Alma Progress ~ Muslin 2

I'm getting there. I am making progress.  I promise a pretty Alma will soon follow; however, I ask for advice.  You guys are the best at giving sewing and fitting advice.

Tonight I sewed up Muslin 2. I attacked that beast like a rabid wolverine.  I threw caution to the wind and went with my gut.  There may or may not be any method to my madness lol.

Here are the results.

Conquered the back! Woohoo!  This is 1.5 inches out for swayback people. one and a half. omg. I need better posture.  I also must have a narrow back because I took almost 1/2 inch tapered to zero out of the back from neck down to the swayback seam you see in the middle.  This helped with the poof tremendously.  I also let out the bottom 2 inches of each side of hip - will add 1/2" to each side because 1/4" was still too tight. 

Question. see the wrinkles still forming above the swayback line on each side?  Do I need to maybe take more out of the width here? Or seriously more out of the height? Or just leave it. lol. 

Further visual of helped swayback.  I see my vertical line from armpit to hip tips toward the back. I will most likely add my 1/2"-3/4" to each side of the hip, only to the back as my larger rear needs more fabric. That should even this line out. Which will lead to a larger problem in the front but we will get to that. 

Ah the front. Where I need the most help.  So I added 1/2" dart from neckline tapered off to waist in the center front. I seem to have excess poof here. This helped some.  It also pulled in the vertical darts in the front which they then lined up with my bust apex.  I marked this apex and saw I needed to extend the bust dart by 1" - This was ONLY fixed on my right side (your left) where you see the pink marker.  As you can see on my left, those dreadful slanted drag lines are there but on my right they are much better.  (Oh, this also has my normal square shoulder adjustment). 

I have a ton of poof under bust. Almost like I need a swayback adjustment for my front too. (LOL). Question: why do I have this poof?  Do I need to shorten the front bodice? I think I'm grabbing about 1/2" each side in the below picture.  When I'm sitting this inch folds up under my bust, too.  Hmm. perhaps I just answered my own question. 

Here I am pulling the above poof out to the side. Now I actually have another issue.  When I sit down I also get a rather decent poof above the bust - at the top of the armpit, pretty much that goes horizontal all the way across.  This is also the only time the bust feels tight across.  Not sure what to do here. The bust feels normal/slightly large when standing.  

And there you have it. Muslin 2. I'm getting super close.  Just a few more tweaks :D

I appreciate all your help - seriously. I would have ditched this awhile ago were it not for your suggestions.

(funny sidenote: to get in and out of this sans zipper with both sides sewn I almost have to be popping my shoulder out.... It got old, fast. My chiropractor would be so proud lol)

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Ottobre 01/2009 #28 "Marja" Jersey Tunic

hippie flare? check
bell sleeves? check
loose fit? check
stash fabric? check. even better!

That is the mix for a great top for Miss K.
I had a blast making this.

The top is from Ottobre 01/2009 #28 "Marja" Jersey Tunic.  I also made the sweats for K that sort of "go with" this top in the magazine photos.  She's even wearing them in this photo shoot!

In the past I've had trouble getting the sizing down for Miss K in the Ottobres.  She is 128 in height but her measurements are all over the place.  She is not skinny, and not chunky.  Her chest and waist measure the same, and then she is cursed with my larger rear.  I measured every piece before tracing this to ensure it would fit and not be too small or too big.

I ended up tracing and sewing a 134 in height and a 146 in width.  There is a bit of growing room, but I'm just fine with that.

(loving the bell sleeves!)

I took my time sewing, going slowly and taking breaks when I needed to.  I sewed it over the course of 3 days.  It was quite relaxing.  I switched up all my thread (both machine and serger) to Gutermann.  It runs/sews and seems to last much longer than the "crappier" thread I was using. Plus the lint is far less.  I also switched up to sewing with a zig zag stitch set at 2.5 length and 0.5 width.  just a slight bit of zag to ensure a bit of stretching.  After I stitched all seams I then serged - sort of a way to double reinforce seams. These suckers aren't popping!

I followed the instructions - crazy concept, I know.  The sleeve heads had about 2.5-3" of easing to do. Yuk.  I chose to gather the tops instead.  I like how they look with the gathering at the waist.  I did the binding on the pockets as directed but the neckline I finished the way I like.  My twin needle finished up the hems quite nice - still on the zigzag stitch.  I also used fusible stay tape for the shoulders instead of elastic tape; however, I used elastic tape for the rest as suggested.

(a bit of room to grow still - 1.5 inches each side I'd say - K loves it loose)

Fabric: Stash fabric! Yes! Though not too long ago ordered.  I picked this up from fashionfabricsclub on 10/24/13. 1.5 yards that shrunk when washed to 1 3/8 yards.  It is a lightweight, cotton, pink, floral jersey knit in 60" wide.  $5.56 total.  I bought it exactly for this project and I'm happy I actually used it as such!  The "official" description: Soft Pink, Fuschia, Orchid, Yellow, Dark Brown & White Small floral print Jersey Knit fabric This lightweight knit is great for shirts or a child's casual dress 100% Cotton 60" wide Machine washable

Outcome:
Freaking love it! Can I have one? The neckline is a bit wide on K so I will most likely reduce her bodices to a 140 width from here out. Otherwise everything else is perfect.  She's already requested another one in fox fabric.

I'll leave you with a picture of the "redneck" fun the kids had with dad today.  Yep, that is the lawn mower pulling the sled.  hahahaha

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~
Total Stash yards used in 2014 so far: 4.5

Well, I did sew up some things...

First, some super cute humor to lighten the mood. I saw this online and laughed so hard.


Anyway, onward.  My bruised and battered arm is all healed up from falling on the stairs a few weeks ago.  My sinus infection/cold is also gone (yay!) so I have been pushing forward with the sewing.
I picked up another fitting book and have high hopes for my alma (will sew this up next week).  I am confident it will be awesome. Oh, and school started again, boo.

I wanted to get some fabric moving out of my stash so I grabbed this thin cotton knit with tropical birds on it to make K some pjs.  You can't go wrong with pjs.  I had 2 yards, the fabric has minimal stretch, and very soft.

Top is Jalie 2805 in size O for the width and M for the height.  Bottoms are Ottobre 06/2013 #38 in a 134.
The top fit nice, a tad snug.  The bottoms were really snug - I should have gone up a bit in size to account for the lack of stretch.  Live and learn.  2 yards out of the stash! Yay.

(omg is she getting my swayback already? lol)

the pants didn't survive the day - due to the tightness

Oh and I finally got a pic of K wearing the previous Ottobre 06/2013 #38 with a tons of stretch. They fit nice and will be great leggings. She thought wearing them around the house all day was fun.

I also removed/sewed up 1 yard of the only flannel in the stash.
Fun drama with this.  It started as 1 yard and I wanted to try the Jalie 3243 pants pattern.  Size O. Well, the fabric wasn't long enough so I thought "ok, I'll make capri's with elastic in the legs, cute."  I cut out the pattern and went to start sewing and found this huge hole in the fabric! UGH.

 So I proceeded to hack more off and make them shorts.  

And when ironing, found ANOTHER dang hole! 

Terrible fabric. I patched this small one quick and called it good. 

 My typical luck. K likes them, they are soft.  Plus They fit her well and now I can make her some cotton pants with the pattern.

I'm also working on this top with 1.5 yards of knit from the stash


and then moving back to the alma. Total I will have used up 6.5 yards of stash so far this month.

What are you currently working on?

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~