Hattie. A Movie. Actually 2 movies.

Hi Annie! Hattie wants to share!

Next project: the pegged skirt

This will be my first project using my new Wild Ginger PatternMaster software.  I should have waited and done a fitting garment first, but I wanted a black skirt to wear with Read All About It when we go to the museum tomorrow (Gauguin!).  It's not going to happen however, since I've got a frightful migraine, but at least I made a start.  And obviously I have a lot to learn.  The pattern printed out on 44 sheets, due to my not having completely read the manual.  But I find manuals make more sense if you've actually used the software already.  I then pieced the pages together, and traced them onto swedish pattern paper, and found that the skirt will be much longer than I intended -- pay attention to details!  Now I'm going to go sit in the dark somewhere.

It's going to be a mid-calf length pegged skirt, with three darts on each side in the front and the back, and either a kick pleat or a back slit.  No pockets this time, and unlined.

Read All About It, op-ed page

Finished! And in my humble opinion, it's pretty good!

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Annie, it's fabulous! Your neckband looks perfect! I am violating the rules of the Selfish Seamstress and sewing something for someone else. And it's bbboorrrrinngg! Gah! I can hardly wait til it's done and I can get back to fun sewing.
--Sis

Read All About It, page 3

Okay, a couple of pictures to show where the words have fallen.  I hope I'm not going to feel like I'm wearing a newspaper.  Hmm, should have thought of that.

Front

Back

Read All About It, page 2

Whew!  I just finished cutting it out, and it took a long time -- all of Mahler's first, and halfway through the Marriage of Figaro -- because I had to keep moving pieces around to avoid the word BIG falling you know where.  But I did it.  The big letters will go across the upper chest (no way to avoid it) but not the word BIG.

Blah blah blahahaha

Dear Annie,

Busy, busy, blah, blah, blah. SOME people have plenty of time to sew up new and newsworthy projects. OTHER people have plenty of lousy excuses for not doing anything. The table has stuff on it! I have to feed the cat! I can't find the sewing machine! Sheesh. I could lie and say that I'm going to sew up a storm this weekend, but I think we all know that probably won't happen.

Oh, wait - I did finish something! Louise Cutting's Ebb (not Flow), finally got its buttons! I don't have great pictures. Why didn't we put it on Dahlia, Annie? I'll post these for now and add better ones later. The fabric is a beautiful lightweight brown wool with kind of a seersucker texture. It's really comfortable to wear and I made only a few changes - I lengthened the bodice by about an inch and I shortened the overall length and left out the side vents. The buttons are vintage shell that I got at Expo two years ago. I really love this pattern and will probably make it again in something summery.

New project: Read All About It

I'm finally starting my first post-Expo project, having come down with a terrible cold followed by allergies right after Expo ended. Sis has an excuse too, but hers isn't very good.

So the new project is a top using this Katherine Tilton pattern (long sleeved version) I bought at Expo last year. I've already made it three times, so I know it fits beautifully and is very flattering. Unfortunately, since I've made it three times, I have had time to lose the pattern piece for the neckband. This means I will either have to fake it (not hard to do) or clean my sewing room (very hard to do).

The fabric I'm using is a poly/lycra I bought from Christine Jonson last year, called Read All About It. In real life it's much darker. And I'm sure you can spot a pitfall right off -- I'll need be careful that "BIG HOUSE GAINES" doesn't land on any part of my anatomy that I don't want to emphasize.

I'm also playing with a cool new toy. I bought some pattern making software at Expo, Wild Ginger's PatternMaster, and I'm getting ready to use it to make a "fit" dress in muslin. And once it's adjusted and fits correctly, I'm going to make it again in a heavy cotton with 0 easy to use as a cover for Dahlia the dressform.

Busy, busy, busy. Amazing what you can do once you tear yourself away from Skyrim.

BTW, have you all been watching Peggy Sagers's webcasts ? They are wonderful, hour long webcasts where Peggy generously shares valuable information (for free!), such as how to use a french curve. Sis and I "attended" last night's webcast on sleeves, in which Peggy explains how to use the french curve on an armhole in order to get your own personal numbers. Then you can apply these numbers to any new pattern you use to alter it to your perfect fit. This is the sort of thing I imagine design students learn, but for those of us with only a junior high school education in sewing it's all brand new and wonderful. Thank you, Peggy!