It's finished! (finally, lol)

I am more than pleased with this Alma. Especially since so much work went into it!

But, some quick words about my photo shoot. Mr. Sunny's friends are moving from OK to WI and will be staying with us about a month until they find a place. Therefore we had to clear out K's room so they could stay there. K's bookshelf ended up in my sewing room :( where I like to take pictures. My other favorite spot is in the kitchen/dining area. However, because the dryer is broken, that spot is filled with drying racks and clothes. lol. Chaos I tell you! New dryer will be here Wednesday. Friends (with their 3 yr old) will be here next week. Lets hope I survive.

Onward. Here is the progress of the alma for me.

• 1st sewn Alma - happy with it but wanted to improve fit
• 1st massive fitting and alteration muslin
• 2nd muslin
• 3rd muslin!

Whew, that is a lot of work!  Much thanks to all your patience and help!
It all paid off. I love the fit of this one.

My hair? oh yes, chopped 10 inches off :D It feels so nice. 

 Here is the final breakdown of alterations:

• 1/4" added to sleeves to add in a bit more room - result is they are much less restrictive. 
• Front and back:
• 1/4" sloped out from neckline tapering to 0" at bottom hem
• 1/4" square shoulder adjustment
• Front alone:
• 1/2" added to center darts to lengthen them
• curved the bust dart -drastic improvement
• Back alone:
• 3/4" swayback adjustment
• 1/4" taken out across entire back, horizontally at waist
• 1/2" added to hips

Fit is spot on except a tiny poof in the back above my waist. I'm wondering if I have a "narrow" back or maybe even a short back (? lol) and feel like putting in a fish eye dart there. But it isn't terrible.

Also, I wanted this to be short sleeves, not cap, but couldn't get the sleeves to feel right - they were super restrictive (Joy, I needed to perfect your sleeve cap flattening technique here).

On my other Alma the zipper bugged me quite a bit. So I put in the zip upside down, when closed the pull tab is at the bottom (my waist) now and not in my armpit pissing me off!  Plus, I added a zipper shield so the scratchiness doesn't get to me. This feel so much better now.  Here are the fly shield pics.

Stash used for this: 2 yards

Stash used in 2014: 6.5

Fabric out: 6.5
Fabric in: 17 yards :( sorry! I couldn't pass it up. I got a box of wovens and knits for only about $1.18/yard including shipping - and it was nice big pieces of 2-3 yard chunks. That is too many cheap clothes to pass up!!) lol.  Oh well.  I'm still using up my stash. I have a huge pile of "to makes" on my sewing bin.

Let's get back to knits, they are so much more fun.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Progress

Progress is being made.

Completed:
2 back darts, 4 front darts. shoulder seams. stay tape at shoulders and necklines.  facing has been attached and understitched.

Needing still:
zipper, side seams, topstitching on neckline.
sleeves, hem, belt.

I also printed and taped my lady skater dress pattern. Yay!

It's been a heck of a week here.  The start of it is that my dryer died. It went downhill from there. LOL. I'll spare the depressing details.
So I will leave you with a happy thought instead.
A small glimpse into a child's mind. It makes me happy to have moments like these in my life.

You know, because Cheetah has to be safe and all.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Muslin #3 - You guys rock!

I love you guys!  You are so darn helpful!
I took everyone's advice from yesterday's post and went to work again on the muslin.
I redrew the back and cut it/sewed it new. The front I didn't redraw yet because it had some work left. I just hacked and slashed it up more.

I'm happy to say it is ready for the real fabric!!!
Here are today's changes.

1/2" sloped out of center back from neck to 0" at hip - 1" length removed, 3/4" swayback completed

still some small wrinkles in back - hoping challis will behave better than this stiff muslin fabric 

Side:

Look! Look at the line! The armpit to hip is STRAIGHT! Woo hoo! *jumps up and down ecstatically* 

Thanks to adding 1/2" to each side of the hip only in the back. (Ignore butt poof - you can't win 'em all)

The dreaded front is way better.  My right is altered. My left stinks still - ignore it. ;-)

I did a curved dart! It was easy as pie too. Apple pie - with a crust you make from scratch (gluten free for me please).  I still have to figure out the exact width of the curved dart - this was free hand. Loving that that bust to hip line is GONE!  I also took out the inch here lengthwise. (seam in middle); and kept the 1/2" slope out from neck to 0" at hip. 

So a huge, HUGE thanks to you guys. I really wouldn't of gotten this far w/o your help.  I'm off to re-trace the "fixed" pieces and cut the real fabric. It's a soft, yummy rayon challis.  Stay tuned.... :-D

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~