12m
45" x 4 panels = 180" = 15'

Anyone see the math problem there?  4 panels need to be sewn together.  Sewn together means there will be seam allowances.  And the blue fabric wasn't 45", it was 44".  By the time I sewed those 4 panels together and remeasured I was short by 8".

I am the win.

And when I measured out the black fabric (I thought starting with the smaller backdrops was wise) I added maybe 3 inches (7cm) for hem forgetting I'd need to also turn fabric at the top and that I wanted the bottom hem big enough to add weight or possibly slide through a dowel and that I did buy enough fabric for a 15cm hem.  So I really had to keep as much as I could at the top.

I thought it was rather unlikely they would have a true curtain rod to slide these curtains onto so I had to think about the top.  Ties seemed time consuming, velcro an option but not one I was really keen on.  Sewing velcro is not fun and at 9', that's a lot of weight for velcro to hold.  I decided some looped tabs at the top would be good.  If they could slide something through it, great.  If not, the tab would be easier to clamp or we could tie it to something or later on I could add velcro and make it fold down.  In the end, they had a bunch of these riser things that could make an upside down L, the tabs went through the short part of the L at the top and they clamped it to the long side of the L to hold it taught. 

To get these tabs to aim up, bias tape seemed the best option for attaching it to the backdrop (added benefit of keeping a lot of the fabric for the black backdrops that I cut short).  I had a package of black bias tape but it wasn't going to be enough for both backdrops.  I didn't have anything light coloured for the blue.  So what seemed like oh, a handful of 9'/15' straight seams turned into making well over 20' of bias tape.  That's a whole lot of ironing.  I did not count the bias tape nor tabs into my fabric purchase either.  There was enough for the black fabric because I only needed it for two panels and cut the hems short, but the blue backdrop, well...

My poor math skills also required a pieced side panel for the blue backdrops.  Being a few inches shy of 15' was okay, 8" was too much.  With the little fabric I had left (keep in mind I did leave a good hem allowance on these having "learned" from the black panels) I had 18" of fabric left that cut in 3 could be a 6" panel but after seam allowances only added 5" (so it's still only 14' and 9").  It was close enough.  I didn't like the look of the pieced panel.  Being pale blue and cheap broadcloth, seams showed.  Wrinkles showed.  Everything showed.  Fortunately, as much as the room was 15' wide, they needed less than 14' to show and the sides were wrapped around the pole so the pieced part was not on screen and it all worked out well.  Once they added the television show logo to the fabric (paper letters attached with scotch tape), it looked like a (very) low budget children's television show. 

Groopa maintenance between takes.  I swear I ironed every seam.

I thought I'd be able to do all of this last Saturday, maybe we would even go to a late matinee.  By 5pm Saturday, one of the black backdrops was done but I still had to make the bias tape etc for the other and the blue fabric had not been touched.  Clearly, I underestimated the time involved.  Sunday afternoon I was finally done.  It was 4pm and I was still in my housecoat not even showered for the day.  It's a damn good thing someone had to cancel the 3pm lighting tests because I was not done in time for that.

All is well that ends well.  I have a 14" by 16" piece of blue fabric and about 6" of black fabric left, essentially nothing.  When I saw them raising the curtains to 9' and put the lettering up, I felt really proud that it was my contribution to the film.

On filming day I did craft services duty (aka food) and I got to be an extra.  As an extra, I was the puppeteer for Jingles, the girly puppet with bells all over.  All I had to do was walk off stage and guide my brother Scot wearing the Groopa suit and look unhappy.  I don't think much of me shows on camera (I was an extra after all), but I was wearing a Renfrew for it.  It was a strategic choice on my part to wear something self made.

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.

Oops

So remember how I was going to cut the front so the little bit of stretch when around my hips? 

Guess what I forgot to check prior to cutting?

The front now has the stretch going up and down.  And no, there is not enough fabric to cut a new front nor new skirt.  I don't think there is enough left for a single sleeve.

Any suggesions on what to do?  The skirt should be on the bias from the original pattern, is that going to make it okay?

Adventures in Burda-land

I think this Burda project is going to require time, but expectations of small amounts of progress for the time spent.  It's a bit of a learning curve to sort out where to look for, well, everything.

Mr. Lina is sick, just a cold, sore throat, whatever.  I left him to video games last night and thought I'd tackle the dress I mentioned yesterday, 118A (B being the shirt version).  I pried back the staples and pulled the pattern pages out and started to unfold them.  I had a Jaws moment.

My goodness those paper sheets are huge.  I was already expecting a crazy eye chart of lines, but wow, that is really impressive.  I don't like marking patterns directly, but I don't see how you can find the right line to trace without making it stand out more.  So I got my highlighter out and was about to start when I realized I have no idea what size I am in Burda-land.

So I pulled out my measuring tape.  This was not fun at all.  I guess my belly was full of cabbage soup goodness, I am well aware I'm a little heavier than I was, but I had to check that waist measurement twice.  It turns out it was crazy bloating because this morning my waist was 2 inches smaller.  Crazy.  I'm still not sure what the "best" size is for me because I'm all over the map and heading more to their plus sizes (but I want the regular size dress!) so I'll be adding generous seam allowances and a FBA.

I had my pink highlighter in hand, patters are opened to Page A as directed.  I find piece 4.  It's small.  It's not suppose to be small.  I find piece 3, it is also small, and is suppose to be small but it doesn't look quite like the layout diagram.  Piece 1 and 2 are large so it's hard to see what the heck they DO look like until I've marked them in pink.  I don't see the very distinctive V shapes that will create the single side gathers.  The magazine refers to piece 1A and I don't see a 1A.  I was very confused.

There is a shirt version (118B) of this dress (118A).  Fehr Trade pointed out the difference in fabric between the "tweed" dress to the shirt.  The shirt has a metallic quality to it and seems stiffer.  So instead of a soft side gathers, it looks kind of wrinkled extra fabric at the waist.  I also think it's a little tighter across the bust than what is ideal. 

Source

I find the fabric description of "techno gabardine" a bit amusing.  Is it best used for light switch raves?

Anyhoo... back to the enormo-pattern sheet that just fits on the dining room table when folded into 4 so I only see Page A.  I look up the shirt pattern in the book and it says that pieces are on Page B, not Page A.  So I do a little origami to get page B facing up and sure enough, I see the V's, I only have one small piece, I have a sleeve, I have darts.  But I'm not that trusting.  I figure maybe there is something else wrong or a reason the shirt/dress are different, someone else has probably figured that out.  Google to the rescue!

So I send a special thank you to Allison C who already made it up twice and confirmed the misprint.  Doesn't she look awesome in this pinstriped version?  I also learned that I'll need to be sure I pick a fabric that has a fairly dense weave because the front skirt ends up on the bias and it's causing her problems with the cranberry version.  

I have also decided that since I have to piece 1 and 1A to make the front of the dress (and it's really wide), my usual tactic of using parchment paper isn't going to work so well.  I like parchment paper, it's easy to see through and I don't have too many complaints about not folding or tearing, but it won't tape together well.  One of my clients is near Ikea, I have read other people using their kids paper for tracing.  Any thoughts?

Just Put it Out There

When we were at OCFF, I was part of a conversation about putting your needs out there and somehow the universe will pick it up.  Call it prayer, call it fate, whatever, we were calling it the universe.

The specific example was about instruments.  All three are involved in a youth music program.  One of the musicians had a contact that offered guitars but things fell through.  But this actually raised the question if the youth even wanted to play guitars.  Maybe they really needed harmonicas or drums or mandolins.  Each had an example of a time where they either needed something, or when they could provide something for someone.  Maybe they just needed to put the word out there that there was need and the universe would deliver.

The universe just looked out for me.

I have a presentation to give tomorrow, more of a training session than presentation.  I am scheduled from 9-12 with a fire drill in the middle giving us a break so I have to be a little flexible on how long that break is.

I don't know this client, I haven't really worked on their categories even.  So for all of the examples, I had to create data, not just borrow stuff I had and learn about their brands so I don't stick my foot in my mouth.

I was trying to figure out the handout situation.  It is too big to print every page and why kill a tree for heading slides?  So I saved as and started trimming down to what I thought would make a good hand out of the best oh, 20 slides.  I could have just hidden them, but no, it's a new file, I'll delete.

You know what I didn't do?

Save the damn file before I saved as. 

So the version I have saved?  It was about 3 hours old. 

I realize this at 4:45.  I email Mr. Lina.  I am not sure if I'm going to cry or puke or what but it sure wasn't feeling good.

And then at 4:51, 1 minute after hitting send on that email to Mr. Lina, they email to cancel.

I should not be happy that someone is in the hospital, but I am.  I so am. 

I am going to go home and appreciate every second of time I am not spending on recreating that presentation.  I'll have to do that at some point, but not right now.

Zipper Fail

I seem to be experiencing zipper fail.

First, I have a metric crap ton of zippers after purchasing a random selection from Fabric Mart, so I didn't worry about the zipper for the dress.  But they are all invisible and it seems the pattern would like me to do a lapped zipper.  Yes, I could switch it to an invisible zipper and I suppose being invisible it doesn't matter if the colour doesn't match but I thought it was a good opportunity to try a lapped zipper and the colour match is important because it would be irritating to have a grey zipper in a purple dress and not all of my invisible zipper insertions have been truly invisible.

So I went to Fabricland yesterday on my lunch hour and I bought two long purple zippers.  One regular and one invisible in case I gave up on this lapped zipper.

The purple in the long zippers is not the purple of my dress, not by a long shot (and Fabricland assortment being what it is, that is as good as it gets).  So far off that I thought about going back to the grey zipper because at least that would look intentionally mismatched.

But no... I stuck to the lapped zipper goal and used the standard wrong-purple zipper. 

The directions in the pattern have caused me some issues with the use of right/wrong and right/left.  Who's left?  The left when it's right side up or wrong side up?  Argh...  Press which seam allowance twice?  You know silk noil isn't so keen on a heavy press.  It makes me nervous every time I pick up the iron.

I went to my closet to find some RTW with a lapped zipper.  Sometimes seeing the final result helps things click.  I did not realize just how prevalent the invisible zipper is until I went to find something else. 

So I went to my Vogue book on sewing and I didn't get that either because their pictures looked like the closed end of the zipper went to the top.  WTF?

Then I went to the internet.  I thought the Coats & Clark method looked easy, I understood reading it through.  Then I got the dress out and nope, it didn't really make sense either.

I found Casey's post on zipper insertion.  Finally, enough pictures to make sense and the left/right/wrong/right issues were clear.  And the first part went in really well.  Then I tried the lap side.  What a freaking mess.  I managed to sew the dress into the zipper, I had folds in the lap part...  ick. 

I thought maybe I'd try it on with the zipper mostly in because sometimes seeing the potential of how good it's going to look will keep me going.  And it was 11pm, time for bed, I could not end on complete zipper fail. 

I went downstairs to get an opinion from Mr. Lina.  I thought the styling would be something he would like and I've held off on showing him how good the skirt is going to make my bum look.  And... he was too busy watching the end of the movie to come up with anymore more interesting than "It's purple".  Really?  It's purple, I had not noticed.  Sigh.  I should have stuck to my instincts of not showing him a partially finished dress.

The dress won't be touched again for a few days.  We're going to see Lyle Lovett in concert tonight and a friends cottage on the weekend.  Can you hear it laughing at me?  Mocking me from my sewing room.  I am going to show that freaking zipper who's boss.  It is NOT going to win.  I am starting to understand the appeal of a hand picked zipper...

Work & Life & McCalls 8098

I am feeling rather thoughtful, but it's not organizing into the broad strokes just yet.  I have started a few extra paragraphs to this post but it's not... flowing.  It's too detailed to be sortable, too long to be a bullet list.  So we'll start with a few details and maybe this week I'll gain some perspective.  I know there is something floating around in my head.

In my last performance review, I stated that I enjoyed teaching and it was something I'd like to do more of.  I sure am getting that opportunity, but it's wrecking havoc with my Mondays.  They should be spent on ad hoc projects or administration stuff, meetings with my manager, that kind of thing.  Lately my day seems to fill with meetings, the small spaces of time are filled teaching someone something and I get to 5pm and realize I still have my own work to do.  Sigh.

I am enjoying the time instructing others.  It's refreshing to see our data through new eyes and appreciate my own knowledge.  The one guy I'm working with is like a 24 year old puppy, so eager to make us all happy and show us how much he can do but you just want him to sit for a bit.  Working directly with people like that is good for me, it keeps me focused and productive.  I don't leave feeling useless like I did a few months ago.  Still, I worked quite late last night because I needed the quiet to focus.
The dinner with my family went... okay.  Mr. Lina found he couldn't look at my SIL and hung out with my brothers playing on very old gaming systems, like Super Nintendo, possibly even breaking out the Atari.  My SIL parents were there and they made things awkward at times.  I spent most of the evening avoiding them as they fawned over their daughter and talking about the baby or being grandparents or whatever (English is their second or perhaps third language so none of this phrased particularly tactfully but I get it's not intentional).  My other SIL (the one separating from Scot) was there and I'm still not sure who knew what.  Scot waited until Clone was out of the room to ask Mr. Lina if he knew, so I'm suspecting Clone didn't.  She said things about her new apartment around my mom so maybe they know, but Mom never said anything that confirmed that she did or did not know.  It was a very strange evening of keeping track of who to say what to.  I managed to stay sober and I didn't cry.  That's a win.

I did spend an awful lot of time in my sewing room this weekend.  ElleC graciously added McCalls 8098 to the "orange stash" I won in a giveaway.  I thought it might be nice in the silk noil.  The catch is that my bust in my (now favourite) retro styling bra is 44".  The pattern is for a 32" bust.  That's some serious grading/FBA to do.  My waist was about 10" off, hips 8" (as much as I have a round bum and like pants for curvy girls, sewing emphasizes I'm not a pear).  A LOT of flat pattern measuring was going on all weekend, figuring out my size, the pattern size, the ease, where I needed the extra inches and how much to add.  So, I am making progress, I spent a lot of time in my sewing room, but I don't have much to show off beyond really bad bust darts.  I'm hoping fresh eyes will see how to fix that particular problem.  The left side looks pretty terrible as I remember. The worst part is that the dart was fairly large and I trimmed some of the extra fabric, so just moving it up is not so easy.  Let's file that under "learning the hard way".  Last night it was too late when I got home to really do it justice, hopefully I'll do better tonight.  Mr. Lina is golfing tonight so I have the evening to myself.

The nightgown that does not want to be

When I was in my pj craze, I bought a small piece of striped seersucka (you know that's just stuck for me now).  It was just over a metre and what was left on the bolt.  I figured I just wanted pj's, how much would I really need?  So I took it.




Far right fabric.  Was I ever in a pink/red mood that day.


I decided instead of doing a top and bottom, I'd do a short nightie, again, how much fabric could that take?

Let's say more than 1m of 45" fabric.

I didn't figure that out until I cut the front out.

Oops.

So yesterday I thought I'd pick it up and see what I could fake about it.  Maybe the back would be pieced or two fabrics, there is always something.  I ended up cutting the back in two pieces instead of on the fold, one piece with the stripes up and down like the front, the other with the stripes horizontal.

I don't regret this, I actually like the way that looks and started thinking that would have made a nicer front than back.  I was feeling pretty smart when it went together.

The pattern calls for facings but I figured I'd go all Sorbetto on it and just do bias tape around the edges.  I made the bias tape and while I could have paid more attention to the direction of the bias stripes at some seams, it folded and creased easily.  Prior to attaching, I realized it was together enough to see how it looked.

So I tried it on.

My poor (tender and expanding) breasts are squished.  You will not see pictures of it on me as it because my nipples show through it's so tight. 

When cutting the back, I forgot that it was suppose to be on the fold and didn't add the extra seam allowance.  Thus, I did not sew with much of a seam allowance to make up for that mistake.  I could maybe gain a half inch in total letting out the side seams and using an overlock stitch to have a minimal seam allowance.  That might let me breathe but it isn't enough.

So, now the project is sitting waiting for me to have another brainstorm on how I can cut it open and make another "design feature" with the very tiny scraps of fabric I have left (the big scrap went into bias tape).  Maybe an insert at the front?  An extra V at the side seam?  A little chevron V a the middle front?  At least I'd have two places where the stripes were doing odd things and maybe look intentional.  It's okay around the hips (good because I do not have enough for a full side panel) it's really just a bust issue.

Past that, I really like it.  Enough that it's worth saving.

Again.