Setbacks

Frank-Halter-Top

I wish I had more progress to show you, especially as I’ll be disappearing for a bit in a few days. As usually happens when I venture into “my own design” (even when franken-patterning), progress is, shall we say, not so smooth. I was progressing at a good clip this morning (barring my usual haven’t-thought-things-through construction errors), got everything together except the buttonholes, and realized I need to re-adjust the position of the triangle tops and their gathering. The first iteration of this top, in the sundress, was a little

Showing: gathered triangle on left; shirred back on right.

too spread out and flat. This version, a little too concentrated and gathered. Not quite in my “just right” zone. Of course I didn’t discover this until I not only had both tops attached, but had bound the edges. Fortunately I didn’t trim (much) off, but that means I have about three times as many seams to pick out. And I still haven’t remembered to get a new seam-ripper, by the way.

My original length of shirring was too loose, so I shortened it by a couple of inches; now it’s very snug. This thing is going to need a lot of buttons. What do you think—boring black, or bright and vibrant? Might have to spend some time tonight digging through the button collection! 🙂

Hopefully I’ll make some more progress tonight. I’d really like to have this to wear on the vacay, and I am running out of evenings to work on it.