Bodacious Booty Skirt Design

I am having so much fun with skirt drafting designs. I love vintage patterns especially historical dresses that have back bustles. So this is my inspiration with this design I sewed it up in muslin to see if I would like it. The back peplums I could not put on the bias due to lack of muslin so the drape is not as good as it could be plus I couldn’t put them on a fold for the same reason.

I wanted to have a longer skirt but maybe too long? I will have a side zip in this skirt so I don’t disrupt the back peplums. I still have a back center seam on this dress because I wanted to have a slit since this skirt does taper down and is essentially another pencil skirt. The slit gives much-needed room to walk in this long pencil skirt design.

The peplum design line itself I think I will narrow so it doesn’t fan out so much in the back, I want it to drape down more but again it would have a better drape if it was on bias. I think I am just going to have a facing for this skirt or else it will be just another straight waistband.

So what do you guys think? Too corny? Or different and cute? What sort of fabric would you use for this skirt?

Here is a pic of another pattern I drafted that is sort of a mermaid type of design fitted to flared but I need 60 inch fabric for this to work as it needs to go onto the bias and it is also a long skirt.  I also drafted a circle skirt that is mid calf length and also puts me in the same fabric conundrum!!

Happy Sewing 🙂

Vintage Blouse Complete

Finally my journey is done! I think it turned out pretty cute considering I am new at the whole pattern making process. I used some black chalk to mark my center front and I tried to take a damp cloth to wipe these lines away for the pictures but they are still there a bit. Into the wash she goes on delicate cycle after these pics!

I do like the white trim I think it pops against the grey and brings more interest to the design.

I must have redone the shoulders 4 times I keep getting “peaked shoulders”, “pointy shoulders” ???? WHY?? Does anyone know what I may be doing wrong? Please share!!

So now my next journey is skirts! Something I rarely wear or make but thought it might be nice to bring more of this into my wardrobe.  I am taking Suzy Furrer course on the skirt sloper right now and made my first mock-up muslin sloper. It is very close but you see I have the belly problem that causes drag lines in this area. I am awaiting a response from Suzy on what changes I should do next? I did a lot of reading in the comment section of the course and reviewing other people’s sloper with similar problems and it seems she says the same thing to this common problem.  I think I need to move my darts over by 1 inch to the side, maybe even reduce them a bit. If that does not smooth them out then I may need to get rid of the darts altogether or slash from base to waist and add a bit of fabric to the muslin to give more room for my spare tire 😉 I think the back is pretty good and I think the side seams are in the right place?

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Custom sloper used as base for vintage pattern

I decided to go ahead and use my custom bodice pattern as a base to make this vintage style pattern.

I wonder if I will  be sucked into another downward spiral of alterations after alterations or just maybe I will need small little tweakings!

In this day and age I am all about instant gratification! Time is precious and not to be thwarted or wasted. So I hope the base sloper I have for myself can be easily transformed for all sorts of blouses.

I decided to cut out my size and make a muslin with the commercial pattern itself. I then used my base sloper and customized it to look like this pattern …I think.  Now that I know how to make a sloper I can use this to make anything right? Hell Ya!!! Do I know what I am doing?? I have absolutely no friggin’ clue!!! Ha ha BUT do I have the enthusiasm to try to make it work??? Hell Ya!!

Here are the pattern pieces in comparison:

This is a pic of the commercial pattern muslin fitting:

Here is the sloper converted muslin:

I used the bowed in darts in the front and it pulled in too much I think,  not a good comfortable ease. So I decreased the amount of fabric in those front darts. The back of my neck was gaping ever so slightly so I also did a shoulder adjustment and dropped my armhole by 1/4 inch and 1/4 inch more seam allowance in the side seams.

This is what I got so far. Now what?? Hmmm working on that one 🙂

Happy Sewing

Sewing Tips and Tidbits

I bought some of this thread on Amazon.com

The latest course I am taking introduced this product to me and I never knew it existed!!

Why would you want your stitches to dissolve you ask……BASTING!! Brilliant right!

You use this thread in your bobbin and needle for basting up your muslin.  Does anyone out there make the perfect first muslin that you don’t need to unpick? I say NO!   If you do, PLEASE tell me your secret! When you need to get rid of the basting stitches take your iron and plenty of steam and iron them away. This thread will only work with material that you can use steam on. You can always do a test on a piece of scrap 🙂

I can’t wait to try this product out! I am working on a new muslin now with the design elements I chose.  I decided on a faux low rise waistband with fly front, pockets and a boot cut fit.

Here is my new pattern sloper taken from my block pattern and altered from hip to hem for leg design.

I copied the front pocket design from a pair of my jeans using wax paper.  Another great trick I learned from this course. You just take your finger nail and scrape center front, side seam, waist seam and your pocket. Then trace over in a sharpie and apply to your sloper!

You can use this to trace any sort of design from RTW.  I may start bringing rolls of wax paper with me when I try on clothes at the store  😉

One more tip. I wish I would have known this tip when I took Angela Wolf’s class on making jeans. If you don’t have a template for the fly use a spool of thread to get the curve of the fly. In my case you can also use it too get the curve of the fly front during the drafting stage.

Happy Sewing!

70’s Groovy Muslin

No Muslin No problem!

Do you have any fabric in your stash you have had for 10+ years. I do and if I haven’t used it by now I probably won’t. I bought this super GROOVY fabric (lol)  ages ago with the thoughts of a rag quilt. But it never came to pass it is so bright and so orange I could never find anything that would go well with this color.

So I needed muslin one day to make up a new pattern I got for boot cut jeans designed by Angela Wolf.

 

I have been meaning to clean out my stash and get rid of fabric I never use.  So I came across this fabric and thought “why not? It is a woven fabric and will suit my purposes :)”

So I have to say this pattern is awesome. I am on a fitting kick!! I love learning how to do alterations. I have taken another course on learning how to alter pants and apply these alterations to your flat pattern. It was a wealth of information! Check out Craftsy Sandra Betzina if you are interested in learning these skills.

So prior to sewing this muslin I did a scoop and a wedge to the pattern as I need to do that with most patterns to fit my body shape. I tried them on and voila! I thought they fit really good except for a bit of excess fabric on the back that I pinned in and have to make those alterations to the fabric in order to get rid of this excess fabric. I am taking these pics of myself in my daughters full length mirror and had to try to twist like a contortionists  to get the shots. So excuse my big but in the last pic I was trying to show you were I pinned in the fabric.

Then I will try this pattern on some denim I have left over from the jeans I made my mom.