Random thoughts 2/29/2012

• My brother's birthday was last week.
• I forgot to call him.
• I did send a card.
• I saw an animal print shoe on clearance.
• I already have two pairs.
• Would it be going overboard to get another pair?
• I decided against another animal print shoe.
• Just finished another animal print jacket.
• Zebra
• I'm working on alterations of Vogue 1191.
• Can you say "whole lot of taping going on."
• I think the flag should only be lowered for individuals that directly served in the military.
• I bought a pair of shoes today.
• Didn't need them but think they'll be the perfect match my the Vogue dress.
• Since my knee surgery, I can forcast the weather with my knee.
• It's raining and my knee is throbbing like a toothache!
• I got a new Ironman watch.
• It's pink and black!
• I'm tired of staying home.
• I want to get another job.
• Promised my husband I wouldn't.
• Ugh!

I now present you V1257...

Since last summer I have been on a dress kick. I know it's partly due to Carolyn over at Diary of a Sewing Fanatic because she really knows how to work a dress and I can't let her out do me! Also Shelia at Sheliaz-CTK has really been rocking and flaunting her wrap dresses and I am sick jealous of them both. I've known for most of my sewing life that I don't have a body that works with wrap dresses. Imagine wrapping a piece of fabric around an hourglass. I need too much fabric around my hips. In my opinion. Anyway, I digress.

Carolyn wrote a post about sewing blogs and the different ways blogger present their projects. Some go into a lot of detail while others are simply "see what I made." I think I'm somewhere inbetween. Sometimes I'm very detail, other times not so much. Carolyn does wonderful interpretations of designer wear and I love seeing what she does. Frankly I'm probably too lazy to draft my patterns using a TNT.  I don't directly follow designers collections. If it's not in the catalogs at JoAnns, I probably don't see it. My main goal in my sewing is fit. I want my clothes to fit well--DD cups are not easy to fit! I am especially proud of myself when I am able to accomplish a fantastic fit out of a Big 4 pattern. With that said...

I love this dress. When I decided on this fabric I was hoping I didn't look like Barney--the dinosaur, not Rubble! I am extremely happy I made a muslin because the sleeves on this dress are so small, they would have been tight on a broomstick!

I started my alterations with my usual wide back adjustment. Sometimes on knits I skip this alteration but after reading the reviews on Patternreview, I decided to be extra cautious.

Usually if I make this adjustment I have to continue it onto the connecting piece. I figured my fabric had enough stretch to be able to accomodate the skirt portion of the pattern.

Without even measuring the pattern I made my usual FBA. That was sort of a mistake because I didn't take into consideration I was using a knit and the FBA was a little to generous.

I'd rather have too much room than not enough.

The next thing to tackle was the sleeve. When I say it was small believe me...it was small.

This picture shows the altered sleeve piece. Because I made the top of the sleeve wider, I figured I had to make an alteration to accomodate it.

I'm not sure I would have accurately made this alteration if not for my Duct tape dressform. I pinned the pattern to it and was able to determine exactly how much tissue I needed to add to accomodate the altered sleeve.

Pattern Description:

Fitted dress has front bodice extending into sleeves, armhole seam on back bodice, straight skirt with front pleats gathered into band to form drape effect, back darts.
Pattern Sizing:
6-20 I sewed the size 20
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
I think it does other than I used a printed fabric.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I liked that it looks like a wrap dress. I also like the super deep V that doesn't show any cleavage! The things I didn't like about it were in the construction. As several sewers on Patternreview suggested, I used interfacing instead of the double fold bias tape to reduce of the bulk at the rathered band. Even without the bias tape, that area of the dress is about 1/2" thick!

 Also the elastic that is on the front neckline pieces gave me fits. I didn't get a photo of it but on the right side of the bodice I had to reinsert the elastic five times before I was satisfied with the way it looked. Because of my over generous FBA I had to sew the front waist line about 3/4" deeper.
Fabric Used:
A knit from the 1/2 off Clearance at JoAnns
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
See above
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I'd absolutely sew it again and would highly recommend it to others.
Conclusion:
Put this one on your list. Parting shot...

 

You have got see this!

I don't have children but sometimes as my mom use to say, " I can show you better than I can tell you!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl1ujzRidmU&feature=player_embedded#!

Full steam ahead

After spending most of yesterday recovering from the "JOB FROM HELL", I cut Vogue 1257 out of my fashion fabric.

I made a muslin after reading the reviews on PatternReview.com and because I made a ton of alterations to the pattern. Although my muslin fabric was hideous, I'm grateful I made it. The reviews were spot-on. The sleeves were so tight, had the fabric not been knit, or had I flexed my arm ever-so-slightly, I would have "incredible Hulked" out of the entire dress. Who in the heck has arms that small? The sleeves were so tight, my husband had such a confused look on his face and furrowing between his brows, I knew without a doubt something was amiss!

After examining the pattern envelope more closely I do notice that the sleeves look tight on the model. Also on the back of the envelope, on the "stretch meter," it says stretch "FOLDED" fabric. Yikes! In my mind that means instead of 2-way stretch, the fabric needs to have 4-way stretch. Aha...No wonder the sleeves are cutting off my circulation!

The other thing I noted when I was altering the pattern is that the seam between the bodice and the skirt is supposed to be about 2" above the natural waistline. Nothing annoys me more than when sewers do not pay enough attention to the proportions on patterns. We too often forget that a pattern is a starting point for the masses. Once we get it, we have to customize it to our particular shape. More later,

Today I got fired!

A wonderful thing happened to me today. I got fired from the job I've only had for two weeks. Why is that wondeerful? I've wanted to get a job with this property management firm for about four years. In that time I've wondered why the turnover of the property managers was high but didn't know why. Well, now I do.

I didn't want to complain about it but from the time I walked in every morning until the time I left every evening, I was going full steam ahead. Prior to being hired, the position I was filling had been vacant for two months. I was expected to know how to catch up with all that work as well as keeping up with current work. I was so busy each day that there wasn't any time to get a sip of water or even make a trip to ladies room. I kid you not. By the time I got home every night I was so mentally drained all I could do was go straight to bed. Each day was like the one before it.

Training for the job did not exist. I was told once how to do a thing and was then expected to be completely versed in that particular operation. I made a mistake on a bank deposit slip last Friday and evidently that was the last and only straw. As soon as I arrived this morning I was given the news that my performance was not up to par and that they would no longer be needing my services.

What a relief! I wanted to quit last week but didn't know how. I wanted to make sure I gave it my best effort but all I really wanted was out. No amount of money is enough to expect a person to work at that pace. Did I mention that all of the tenant files are still on index cards? WTH. In this day and age all of that information should be computerized! Anyway I got fired and I'm happy about it. I don't need the money, my husband didn't want me to work, and I didn't need the stress. To make this sewing related I will say that I was the best dressed in the office. The owner commented on my outfits each day. I'll go back to whiling my days away sewing and doing whatever else I please.