Sunday, June 30, 2013

Action shot




action shot, originally uploaded by firesheep67.

Rather than making a second muslin or ripping and reassembling the first, I decided based on where the side seams fall, to eliminate 1" from the front panel (which I will deliberately use as the back) - thus 1/2" from each side and I lengthened the skirt by 1 3/4". I made these modifications to the tissue pattern and gasp! cut the fabric on 6/29, in my last class of the latest five class run at SM&D. No turning back now...  

At first I thought I would attempt to match the pattern at the seams, but come on, this is such a minor concern with a huge pattern and since this will officially be my first wearable garment, I just threw caution to the wind. As I was packing up the pieces I so carefully cut out, I was dismayed to see that I now have a large target on my butt (center of the back panel). Just what I had hoped to avoid. Thank god it's not on my crotch...I can just hear Michael Kors now! 

Fabric is Kaffe Fassett Targets - Pastel - still available here. (I bought this four or even five years ago.)


Saturday, June 22, 2013

back in the saddle


back in the saddle, originally uploaded by firesheep67.
Finally liberated the patterns from this book, the Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp, that I bought about five years ago...decided I would make the wrap skirt and the muslin is well under way this weekend, yet I am supremely annoyed at the directions for the waistband. Let's just say that they are sketchy at best and the tiny diagrams that accompany the text are fairly worthless.

As I am still puzzling my way through the instructions, I'm not yet ready to post my solution, so watch this space!

ETA: It dawned on me that despite reading the directions several times...in my mind, the single panel (front) was the BACK, because, who wraps a skirt to the back?? Even though the book says you can mix it up by wearing it wrapped to the front or back, I would never wear a wrap skirt with the wrapped panels covering the rear view. Subsequently, when I sewed on the waistband, I'm pretty sure I attached it upside down, which would explain why it was virtually impossible to cleanly match the side seams of the skirt panels with the side seams of the waistband.