A quick WIP update on Velvet Jacket and the Raspberry Rucksack

This week was not my best week in the sewing room. I had the Princess for part of the weekend and all day Tuesday, which is always such a treat and fills my heart with joy! I have also been very busy at work, and it can be so hard when you work from home and you keep glancing longingly at your sewing machines wishing only to be happily mired in a sewing project! Plus I had one night out on the road this week. On top of that, I am not feeling the best. I sound like Darth Vader and seem to have gotten whatever winter virus or cold that is flying around like mad at this time of the year. SO, not been able to breathe all that well and extra tired and super busy at work has meant not too much has happened on the sewing front.

 

I had some lovely emails from readers on my last post re: the Velvet Jacket. Thank you ladies!!

 

I did finish the hem of the velvet jacket and am now working on the sleeve hems. I have hit my first snag with this project and had a real Tim Gunn make it work moment. I am so used to cutting the hems of my sleeves at the finished length with the thought that there is a good 1.5 inch sleeve hem and that gives me plenty for a jump hem in the sleeve. Well…I just plain old forgot that this sleeve has a band cuff and NOT a hem so I had no length for a jump hem. I played with my options and I figured that I just needed an extra ⅝” and all would be good. So i unpressed the hem in the lining that I had pressed up (luckily I had not stitched it yet) I edge stitched on a length of grosgrain ribbon and then I will hand stitch this to the hem and have enough length for play! I think it actually looks quite nice! The purple grosgrain makes for a nice bridge from the velvet to the silk. Too bad this is one of those lovely hidden details.

I started on the backpack project for the princess, The Raspberry Rucksack. The first couple of hours of work was for naught since I put the zipper in upside down. (despite the clearly marked instructions!) DOH! Luckily Wendy and her mad un-sewing skills came to the rescue and she picked out all the work so I could start again! What an awesome friend! Second time around was much better and went much faster since I already knew what I was doing. SO the front or face of the backpack is done. I have read from the reviews and tutorials that I have finished the hardest part. I’ll let you know if that is true once I finish the bag!

This is the zipper that I mistakenly put in upside down! Thank goodness for a friend to the rescue!

This is the front of the bag with the pop-up zipper pocket and the front handle. The pocket is 'off' by a smidge but I was absolutely NOT taking it off and re-doing it for 1/16th of an inch.

There are other things on the back burner of the sewing realm. It is time to get back to some selfish sewing for me!! I have another Cashmerette Tobin Sweater ready to be cut out and 2 jacket/coat patterns that I want to make mock-ups of AND I have a pile of active wear fabrics that I have been meaning to play with using Melissa Fehr’s Sew Your Own Activewear book AND I want to play with some draping projects AND, and oh gosh, the list in my head is endless!!! I will stop now before I spin out of control.

Weekend (sewing) plans- Plenty of rest with doses of cold medicine, Vicks Vapor Rub and lots of tea! and maybe finish the Velvet Jacket and the backpack. Fingers crossed!

 

Happy Sewing!!

From the Princess and I :)

The saga of the Cynthia Guffey shirt T-2025! A Work In Progress!

This shirt really is a saga, an epic journey of the many muslin kind! At one point I was really ready to give up and throw in the proverbial towel or in this case wad up the millionth muslin, throw it in the can, recycle the pattern and forget the damn thing ever existed. Except i'm darn sure that this thing would have come back to haunt me... in a stray thought, in a dream or more likely a nightmare, in a photo in a magazine when I least expected it. There would be my shirt with it's coveted shirred sleeves and beautiful style lines staring back at me and mocking me.

Well! I sure do have a great imagination! LOL! It was more like sheer determination on my part to succeed in making this shirt. I hate giving up!

I first saw this shirt made up and on display at Cynthia Guffey's booth at the Original Quilt and Sewing Expo in Chicago a couple of years ago. something about it really enamored me and I shelled out the $18 for it. (you can find her patterns on her website) I don't recommend her patterns for beginners, the directions are not always the easiest to follow. However, she has some really interesting designs and details and I have made a couple of her other patterns and have liked them and gotten many good comments on them.

I ended up making 5 muslins for this shirt! This included redrafting the entire sleeve, armhole, upper side front and upper side back to fit me perfectly. I don't have pictures of every muslin, only the ones where Sarah was helping me make changes. I think with every change that I made I was so determined to make the changes and move forward because I was darn sure each time that THIS change would be the one to make it perfect. Hah! what a lesson I learned.  I'm also pretty sure that I would not have been able to get it quite to where it needed to be without the help of my mentor, Sarah Veblen. I would have gotten about 50% there and then thrown it all in the garbage!

Muslin number 3- Feb 2016

Muslin number 5- May 2016. You can see the huge improvement in fit particularly at the back armhole and sleeve.

The great part about making so many muslins on a tricky pattern is that by the time you get to the actual construction in fashion fabric you just nail it.

Muslin fitting in front of a mirror is an invaluable tool! Thanks to Wendy for taking pictures of the process.

To get a better idea of what the shirt is supposed to look like when completed, here is a picture of the line drawing for the pattern.

Line drawing from Cynthia Guffey T-2025

Here are comparison pictures of the original pattern pieces to the final pattern pieces that I have. The white paper is the original Cynthia Guffey patterns and the tissue papers are my adjusted pattern pieces.

Sleeve back on left and sleeve front on right.

Big difference in the Side back pieces!

Big difference as well for the side front pieces. Alot more shaping over the bust was added in.

Only small changes made to the front(shown) and back pieces to account for finessing the shaping.

One of the details that really drew me to this pattern was the shirring of the sleeves. Due to the large changes of the actual sleeve pattern I was not able to use the pattern piece that was included. At first I was at a loss as to how to re-create this shirred look that I really wanted. After conferring with my mentor, Sarah, I was off and running. Of course, once she explained it I was thinking to myself that I should have known that!

Here is a muslin sample of the sleeve front with the base sleeve and the shirred oversleeve assembled. I cant wait to make this shirt!!

Here is the in-process picture of developing the shirred overlay for the sleeve. This was done with the slash and spread method.

Here are the shirred over- sleeve pattern, the base sleeve pattern  and my sample side by side.

I have several projects on my workstable at the moment! 2 dresses for my granddaughter, Princess Victoria, one for her baptism and one for her 2nd birthday party. An outfit for me to wear to the baptism, this Cynthia Guffey shirt plus another button down shirt with fitting darts. I'm hoping to have at this shirt sewn up in time for the ASG national conference in July!

Happy Sewing!

Princess Victoria enjoying her first piece of corn on the cob!