Finished Sorbetto and starting next project of ...

As you know, my sorbetto has some serious issues with the darts. I found online a tutorial on how to move the darts from the muslin (instead of from the pattern like most tutorials I have seen).

So, I started to use my trusty seam ripper and take out the darts and seams. I found this to be very difficult due to the material and because like a dummy I had the threads as tight as they go on the sewing machine. So after fussing with it for a few days and losing my seam ripper, I decided to give up on it. Don't look at me like that, the shirt had tons of very visible holes and things in it from the stitches and it was much too tight anyway.

I decided that I would just cut up this "muslin" and would place it on the cut out pattern to figure out where I would need to move the bust to.

Because the original pattern I printed got ruined (i don't even remember what happened to it). I decided to print a new one. Yeah I love that part of pdf patterns :)

Once I printed, measured the check size square, and pieced it all together, i decided that I should remeasure myself since I had obviously grown since I measured last or the muslin would not have fit like spandex. Curiously I did not measure any different. I then looked at the pattern directions again to make sure which size I needed to cut. It was indeed the same as before (which by the way is kind of scary seeing that number which is way bigger than the number I would buy at the store and to think it was so tight).

Anyway, i cut out the pattern and placed my muslin cut out on it. Now I was expecting it to be smaller, since i did cut off the seams, but it wasn't even close. It was several inches smaller all the way around!

I have come to the conclusion that perhaps I might have printed it wrong the first time. Oops. And I did screw up the french seams width when i checked after Annabelle mentioned it in a comment to a previous post. Together it was way off.

I didn't have anymore of the polyester fabric that I originally used, so i decided that I was going to just go ahead and make the shirt out of a plain white vintage sheet. There was enough fabric that I could use more if I screwed up badly.

So, I pretty much started over. Cut the fabric, followed the directions for the most part. I did not sew up the darts first, I waited until after I had sewn the shoulders that way i could try it on in a way and move the darts where they needed to be. Funny thing though, the darts were in the correct position. I did still think that the darts were a little long according to . “Paternmaking..” by Joseph-Armstrong says to move the point 3/4 in to 1 1/2 in. which I found on this blog.

So i shorted it slightly.

I very carefully measured the seams when doing the french seams and was careful to make all seams straight and it was amazing how easy it was. The fabric just glided over the sewing machine going exactly where I wanted it to. It was like someone else was sewing it all together.

I was having such a pleasant time with it, I decided not to push my luck with the bias tape and did a cheat method of just sandwiching the seam int he middle of the folded over bias tape and sewing it up. Not perfect and it made the join of the bias a little off, but it saved my momentum and I am fine with it. I will save that battle for another day. I also noticed that I might have used the wrong size bias tape. i just bought a pack from Walmart in the right color, when I went they did not have any different sizes in stock. the directions called for a 1/4 inch seam allowance, but i had to sew at 1/8 in order to stay on the bias tape which was just shy of 1/4.

The only other issue I had was with the hem, the french seams did not want to press up, but I got it worked out.

I tried it on and it was easy to slip on. My husband thinks it is a little looser than it should be, but I am fine with it since I figure it will be tucked in most of the time.

i don't have many pictures, but here is what I have. Ignore the wrinkles and purple marker, supposedly it should disappear in 24 hours (it has been over 48 when the photos were taken). I am sure it will come out in the wash though.

Oh, one more thing before the photos, sorry. I stuffed my dress form (which i have named Mandy - which would have been my sister's name had I been a twin) and now she is just the right size :)

So now that I finished the first little project on my list I am moving to the next. I originally thought that I would be doing more blouses and then a playsuit and pants. But, after looking over the patterns that I have most of them are vague (or don't have directions at all). And the patterns that I owned were vintage and I am not sure I am ready to tackle that yet.

That is when I saw that A Fashionable Stitch is doing a shirt waist/ wrap dress duo sew-a-long. Which is great because a shirt waist dress was on my list and I don't have any. It uses a modern pattern, so the directions should be good and if I do it in a reasonable time frame there will be people to help answer some of my questions and problems.

So here it is...

I started a pinterest board (Pinterest Shirt Dress Board ) to come up with all of the ideas I had for the shirt waist dress (I actually started one for the wrap dress too if you are interested).

I found one particular image that I want to be my inspiration......

These girls look lovely. This is the look I want to basically go for, which will require getting the fit correct and adding those cute little pockets and maybe a belt.

I bought the pattern at Walmart which I had them price match to JoAnn's sale (which saved me over $8). I found it amusing that the cashier asked what it was and told me that he had never seen a sewing pattern before. Then I thought about it and wondered if much of today's youth was unaware of these type of things.

I then followed the sew-a-long in figuring out what size I was. Which really surprised me and I am glad that I bought the right size pattern because it was close. I will definitely check that first before buying the pattern in the future!!

That is as far as I have gotten so far, but hopefully i will have an update before too long. i don't want to get too far behind on the sew-a-long so i will be able to ask questions.

wish me luck!!