Short update post. Hopefully more tomorrow

So, I got my dress form today! Yay!

First I brushed her with a cleaning brush because she had been neglected in someone's basement for a long time.

Can you see the ring around the neck after I took the foil off. Yuck! She also had a few holes and pinches, but I think she is good.

Next thing I did was measure her. She was set smaller than me, surprise, so I had to adjust her (as expected).
Her innards were all rusty and some of Wingnuts were too tight for me to get loose. So, I take her completely apart. I didn't bother piling her bolts or anything while apart though. I just put her back together.

I measured her bust, waist, and hip and made them match mine. She still isn't shaped like me. For one, her boobs are higher. The darts on the top I have been seeing are in the middle of her boob instead of above it like mine.

And how is it that the dart on the right is lower than the dart on the left, but they still both look like they are in the middle of the breast ( and above mine).

I didn't se a boob lowering adjustment just widening. I see that the above and below bust size are bigger than mine in order to get the bust size right, so I think I might need to get those right and stuff her bra. Will that fix the fact that they are so high, I don't have a clue. Hmm... I'll keep tinkering with it.

I wish the lighting was better in here so I could take pictures. I tried to with my phone an they turned out black though it isn't that dark. Who knows.

When I publish with the blogger iPhone app it puts all the photos at the end, is there anyway to avoid that (well besides posting via the web)? I fixed it today. Sorry for anyone who saw this post last night when I wrote it.

Fit issues & basically I don't know what I am doing

Okay, so I am finally ready to post some pictures of the sorbetto I made. Mind you was only suppose to be a muslin (out of my high school graduation gown lol). The problem is I never really have sewn a muslin and after reading a bit, I realize I was suppose to only bast in the stitches. Oh well, I really wanted to learn how to do French seams so I am glad I tried it out on a this instead of an actual garment.

Ok, so the first problem was when I washed it (I just washed/dried it as normal, nothing special - it is made out of 100% polyester), it well... I'll just show a picture.

I'm not sure how I should avoid this. I did pink the edge after cutting before sewing the bias on. And when I unpick some of the seams, will they all do this making it hard to reuse this muslin for another go around?

Next issue, I was having slight problems with sewing straight, yes I have the most basic sewing problems.

I was holding the fabric pretty tight on accident because I was concentrating on trying to get the line straight. Here is the resulting mess.

But that is easily solved. Don't pull tight.

The other issue is : fit, or more specifically it doesn't fit LOL. The easiest to spot is that the darts are too high (and too long?)

I guess I will need to unpick the sides and darts and lower them, but should I mark where they should be with a marking pen while it is on, or will that point be wrong once the dart is taken out? If that is the case, how do I know how much it should be lowered? And the side was cut a little different where the dart was, that means it will be even smaller when I see it up again (this time I won't do French seams though until I am happy with it).

Also, it is really really tight. That might be due me gaining weight since taking my measurements. Oops. I have started an exercise program (p90x) and have successfully finished week 1. But it is hard to get on just as a pull over without buttons or anything.

Another issue and this sounds really stupid, but I don't know fit well enough to really judge, anyone have any good articles on how garments are suppose to fit LOL.

Here are my ideas of problem areas.The arm hole too small? How about the neck, do the straps seem too far on my shoulders to you? Wait, I forgot to take a picture of that. Oh well.

Quick what I found thrifting post

I was talking to my friend about finishing my sorbetto (which I washed and I plan on posting pictures of). She told me that she was planning on making a dress for me (and one for each of her granddaughters) from a pattern that she bought at goodwill. She showed me the pattern and I asked her if she got it at the local goodwill by her house and she confirmed she did. She showed me a stack of patterns that she found and a couple of them were 1960s patterns! I decided that I needed to start taking weekly trips to just browse goodwill for patterns (she told me where in the store she found them).

So I went today for the first time and I saw this...

It was full of patterns in taped up manila envelopes. Almost all the patterns were 1970s. I resisted buying them all and selling them on etsy/ebay because that would mean more clutter at my house and we are on a mission to declutter the house at the moment.

I did get one gem though.

I am amazed. I hear how all of you find these great treasures at thrift stores and I think to myself "that only happens in Florida (when an older person dies) or in California or wherever, not where I live" because I have been told (by people who clean out and get rid of stuff in houses like that in this area) that Goodwill does not accept "vintage-looking" or "outdated" clothing. Apparently they accept vintage patterns though. I also saw several cross stitch patterns (even ones that came with the floss) when I was there.

So, it does happen.

Repairs, blouses, and hair flowers..Oh my

This weekend I was very productive sewing wise.
I really wanted to finish my Sorbetto top and I wasn't going to let the fact that I was having issues with my vintage sewing machine stop me.
So, I decided to bring my modern sewing machine into play.

It is a brother and I got it for Christmas a few years ago from my parents. I am not certain that I have ever used it until this weekend (though my mom did borrow it and use it once).

Verdict: Okay i really like it. Of course I want to like my husband's grandmother's machine the best, but it simply isn't the case.

I love the button press to reverse and the different zigzag widths. I also like that you can move the needle position. It is also pretty easy to thread (both top and bottom).

This doesn't mean that I have completely given up on the other machine.

Anyway,

I did set up my modern machine. As a test run, I repaired a pair of my daughter's leggings (crotch seam came apart) and panties (the elastic on a brand new pair came loose). Once I got my feet wet, I felt confident to go ahead and finish my Sorbetto.

I unfortunately don't have any pictures of it though. I realize that I can not take pictures of me wearing a shirt, my bathroom mirror is the only mirror that I have and it isn't floor length. Pictures from it look terrible I guess due to lighting (which you will see later in this blog post).

The shirt itself looks pretty good, apart from the cat prints (my cat got dirty paw prints on it). I will attempt to take pictures of it once it gets through the wash. Though I watched Grimm on TV and the weird bat lady is wearing a shirt (under a sweater) that looks a lot like my Sorbetto.

You can't see if it has sleeves, but the pleat and bias tape make it look like that. It is white on white like mine (actually now that I see the pictures it looks polka dotted), though hers is much more see through then mine (and my hubby mentioned how MINE was so so through! hehe).

There is a problem with it though. It doesn't fit great. The whole purpose of this project of mine is to feel good in the clothes I wear. I tried on the shirt when I wrote the last blog post and it fit. The fact that it doesn't fit great (it is wearable, just tight in the bust - no I was not wearing a padded bra LOL) means that I must have gotten larger. Ugh.

The solution: I am going to have to start working out again. I have lots of plans to get into shape and I really want to do that for myself and my family. I am going to make it happen.

But that is not the only thing that I accomplished this weekend. I also tried to follow this tutorial to make a blouse out of two scarves. It did not turn out that well.

See I told you the bathroom mirror resulted in terrible pictures. And the freaky blue lights that look like eyes. I have no clue where that came from. It is pretty creepy LOL.

I am thinking that the problem is that the scarf I used is too big. The back scarf is smaller, so if I pick two the same smaller size, it might fit better. I ripped the seams and the back scarf you can't tell at all. the front scarf however, it a little worn for the wear. Only a little damage, but I can tell.

I wasn't done with the weekend yet though. I tried to do another scarf shirt (ring halter) from this tutorial. I used the same really large square scarf pictured above and this experiment as also a FAIL. After threading two sides through the ring and tying behind my neck, there was not enough scarf left to tie all the way around my back. Actually it went only halfway around my back. It makes me feel a little um.. large. I didn't try any of the rectangular scarves, so that might work better.

But even after those set backs, I still wasn't ready to give up.
This isn't very vintage, but I followed this tutorial, in order to make a pair of sweat shorts. Okay, now I know what you are thinking... sweat shorts, really?!? But here is my reasoning. I made these shorts as cleaning shorts. I know that some of you dress in 50s housewife with only a little apron to protect your clothing. However, I make a huge mess of my clothes when cleaning (especially deep cleaning). So in order to save those, I will wear something comfortable, useful, and that I don't feel bad about ruining. So I made these.

No pictures, because the sweatshirt I wore was pretty gross to start with and I did make a pretty bad mistake, I sewed the waistband on with the wrong sides together (instead of right sides). I decided that I should try on the pants before taking apart the waistband and restitching. I tried them on and they were very very tight. If you wanted to follow this tutorial, I would suggest using a sweatshirt that is at least one size too big. I also tried on the pants with the fuzzy side out, and they fit much better. So, weird inside out sweat pants it is LOL.

But, did I want to leave the weekend with all those failures? No. So I did another project (this time not sewing though!). I made some hair flowers!! And I think they turned out great. I didn't have a chance to do my hair and try them out, but I think they rock. LOL.

Here are the pictures (nice to end on a good note:)