Nojo

Readers, I must fess up.  As you could probably guess what with my super lame postings and equally lame sewing recently, something is up.  And indeed it is.

Noah’s going to be a big brother.  As excited as me and my husband are about this, the realities of the first trimester have really made mincemeat of me.  Things are not as bad as they were with Noah (TMI–at least I’m not throwing up daily), but I can’t say that I have any more energy either.  Food is completely abhorrent, and what I can eat, I have to force down.  Even the heat of my beloved tea is making me nauseous.  So as you can guess, the idea of tackling any kind of sewing project is a bit monumental mentally right now.  Even my go-to couch project of yoyos is out because Noah is far too interested in my hand-sewing for me to be productive/not frustrated by playing keep away with needles.  I’m rather depressed, but I did just reserve an obscene amount of opera DVDs and CDs at the library.  Music therapy is always helpful, plus it’s good for baby.

I will not forget my music education roots, nor what I learned in my Master’s in the Kodaly method.  Kodaly himself said that music education begins nine months before the birth of the mother.  Noah heard no less than 15 operas in utero, plus all of the music in my classes.  I see how music calms him and brings him joy.  Not having the benefit of my classes, #2 needs the music around here to be amped up considerably.

Here’s for hoping that the end of September will find me feeling better.  Oy, that’s too long.

Planning–the armchair edition

I really do have my little Moleskin filled to the brim right now with cute little drawings of my upcoming projects, but it being 4:40 am and the camera being in the room with the ever so soundly sleeping baby, I will instead venture to overuse the copy and paste function in this post.

There’s this litte jacket which is all muslined, altered, and ready to go.

Burda 2-2007-104

I’m stepping out on a limb here with Simplicity 2554F.  The line drawing of the ruffles looks so great, and of course, The Slapdash Sewists’ excellent styling of this top put me over the edge.  I’m not sure about my full bust and the ruffles, though I love the flutter sleeve.  We’ll see.  It might not make it past the muslin stage.

This one I’m excited about.  This is Vogue 8548.  I need a coat for winter, and I’ve made enough jackets at this point to feel comfortable tackling this big of a project.  This is not a super complicated pattern, so I can focus on making this really really well.  Much study and practice is to come.  In the mean time, I bought 4 yards of this absurdly beautiful double-faced robin’s egg blue wool from a PR’er for the crazy price of $23.  I can’t believe how lovely this stuff is, and the color will motivate me to not put this big of a project off for fear’s sake for another year.

Because I’m a sucka for a cap sleeve, here’s Butterick 5495

And because knit dresses seem to be my preferred drug of choice these days, a couple more:

Burda 8-2008-188 tunic lengthened to dress length (which probably means like 2″ for me tee hee).

My queue is longer than this, but I have to have something to post about another day, right? 

I’m hoping I get through this all too.  I’m pretty tired these days and haven’t felt much like making playdates with Gnomey.  Mayhaps I’ve needed a break from my usual pace though…

Being petite, or how I made the worst top ever

I am exaketededly five feet, two and half inches high, and it is a very good height indeed!

That being said, if you sew from commercial patterns, you will quickly find out that being less than 5’6″ will cause you a lot of headaches.  Most of the time, all one needs to do is shorten a garment at the waist, like this muslin of a Burda jacket I’m working on.

Other times, being petite can cause a lot of headaches.  This HotPatterns sweater that I made out of cotton interlock and trimmed with cotton seersucker rib knit is a good example.

HotPatterns Plain and Simple Rib Trim Sweater

What I learned:

Proportions:  The smallest size on this pattern is simply not small enough in any direction.  Could I fix this?  Yes, but for a pattern that takes literally 15 minutes to sew, do you really want to spend several hours trying to petite-ify it?  Not so much.  The sleeve seam runs 4″ off my shoulder,the hem hits me nearly mid-thigh (note I have only turned up the hems and not shortened anything so that you can appreciate how long everything is).  The 3/4 length sleeves are longer than full length, and the wrap collar threatens to swallow me whole (note the snow zombie). 

This design is really cool, but HotPatterns are not only drafted for someone who is  5’7 3/8″, but a lot of their patterns have design elements that are really big (collars, lapels etc).  So even if I could manage to make a big enough narrow shoulder adjustment without distortion (seems iffy at 4″), the edges of the collar itself go within 1/2″ of the end of my shoulders, making things look just way out of proportion.

So I’m officially done with HotPatterns.  This is my second pattern from them that has not yielded even passable results (even after my overdye job), and their patterns are far too expensive to make that an acceptable failure rate.

My complete review is at Patternreview.

Peacock dress

If you haven’t figured it out by now, teal and all of its various shades is my most favorite color.  So when I saw this peacock blue ITY with ikat-looking black print, it had to be mine.  While the fabric itself is nice enough, there were some inconsistencies in the printing.  There are lighter and darker shades of the peacock color and there were some random black lines and a white line running through the length.  Sadly, this prevented me from getting a perfectly matched center back seam, but with the belt, and as I’m wearing it, it’s not hugely noticeable.  I just won’t wear this dress around sewing people (tee hee).

Not much to learn here.  This was a fast sew that I did while mostly out of my mind with days long headaches.  I like the pleating detail on the sleeves/shoulders.  The raglan cap sleeves are a nice change from my usual cut-on sleeved mock wrap dresses that I seem to be tractor-beamed towards all the time.  I didn’t muslin this because my energy was shot from the headaches (I persevered because I was tired of bumming on the couch), but it wouldn’t have hurt to make a quick practice in the end.  The fit across the bust is generous indeed.  The good news is that this is low enough that I will wear something under it, and wearing a shirt under this will take up the extra space that is in the bust, so it’s all good here.  This is not my favorite dress, but it’s not my most unfavorite either, and it’s not a half-bad pattern.

My full review is here at Patternreview.