Last week I made progress on some projects, but at the same time it felt very unproductive, hence the title of this blog. I think it was because I was mainly working on tracing patterns, making alterations, and making muslins. I KNOW that that is making progress, but I am so impatient it still feels like I am not doing anything. At least the first muslin that I made was for myself.
I had a length of Liberty that I purchased on Ebay. I needed a pattern that did not take much fabric, because the length of Liberty that I had was only 35 inches wide and 2 yards long. It hadn't been cut that way, it clearly had selvedges on both sides. But, it has been sitting in my stash for about a hundred years because I never wanted to cut into it an ruin it and I finally decided, what the heck good is it doing folded up in here? Cut it, sew it, either have a success or ruin it, because it is doing nothing in the stash.
So, I fitted, and traced and muslined...looking for a pattern that would work. I finally found Simplicity 2255:
It only required 1 3/4 yards of 45 inch wide fabric for cap sleeve version, so I hoped that I would be able to squeak it out of my Liberty fabric:
I started by making a muslin using an embroidered sateen that I picked up from a clearance rack at Hancock's. The pattern has front bust darts and back waist darts for shaping:
I'm pretty pleased with the fit, so I made some small alterations and cut into the Liberty....I have a long weekend coming up (friday and monday off for Memorial Day), so hopefully I'll get some work done on it.
In other news, my nephew's interest in sewing continues. He wanted to make a coat, and thought that if we started now it would be ready by fall. So, I had him help me to trace off and muslin a pattern from the August, 2009 BurdaStyle.
It went together surprisingly easily considered I had a 10-year-old's "help" in tracing. I didn't let him off easy, though...here he is pressing the seams:
Of course, you can also see the giant mess in the sewing room and huge piles of laundry being sorted for washing behind him. Hopefully over the holiday weekend I will finally be able to put together the new furniture purchased for the sewing room last year and get the mess cleaned up!
Here is my little monkey in "his" coat. The back fits well, I might add just a touch to the length since he is growing like a weed and also leave all the ease so he can wear it for a while:
On the front, it seems like the overlap is a bit skimpy. It is supposed to be double-breasted, and I feel like if I widen the front, it will make it possible to move the buttons over time and maybe he can wear it for more than one season. Also, for all the length on the back seemed good, the front seems short. I might lengthen it overall. He is already texting me to see if I have cut the wool coating yet....
2 comments:
oooo, you have some "original" liberty fabric. this was produced before they went all global-commercial and whatnot. the original prints had 36" selvedges. Nice score!
And it's very clever of your nephew to be so good at sewing at such a young age. (Feel free to say "he clearly gets it from his auntie")
The shirt muslin looks good, I'm sure the Liberty version will be amazing! You may have inspired me to cut into some Japanese shibori fabric I've been waiting on.... we'll see, my pace is at an all-time slow.
And wow, sewing 10-year old nephew?! Sounds like fun! And he's sewing a jacket?! I think I was sewing at age 10, things like Sunny-Face Pillowcase, ha! You're an awesome auntie!
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