Moving right along.

Phew! Done with posting reviews of the last few items I sewed. Now I can move on to the next thing that's blocking my creativity:Yes, it's time to deal with the mess. The scary thing is that this is the traditional living room space (as opposed to the "family room" a little further in the house). That means this is the first thing people see when they walk in the front door. The last time my brother-in-law was here, he and my hubby touched on it - and all I overheard was something along the lines of "[SewShy] has a lot of cr*p". Well, it may be that to them, but it's a room full of potential to me, so hmph. I do need to organize though. I have an Ikea wishlist... but have to make do for now.

PR backlog

I realized recently that I haven't been good about writing pattern reviews on the PR site for the garments I've created. Since I'm not sewing, I figured I can at least make progress by writing my reviews, so I'll try to get those done this weekend.
In the meantime - my usual filler - nail pics. I've had this combo on since Thursday night, and it's really stayed put!
(Please bear with the cell phone pictures. I'm just not ready to purchase a new camera yet...)
Sation "Plaza Plum" + Sally Hansen "Star Crossed"

Nice and sparkly in the sunlight. I always keep my colors super shiny with my favorite quick dry topcoat - "Out the Door" from my local Sally beauty supply store. There are people who swear by Seche Vite, but this one dries faster - I actually compared recently.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Pattern for the cowl neck top

I dug up the pattern I used for the top mentioned in the last post. It's Butterick 3344, now out of print:

I'm back!

To blogging, that is. I went home to Nigeria for two weeks in early October. Most of the trip was good, but it was overshadowed by Delta's employees taking my carry-on luggage on the second flight, and taking it off the plane at the wrong airport. By the time I got it back (4 days later), their employees in either Dakar(most likely) or Abuja had gone through it and stolen money, my camera, and my gold jewelry. Very sad, very frustrating. This was on the way to Nigeria, so not a good thing for the start of a trip. Anyway, I don't want to speak more on that since it makes me very upset.
I've been back for a few weeks now, but just was not in the mood to blog (or sew even!). During that time, my hubby got strep throat, and a week and a half later (last Thursday) I also got it. Mine was caught just in time, however, so I didn't have to suffer like he did - he had been misdiagnosed as having the flu, and suffered fevers, chills, and the painful throat for over a week before being properly diagnosed and put on an antibiotic. Poor sweetie...

Bits and pieces... I did purchase some fabric while with my parents. I had planned to buy much more, but there was no electricity for the bulk of the day my Mom and I went fabric shopping. Unfortunately the owners of the one stall where she said there was a lot of great fabric had run out of petrol (gasoline) and so could not run their generator to provide electricity for their lights. Bummer. So below is a picture of the six fabrics I got.


This past weekend, I wanted to sew. However, my sewing area is a mess and I just didn't feel like tidying up or figuring out where everything should go. The previous weekend I had pulled out an unfinished project - a cowl neck blouse that I'd had hanging on the rack for over a year because it was too big. I finally got it finished on Sunday morning and wore it to church. I can't remember the pattern specifics (see it's been THAT long!), but will post once I do.


Of course, I couldn't leave the (still) unfinished jacket there, so I threw it on over the blouse. Here is the full ensemble. I still have to topstitch the edges and put buttons on, but I figured it's wearable either way.2/3 of my Sunday outfit made by me... a really nice feeling!

UFO revisited

Remember this jacket? It's been worn by my dress form for months now as you can see here, but I took a look at it again on Saturday morning. Yes, I've gained back all the weight I lost last year, so I won't be able to button it, but aside from that, it still looks decent enough to wear. I had put in shoulder pads, which remedied my sloping shoulder issue a little.

So... I decided I wanted to put patch pockets on underneath the otherwise useless flaps. This meant re-opening the lining, which I did. That's accomplished, so the next steps are to close off the lining opening, do some topstitching, and add the buttons and buttonholes. I'm determined to wear it this fall. Hopefully will have pictures before the weekend.

"Skirting" the issue

A skirt is easy to make, you just need two measurements, right? WRONG. VERY WRONG!
Maybe that's true for some people, but definitely not for those who have curves in all dimensions. Case in point - consider my skirt muslin:
See how that side seam is crooked and the skirt hikes up in the back? This is a problem I have with all RTW skirts - and why I hardly ever wear them anymore. So you can see, if I can conquer the fit, I can fill a HUGE void in my wardrobe. I'm especially frustrated with this because I'm going home to visit my parents next month, and it's still more socially acceptable to wear skirts there. At this rate, however, I won't have a single skirt to take back with me.

I know the problems. I have a protruding stomach and protruding rear end. I also don't have enough "hippage" to match the curve of the side seam from waist to hip - something I have no clue how to remedy, and is an issue on the pants pattern I'm working with as well.
See?
I don't look too amused do I? Honestly, I'm so frustrated, I feel like ripping the muslin to shreds. I have this same problem with A-line skirts. A long time ago I made two, and I just made the seam dip lower in the back so it "looked" level from far away. However, like this one, the side seam was angled backwards.
Okay, talking about it has made me upset again. I want to cry because I have soooo much fabric just waiting for me to crack the fitting code. I have so many garments in my mind, but reality is just too cruel.

More on my next dilemma - the evasive pants pattern - later.

Brian Sews

Gold, Tanya, Sherril, Aminat:
Thank you SO much for your encouragement! You're right, I should dust myself off and work on something easy to build my confidence back up. I'm thinking of pulling Simplicity 3789 back out and creating another top or two. It will be a while, as I have a busy few evenings ahead and will probably not be able to sew until Sunday.

In other news...
I'd like to introduce Brian. Some of you know him as RocketBoy (now BrianSews) from PatternReview. I recently discovered that BRIAN HAS A BLOG! On it he shares a lot of great information, video demos, great machines, and a refreshing perspective on sewing. I find his blog especially fun to read because he's one of the few people who fearlessly approached (and conquered) sewing denim jeans! He is planning to start a weekly sewing show on his blog. Please check him out if you have a chance.

Off to sleep for me now...

Sigh...

Nothing new to show. Not that I haven't been sewing - on the contrary I've produced two skirt muslins and one pair of shorts. None of them fit properly. I'm despairing because it takes me so long just to work up a muslin...
So, I'm discouraged. I'll eventually post pictures of my non-fitting items, but right now am feeling too miserable to do so.
Huge sigh... where to go from here?

What I've been up to...

Where have I been? Out of town part of the time. I was a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding in Houston. Although we had a lot to do and didn't get enough sleep, we had an amazing time. These are friends from way back in our grade school days in Nigeria - some I've known since 1st grade. It was our first time being all together since we graduated high school - 14 years ago! Here I am on bridesmaid duty (pic taken by a friend on fb)I've been back from Houston for a week now though, so what else have I been up to? Working on this pattern Burda 8755. I received it in a batch of 4 Burda patterns from an ebay purchase. It's a pair of pants with a seam down each back leg that ends in a vent.
In the quest to make this a pattern I can use over and over, I decided to take some time making alterations. First I made the pattern as-is. It ended up tight, with a huge chunk of gaposis in the back waist. My junk definitely did not fit in that trunk.

Sooo... I graded up about a size and a half, and then armed with Nancy Zieman's Pattern Fitting With Confidence, I made the following changes:
- Lengthened the crotch
- Decreased the waist width
My next muslin (long shorts to conserve fabric) was right on with the fit (as in - I forgot to add wearing ease!), but the crotch length in the front was too long. This meant I then had to
-Shorten the crotch by moving length from the front crotch area to the back waistline.
- Add to the side seams for wearing ease

The result follows:

This was made with fabric I was gifted by a PatternReview member from whom I purchased some BWOF magazines. I added cording to the side seams and to the waistline. In hindsight I should have added it to the bottom waistband seam instead since it can't really be seen.
The fit in the back looks decent, and I really like the fact that the seams in the back serve as the darts that would otherwise have been there. I do still have to work on the front crotch length as indicated in this close-up. There is just too much fabric there. After making that adjustment, I may also need to increase the length and width of the front waist darts.
This is the first time I've put so much work into a pattern! I'm hoping it will be easier going forward. I'm a little disappointed that I'm still not quite there, but the light at the end of the tunnel is that once I get the fit right, this will be a fabulous TNT pattern, and I can just change the shape of the legs as I desire.
I already have some khaki-colored twill and some black "Rodeo" bottomweight fabric washed and lined up for two pairs of shorts once I've got the fit right. Then I'll try some pants in lightweight denim.

BWOF 05/2009 dress 131 - Finished

I finished this dress tonight (and have to go to bed soon), so the pictures are not complete. Here's a peek at the finished garment.I've been really bad at putting up reviews on patternreview, so I need to get round to that sometime. I made this in a size 46.