Where did the time go??
Okay, I've been doing a lot of tying up of loose ends. I spent Saturday cleaning up my sewing area and doing little nagging repair projects: Replacing elastic in that slip that sagged down around my legs in public; shortening my cotton petticoat with tucks; sleeping in; tracing and filing away a pile of messy slashed-and-taped altered pattern pieces; etc. I still need to iron a blouse and replace the shoulder pads in the Telephone Girl dress; I made them wrong and they bunched up in the wash.
Okay, I've been doing a lot of tying up of loose ends. I spent Saturday cleaning up my sewing area and doing little nagging repair projects: Replacing elastic in that slip that sagged down around my legs in public; shortening my cotton petticoat with tucks; sleeping in; tracing and filing away a pile of messy slashed-and-taped altered pattern pieces; etc. I still need to iron a blouse and replace the shoulder pads in the Telephone Girl dress; I made them wrong and they bunched up in the wash.
I started a test-knit of Michelle Wang's Forester sweater, a bulky top-down raglan turtleneck made with doubled worsted-weight yarn on US11 needles, which are like knitting with sharpened broomsticks. I'm using the last of the Doctor Who yarn--muted greens, taupe, brown, and gray doubled with brick red. Might be interesting, or might be the ugliest sweater in history. Well, I'll donate it if I don't like it. If it fits, I'll use it for that black sweater at which I've failed like four times--the doubled yarn might be a good way to disguise the fact that half my black yarn has been frogged and re-knit over and over and is a bit tired.
I'm late to the party on this, but I'm planning to trace off Dottie Angel's Simplicity 1080 dress this week. I know this dress isn't going to work right out of the packet, not because I think it's a bad pattern but because I know where I'm fussy about fit/have fit issues and thus where we are likely to disagree. I had already started toying with the idea of raising the neckline (boat and scoop necklines are always a problem for me since I don't carry a lot of weight around my upper chest and shoulders--they gap and give bystanders an unwanted peek if I lean over, or they let my bra straps hang out) and altering the sleeves/armscyes so they could be bias-bound instead of using the narrow hem. I might try sticking some small back neck darts in, too, once the back neck is raised.
Then I ran across Roobeedoo's post in which she grafted the Maya dress arms and neckline onto the Dottie Angel body. I don't have the Maya pattern but I get the idea. She also lowered the ties, which I'll have to do because of my long waist and low bust. I don't really like back ties so I'll probably do side ties or applied waistbands with button tabs.
Anyway, this is a pattern that could be worn year-round here in Texas and that I think could be a good blank slate for a lot of design tweaks and embellishments. I have a bunch of fabrics set aside to try with it.
Anyway, this is a pattern that could be worn year-round here in Texas and that I think could be a good blank slate for a lot of design tweaks and embellishments. I have a bunch of fabrics set aside to try with it.
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