muslin and FBA

I've been sewing. Which is to say I've been learning. I sewed this top in the photo below. Well, I sewed it almost to completion, which was enough for me to know that:
a) It's not a bad fit but it's not great either and shortcutting on the full bust adjustment yielded short cut results.
b) I am too young to wear navy polyester tops.
So tonight I undid the first lot of adjustments. First time round, I cut a 16 in the neck, an 18 in the arms and graded from the 16 through to a 20 from the armscye downwards. I also added 5 cm in length to the front and back. It did fit across the bust, but it was quite baggy around the waist and thus not so flattering.

Second time round, i.e. tonight, I cut out the paper pattern piece for a 16 in all the pieces and had my first go at a fba on the front, adding 5 cm on the pattern piece for the front, which will double in effect on the actual fabric.


There is no dart in this pattern and I'm not entirely sure I have finished with adjusting it. I used the instructions from Fit for Real People, but given I don't want a dart in this, I think I need to follow the rotating instructions given here. Meanwhile, the knit fabric I found on special at our local and very wonderful Bernina shop is in the washing machine. Just as I was about to cut it out, I realised it had a stretch bump from being draped over the fabric pole in the shop.

The fabric range in our local shop for knits isn't huge. But the knowledge and generosity of Jackie who runs the shop is. Yesterday I took my machine in, fabric still wedged in and refusing to budge, to see what could be done. Jackie is the agent for another local star, the sewing machine repair man. I was wondering if it was worth fixing it and fretting that we couldn't possibly justify buying a new sewing machine if it wasn't worth fixing. Jackie diagnosed how to unstick everything and how to avoid it happening again and off I went without spending a single cent. So today I was completely happy to buy some fabric and thread from her for attempt number two at a knit top. This one is a cotton based knit, grey with shiney stars on it. Whereas the first one was old (er than me) lady fabric, this one looks a shade teenage unmade up but I think it is worth trying. I do now see why the very knowledgeable sewists on Pattern Review talk about TNT (tried and true) patterns so often. If I'm going to be taking this long to get the pattern to fit right, I will want to use it a lot. All this adjusting every time I sewed would do my head in.

In other thoughts, I am very proud of my brother, who wrote to his local newspaper saying:


So so so true and so important to say it out loud and strong.

More kale last night. With sausage, kumara, pumpkin, tomatoes and onions in a casserole. It tasted fine, and coped with being left in the oven for hours while FH and I were out at work for the evening.

My sister is still offline I think and last I heard her place in Hawkes Bay had been red stickered. My sister in law in Albany escaped the tornado. Sleepy old place, New Zealand.

Comments

Heather said…
I get so angry every time I hear that 'justice has been done'. Since when was sending troops into a foreign country to carry out a cold-blooded assasination 'justice'?? I thought we (the West) prided ourselves on our 'civilisation': defined as such things as due process, rule of law (which no one stands above), democracy etc. Not a lot of due process or rule of law here...

The only true solution to ending terrorism I can see is the 'Jesus way'. Valuing *everyone* as a child and creation of God; meeting violence with gutsy and scary peace; laying down one's own life; forgiving seventy times seven etc.

And if we can't do that, then at least can we follow our own rules and have a proper court trial (even in absentia)???

Violence begets violence. Revenge is a cycle that doesn't stop until everyone's dead.
May 7, 2011 at 10:15 AM
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