Highland Dance Vest Progress

In a previous post, I worked on a muslin for my daughters dance vest, but the fit was awful. So I made Ottobre's 1/08 #36 as her easter outfit. The vest was a much better fit with fewer modifications. Not much needed changing, so I merged the two patterns together. I changed the neckline of the Ottobre pattern, added the hem details and length, changed the back from princess seam, to CB seam.

This past week I completed a wearable muslin in denim and cord (so that it was heavier than plain muslin) with the merged pattern. Things to note: its easier if you read the instructions before or during construction - NOT after! The Unique pattern recommends sewing the side seams and flipping through the shoulder seam - a much better idea as the front is very narrow. I barely got the denim/cord to turn, if it had been velvet/lining/heavy interfacing with the boning it wouldn't have fit! I didn't add the CF boning.

So now to the hard part... actually cutting out the 3 fabrics, basting the interfacing, and starting to sew! I was nervous starting this, but I did cut out the pieces required!!! The canvas was a pain to press before I cut it out as it was so heavy. The white lining is heavy satin backed crepe left over from my wedding dress.

The interfacing (cotton canvas) is hand basted to the velvet.



The side seams have been sewn, boning installed and I've started sewing the two pieces together!

Avoidance leads to a clean sewing room

My next project is the dance vest! But Saturday night I wasn`t feeling up to tackling that project, so I started cleaning my sewing room. Here are the results...

	Beside the door - this is my pattern storage, some fabric and some empty bins for storing the rest of my patterns.
	My new lights. The old ones are the pot lights that aren't on - so that we didn't have to refinish & paint the ceiling we just left them there...

RTW PJs to Nightie

What do you do when your 2yo decides she hates PJs and only wants dresses (don't call them nighties, she might have to go to bed) ????

Before A pair of store bought PJs Cut the pants into pieces, shorten the sleeves....
After A mommy made custom nightie.... The skirt doesn't have much more width than the bodice, but that's all the fabric I had. The purple "stripe" in the skirt is the bottom of the original shirt. I rolled hemmed the sleeves, neckline and hem, but didn't lettuce as the purple stripe was cross grain and wouldn't lettuce in my samples..... (please ignore the water drops near the neckline)

A sleeveless top from Ottobre Woman's Spring Summer 2008

2/08 #8 Front

2/08 #8 Back
Originally uploaded by leahholland

My muslin for the sleeveless top in the recent Ottobre Womans... relatively easy to put together, but I don't like how the binding turned out - looks good at a distance, but don't like it close up. The fabric was slippery and a pain to do!

Modifications: Front: raised the CF seam and increased the cross over amount. Lengthened and widened the lower hem.

I like the length, but probably can go a little narrower at the hip.... It looks maternity from the side.... I probably should have done a small FBA as its pulling at CF. I added a pin at CF or my bra was showing. Also need to do a sway back adjustment

Bra Sewing

I've been tweaking my bra pattern and completed two more bras... one black, the other red & white. I'm having problems finding wires short enough to fit, so I tried cutting one set of wires last night. But the glue dried funny, so now I need to remove the glue and try again so there's no rough wire showing.

I really wish more stores would carry bra making supplies. I ran out of a few items (channelling, hooks, wires) at midnight on Saturday. Two local stores had some of the parts I needed, but still had to head out to a third store to get the hooks today (it isn't open Sundays!).

I've started Ottobre 2/08 #8 in a dark blue fabric with yellow flowers. I'm using a yellow fabric for the bias binding. I'm not happy with how the bindings going, so I'll be using a different method for the armholes.

This past week I've also been doing some mending... replaced a zipper, patched jeans, stitched side seams on a sweater. And finished two undershirts for dd2 (originally cutout for dd1)

Easter Outfit

Ottobre Vest & modified skirt
Originally uploaded by leahholland

Vest completed!

This is the muslin for her Highland Dance Vest, using the Ottobre 1/08 #36.

It is a good fit and moves well on her, now to tweak to get the same look as the highland vest. I'll make a muslin of that (probably something wearable...) before I cut into $40/m velvet!!!!

Easter Bunny

Easter Bunny
Originally uploaded by leahholland

Tonight I finished a skirt for my oldest daughter for easter. Its a two layer circle skirt with an easter bunny appliquéd onto the top layer.