The felted sweater jacket Vogue 1385

My personal Richard Avedon was not around today. That meant two things. First, I had the day to myself and second, there was no one to take my pics but me. I tried the old backward mirror trick and did not do well. but I have one photo that will give you an idea of how the muslin has worked out. It actually fit rather well  with the issues being in the back. I need to do a swayback adjustment and cut a smaller size for the back  as you can well see in this awful photo taken in my basement with the only full length mirror I own. Please tell me everyone's basement looks like this. 

The front of the jacket fit not too badly . The dress form is my clone. My previous issues with Betzina patterns is in the sleeve shoulder neck area. If I cut the smallest size of her's like I cut everyone else's smallest size and then adjust, well, her patterns are so tight in that area that they are completely unwearable. This size C proves that out as the upper chest area fits quite good on myself. I don't get why. I am very narrow shouldered and this  is her equivalent of a size fourteen, something I have never even come close to in patterns. I have to adjust down those size sixes I get from other pattern companies/designers for my narrow shoulders. This one fit really smoothly in that area (eye roll). But below the black line it is large. The bust is at the apex but the width is too much. So, I will cut the size C in the neck shoulder regions, cut a smaller size for the torso, and I am also going to cut this much shorter, about 8 inches. It looks much better as a short jacket with my proportions. 

                           

Now that the muslin is together I am firming up my other additions to the design. I think I am going to overstitch all the darts with a strip of the felted wool and a triple zigzag stitch to secure it down, all on the outside. The red lines show what I am thinking. Those are all darts. With the fabric being all one color, and no closure, the design really needs some further textural embellishiment and I think this is it. Creating your own look is an ever evolving process and this "strip dart" thing is today's brilliant idea. Tomorrow may be a whole different story. Do you work like that, creating as you go along? I always have a vision but remain totally open to change and my design ideas are ever evolving until a garment is completely finished. 

Isn't this ruffled neckline fabulous? I am also thinking of adding a center back seam to help with the swayback issues and doing the darted strip on the back as well. 

You can really see how large the torso and sleeves are in this pic. I do like those darted sleeve cuffs a lot. I am going to remove a tiny bit of ease from the sleeves but will keep the ruffle for the cuff and I plan on making them a bit shorter, more 3/4 length. 

So that is where we are in the fitting and design process for this garment. 

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And what on earth is this mess above?  Some years back I picked up the perfect light for my sewing room. It was a floor lamp, had three lamps that were adjustable, and was marked "FREE" on someone's curbside. I grabbed it, brought it home, and its been in my sewing room ever since, lighting up my cutting table and photos on demand. 

Today I moved it aside to get a better picture of the garment on my dressform,  No problem. Once done with pictures, I went to move it back and the lamp moved but this busted hunk of concrete stayed behind, making it now unusable. An unplanned trip to town, twenty bucks at KMart, and I am back in business with the same type lamp I just lost. I looked at the OTT lites at Joanns but found they just weren't bright enough compared to these three lamps on a pole with full spectrum bulbs. I am back in business!!!.............Bunny

Beads and Bezels

I have had more fun the past couple of weeks playing with beads. I am trying to teach myself some beading stitches and techniques and at the moment beading a bezel has my attention.

Not much personal  sewing has been happening here since the jeans completion. And if you are a creative type, you know lots of things are asking you to create with them. They sit in the back of your mind fermenting, while you sew, into some overflowing brew that just has to be dealt with. For the past 6 months, for myself, that has been beading and dyeing. Off and on over the years I have dabbled in jewelry making and always enjoyed it. True, I always go back to my first love, sewing, but I think it is good to wake up the creative senses with a bit of variety.
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What you see here are cabochons, aka, "cabs", that I made this weekend and it was such fun. This is what happens when you mix a bag of dollar store glass blobs, some large flaky glitter and all sorts of nail polish. Each one was done individually and I  just didn't know how these would turn out at all. Some of them I am really pleased with.

I definitely have my favorites and will show a few. Love the opal effect of the one above.  And the black and orange of the one below really calls out to me.

And I love the multi colored black opal effect of the this one below. What to do with them all? My goal is to bead them all around, what is called a bezel,  and then attach them to some sort of jewelry. This is a project left totally up to creative flow, and that is just so much fun. I think every now and then we need to just play with color, texture and form in a highly unstructured way. I more than likely won't bead every cab you see but the project will have served it purpose to renew my creativity and that is so important. 

I have had a sewing project going on. I gladly agreed to make a long dress for a bridesmaid. Huh? She is a good friend, one who definitely understands and appreciates my work and was really in a bind. She is 52 and was asked to be a bridesmaid in a second wedding. The bride has instructed all four bridesmaids to wear long "baby blue" dresses of their choice. Do you have any idea what it is like to find a long, baby blue bridesmaid's dress for a 52 year old? She has spent so much time looking and nothing seemed appropriate or attractive. My feeling sorry for her teamed up with her desperation and here I gladly am. At this point we have fitted the muslin and now I will adjust the pattern and cut out. I found a sky blue knit that will be made up into a simple column with a cowl neck and not sure what sort of sleeves yet. I am going to see how it looks before deciding on sleeves. The dress will be lined. I should have this done before the deadline at the end of August no  problem. We are trying to think of ways to embellish the dress so it won't be so plain. Her attitude is "just get me through this" and I hope to, at least with a bit of style. So that is sewing that's happening here. In the meantime beads  keep entertaining me and contributing a lot to my sanity level and creative lust.....Bunny

On Creativity and Taping

Two different subjects here, actually so first the creativity part:

I highly recommend this little book for any of you creators out there, whatever the medium. Kleon is a wise old soul in a young hip body and is so spot on with his insights into  the creative process. This isn't old stuff. He explains how the internet plays into the process, including blogs, forums, and more. But, there is much more on that and his viewpoints are inspirational and contemporary. I finished this in two short sittings and now can't wait to hit my studio. I found my copy from our library. Hope you give it a try.

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Back to the taping/digi-sewing discussion. It was wonderful and I appreciate all of your comments and viewpoints. All opinions were respectful and articulate. I really appreciate those who sold these patterns piping up in the convo as well. Thanks from all of you. 

Here are a few things I took away from the discussion:

Logistics:   Many dislike the download and tape phenomena particularly when there are many pages. The       pattern still needs to be traced on to tissue if motif placement is critical or adjustments for fit. And thanks to CTPat we now know that the PDF can be emailed to Office Max and printed out on large paper. Thanks for that info, CT. Also, there is a community spirit happening with many PDFs being offered with Sew Alongs. I like that.

Designers:  The No Fear attitude of freshmen sewists is admired but most would like them to get some more experience before they sell their wares on line. Some feel this will come in time as their skills mature. I hope so. IMO, poor directions, designs, and patterns will lead other newbie sewists to failure not pride. I think this will shake out to a one or two at the top who are not afraid of getting better at their craft. How about starting with ironing? My turn to be snarky (wink). 

On the other hand there are experienced pattern makers/designers using this medium whose work is wonderful. It never occurred to me that 99cent pattern sales didn't exist in other countries and I can see an absolute need for PDFs. I applaud these pros for their entrepreneurial spirit and am really glad they are able to provide this service to our off shore friends. Thanks so much for enlightening me on that and keep up the good work!

Thanks again to all of you for your enlightenment, articulate comments, and education. You are once again a priceless part of my day. Off to cut out a pattern...............Bunny