Expectation, I suppose, is the problem.
I started today with great expectations. The hubs was working (poor him) so all I had to do was get the house recovered from its weekday-chaos state and then I could sew. The kids had friends over all day, which contributes somewhat to the chaos but a lot more to the “me being left alone”, so everything was great. I had cut and started sewing up the muslin for hubs’ frock/Matrix coat yesterday, so I finished that up pretty quickly.
And then, I was at a loss.
I tend to sew with a bit of a one-track mind—start project, finish project, next project. I don’t multitask well at the best of times. And usually this works fairly well. But my brain was oozing COAT, and I couldn’t do any more on the coat until hubs came home and deigned to try it on—which could take days.
Fingers twitching, I moved to another project occupying the sewing table, a shirred-bodice dress for Syo using up the last of the fabric from my niece’s Mini-Minnie dress. A little more mindless than I was looking for, but not as exhausting as pulling out, say, a blazer pattern and starting a muslin for me.
Enjoy this picture. This is as good as it gets.
Unfortunately, it was finished in fairly short order.
Flailing, I pulled out fabrics and put them down. Dug through the scrap bin. Hunted for elastics, considering making undies. Eventually pulled out my knit-tee sloper and started to mess around. I’d like to make a cowl-dress like Oona’s. I even have some gorgous red jersey. Oona used Ichigogirl’s cowl-dress pattern, which I’ve made before as a shirt and found a bit too deep-necked for me. I wanted something with a wider, shallower drape. So I traced out my sloper and played around with slashing and spreading.
Cowl neck
I am thinking that slashing and spreading is a REALLY BAD method of getting a cowl that drapes the way you want. I would be better off draping the cowl part on the dummy and somehow merging that with my sloper. Or something. Because I keep coming up with some pretty “meh” cowls… and when I do knock it out of the ballpark, it’s pretty darn accidental.
It’s not awful, but it’s not quite what I was going for, either.
Raglan sleeve (with bust gather)
Determined to salvage something from this particular fabric, I pulled out the raglan-sleeve top. Boring, but dependable, and despite the insanely good weather (high of 29C today!!!!) I will be wanting long sleeves very much, very soon. In this fabric, there was plenty of stretch to experiment with bust-gathering.
Back view
I think it will be OK after I take a couple of inches off each side. This is the same pattern a the Where’s Waldo shirt, of course, but that fabric had very little stretch, while this stuff grows while you look at it.
And then the hubs got home and it was time to make pizza (why did I decide to use the oven on an actual hot day?)
Shoes make everything better?
At least I found some cute shoes at the thrift store yesterday (a small consolation considering the entire pattern section has been purged. There wasn’t any good fabric, either.)
I guess three pretty-much-finished objects is pretty good for one day (even if they’re all ridiculously simple pieces). I guess I was expecting to have something I was excited about, though.
Those darned expectations…
Tanit-Isis Sews 
LOOK OVER THERE!!! *steals shoes*
Have I mentioned I have an insane amount of shoes? When the wide heal and wedges came back into fashion I went overboard. Especially since with my back surgery i’m fairly picky.
I love how quickly you whip up knit tops. I really should have a sloper too. Oh, and I’m working on that skirt tutorial. I’m hashing out an adult version later.
My shoe collection was heavily purged about four years ago and is still recovering. Mostly I try to stay practical. Obviously I failed in this purchase.
I love wide-heels and wedges, too… I can’t actually wear spindly little heels like this one for any length of time without making a fool of myself.
I call three garments a pretty impressive sort of a day! You must have fabulous focus… I love both of those adorable Tshirts, they both look really cute on you. I think I might just have perfected my own Tshirt sloper recently… yay!
(thanks ever so for you bday wishes too, btw)
Hooray for T-shirt slopers!
Excuse me? Not impressive getting coat to trying on state, and finishing 3 more items with no forward plan? I have to argue with you there!! Those pics of the dress are adorable by the way! But onto tops- they look great. And they fit. Or are easy to adjust. You really know your way around sewing knits. I suppose, as said earlier, it’s that all important sloper. I’ll have to remember that. I recently needed a super quick easy sew and made the mistake of using a different knit top pattern and it’s too small?! That’ll teach me. Lovely colour blue I shoukd also say!
The sloper helps a lot. Part of my frustration is the fabric—this blue knit is a pretty colour and not slippery, but it grows and stretches like crazy while you sew it. It makes the results a bit unpredictable and a lot less nice—part of the reason I’m not overly thrilled, I guess. I know, I should shut my whiny mouth ;).
Love the red dress! So cute.
And as usual your knit top is gorgeous. You’ll appreciate the long sleeves soon enough. What a September we’ve had weather-wise!
Very productive day.
I know—I can’t believe how great the weather has been overall. I do like how Syo’s dress turned out!
I don’t know how you can go from start to finish on a project so quickly! The biggest issues for me are picking a fabric, cutting out the pattern, making sure everything is on grain line, getting things interfaced. I have a hard time starting new projects because of all those hurdles. I suppose I should cut out more than one thing at a time, but that never works out because I change my mind about what to make constantly.
That shirt is beautiful! I don’t think you need to take in the sides, with the bust gathering it looks like the loose fit is intentional. Don’t know how you can call this an unimpressive day.
Well, for these projects 1) had no pattern, 2) and 3) were cut from a circle-knit, so there was very little trouble lining up the “grain”, and the only interfacing was a bit of steam-a-seam on the hems that takes this stupid fabric from insane-kill-me-now to just-about-doable for hemming.
I get you on the fussing about what to do next, for sure. I do plenty of that, as well.
I dunno, looks pretty impressive from where I’m sitting. Everything looks fantastic.
I think this looks like good progress, even if it isn’t wildly exciting. Funny, but I have been cogitating on the cowl again too. I have exactly the same feeling, mine are bit too low in front (or is it that my bust doesn’t quite fill it up in a goddess-type way?). I would like something with the drape, but that is a bit easier to wear when I’m not going out to sing in a nightclub, ha ha.
I love your cowls (probably more than I do most of my own) but I feel you. It seems like there’s a fine, fine line between too much drape and not enough. Like I said, I think draping may be the only solution.
3 garments in one day is nothing to be ashamed of.
your cowls are always awesomely drapey to me (i’m a visual gal. i always look at pics first & read second…. and i’m always stunned that you don’t like the cowl!)
syo looks freaking adorable in that dress.
if you go for ichigogirl’s pattern, you will break the internet.
I think you’ve been exceptionally productive! Especially in this crazy hot weather.
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