Sleeve ShowOff

The jacket looks WONDERFUL. All that's left are the buttons. Of course I have the right color in the wrong size, the right size in the wrong color, and one but not three of the perfect button. I'm never quite sure what all my button jars are for. They appear to be more of a collection than anything. I so rarely get to use them.




On the sleeve, I sewed the fashion fabric and the lining together at the hem, pressed the seam allowance open, and then sewed the underarm seam, set in the fashion fabric and hand stitched the lining. Above, I'd just sewn the hems together. How can two pieces of fabric cut with the same pattern look so different? Strange. It worked out though.

Here's the sleeve in full. It's slightly longer, about half an inch, than normal since I intend to wear this out walking.

Above is the cap from the front and below from the back. Smooth and even. No extra uglies. I'm showing off. I'm really proud of this sleeve. Next, I'll try my forward adjustment on a blouse and if that works, I'll be ready to discuss it. Once the buttons are on, I'll get some pictures of the whole jacket. You can just make out that it fits well. It's an out of print Vogue - 8459 - for anyone wondering. I'll definitely make it again.

Thanks for the tip on the acetone sdBev. The spot is what I call "clean dirt". I'll try the pink solution and a few other stain remover type things on it to see. Luckily, it's on the lining and not ruining wearability. You wrote the most interesting comment last week in What I Could Have Learned. It was:

I'm not really that impressed with Betzina's fitting. I bought her No Time To Sew and wished I hadn't bothered sewing. Other than her version of the one seam pants, all her other garments, which were clearly my size, looked like big wrinkled potato sacks. Seeing your results with this blouse, I won't be trying her patterns. I don't care what she says about Vogue, she does have options, like publishing her patterns herself. Ooppps. Didn't mean this to be a rant. I sympathize with your experience and think it's typical because of Betzina's fitting formula.

Sandra says her patterns reflect all the women she has fitted over the years. That may be true but more so, I think they reflect her figure type and the changes she needs to make. When my friend Lorraine and I watched her video on jeans, Lorraine commented that now that she'd seen Sandra's figure she understood her patterns better. I felt the same way when I watched Marcy Tilton's t-shirt video. I find Marcy's garments have way too much ease and are baggy and unflattering on me. On the video, I could see her figure type and how she likes to fit. It's not the same as mine or the way I like to fit.

A few years ago, I studied with Pati Palmer. She, like Sandra, says her patterns reflect the thousands of women she has fit over the years and the "real" woman. Her patterns do fit me fairly well but then again, my figure is similar to hers and she prefers her garments well fitted as I do. The take away for me is that the pattern quite often reflects the figure type and tastes of the designer and while some are better than others, there are flaws with all patterns.

There will always be some adjustments to make and there will always be fine tuning to do. My accepting that has made a huge difference. I've stopped thinking there's something wrong with me and started "perfecting" the patterns to suit my preferences. This is the reason I favour making muslins. They save a LOT of frustration.




When I was younger, I sewed right out of the envelope. Now, I'm making a petite adjustment taking out an inch across the chest. I'm actually an inch and a half taller than I was back then so reality is that most likely I needed to make the same adjustment back then, I just didn't know it. Coming back to sewing, I think my expectations were too high. It's been like a giant jigsaw puzzle slowly coming together as I have figured out which alterations to make. The back shoulder of my muslin does not look nearly as wonderful as the back shoulder of the finished garment.

Since returning to sewing, I've learned about the petite adjustment, about how to narrow shoulders, about making a forward shoulder adjustment, about fleshy shoulders, and a few other alterations that are slowly, garment by garment, improving my sewing and results. Right now, I'm spending a lot of time learning about and testing fitting theories and it's paying off. YES YES

AnnR made an interesting comment on Stitcher's Guild the other day. I'm paraphrasing because I don't have the exact wording. The discussion was about which size of pattern to buy and she said she finds it easier to buy for her bust and make a shoulder adjustment. That's completely the opposite of what I do. I buy for my shoulders and make a full bust adjustment if it's necessary. It often isn't. What's interesting is that even though I bought for the shoulders, I often end up narrowing them because a lot of garments are drafted too wide for my tastes. I achieve a better silhouette when the sleeve sits right on the shoulder rather than dropped to any degree.

AnnR's comment highlights how there is more than one answer to a "problem" and how important it is to find our answer because while one alteration may work well for a lot of women, that doesn't mean it'll work well for me. I'm discovering that with the forward shoulder adjustment.

A HUGE lightening bolt for me was when I read Lynda Maynard's book DeMystifying Fit (available on Kenneth King's site or PatternReview). I'd just spent years and years and years trying to get a good fitting pattern with Pattern Master Boutique. I was frustrated. I felt I had the ugliest figure on earth with all sorts of issues. I felt like I couldn't sew anymore. Nothing seemed to turn out right. I'm so thankful to the friend who told me about the book. I hired a professional seamstress to fit me to a Butterick fitting shell and now...

... I can use PMB but not the way the software designer suggests. After the shell was sewn and fitted correctly, I copied the information into the software, sewed a duplicate shell that fit equally well, and then used those measurements to design with. It made a huge difference to using PMB except that I've also figured out how to make commercial patterns fit now and rarely use the software or Lynda's method anymore. There's no need now but back then, the learning was invaluable. It moved me along my path.

Comparing my sloper to commercial garments showed me what changes I'll need to consistently make AND it showed me that my figure is not as deformed as I was imagining. I can get so caught up in this one thing right in front of me that I forget to see the big picture. SO... I have a whole bunch of Sandra's patterns coming. I like the design lines of many of them. I expect them to have issues and to make changes to the shoulders and sleeves especially and after that, I expect I can make them fit quite well. It's almost as if I'm chopping off the top section of every designer's pattern and adding back on MY pattern, which is in essence what Lynda taught.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - today I saw a bee buzzing around the cherry tree. It's so cold right now, even threatening snow, that I didn't expect to see one. There will be a few cherries at least.

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Personal Growth - There is this mysterious energy that wants us to keep growing - Michelle Cassou, artist. - I fear the venture into the unknown. But that is part of the act of creating and the art of performing - Martha Graham, dancer.

James Dobson suggests in his parenting books that when you identify something that your children are very good at, that you enable them to follow it up fully. The passion to create doesn't appear to have come from my ancestors so I was very lucky to have a teacher who saw and encouraged it in me. She even insured that I had a sewing machine when I graduated from high school. All that I've gone on to do in my life can be directly traced back to her and how she supported me which is why I've been trying to find her - Natalie Kruger - to say thank you.

Creativity, and in particular working with fabric, does seem to be a mysterious energy. I get almost compulsive obsessive about finding an answer and making it work. Sometimes the question seems silly to other people - they think my forward shoulders look good enough. I'm not a good enough person. I aim for good and enough, the point at which I know that I've worked the question through to an answer that reflects the best of my ability and now it's time to quit and move on. Later, I might pick up that question again when I have new information.

I set learning tasks for myself like sewing jeans or correcting shoulders or designing sweaters or... or... or... The possibilities are endless. It's what works for me allowing me to create and perform with my way of being. I'm glad I'm goal oriented, somewhat compulsive, and very creative. It's TERRIBLY FUN!