Sunday, September 19, 2010

And We're Off!!


The Lady Grey Sew Along started this week and we're currently at our muslin/fitting stage. Thankful that I could save some money by using some old drapery fabric from Mom's stash, I set out to make my muslin. As I said before, this if the first time I've ever followed this golden rule of sewing, but I'm definitely seeing the benefit already.

I finished mine Friday evening and put the pictures up on our Flickr pool to get feedback as I am 100% new to coats and tailoring. At first look, I was thrilled (remember that the collar and lapel have the seam allowances showing, so they'll be smaller by 5/8" all around). I was also a little thrown by the incredibly uncomfortable sleeves. That is, until I realized that there was a left sleeve and a right sleeve (would have been helpful for them to mention that), and I definitely had them in backwards, which is why they look so crumply.



Then I turned around...



I knew the fit was close, but couldn't quite figure out what was going wrong across the back. So, I waited and checked for feedback every hour or so until I saw the suggestions that the coat was a little long in the waist, which makes perfect sense as I am child-sized :) I brought it up about 1/2" all the way around to test the theory and was delighted with the result. As I had additional suggestions to try some light shoulder pads to help with the extra space across the shoulders but still allow free movement, I tacked in some 1/4" shoulder pads. I also took the time to switch the sleeves and was pleased to find that that was precisely the problem. Once I had those turned up to the planned 3/4 length, they didn't even look so overpowering on my little arms, either.



(Those are excited little fists because all the changes worked, FYI)

I am so glad I decided to do the sew along now that I'm into it, and I definitely think it was a worth-while splurge. The feedback from more experienced sewists has been invaluable (and we all know I would never have done the muslin otherwise), and it's so fun to see what fabrics, etc everyone else is working with! AND, it doesn't hurt that through this I've connected with another little sewist in IL who is also 4'11 :) Maybe I'm not so strange afterall...

1 comment:

  1. Wow, what a lot to catch up on!
    The fashion shoot pictures really turned out nice. The outfits all look really cute on you.
    So happy to see that you made good use of the bunny panels. Glad it is being put to good use, and I wasn't referring to the cats:)
    Never thought I'd see curtain fabric turned into a jacket muslin. You are so creative, and it really makes a cute jacket!
    Keep up the good work, you are becoming quite a seamstress. Nice to see you connecting with others who share your interest even if it is through the internet:)

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