Grey Frilly Part One

My friend Sharon and I spent a couple hours at Winner's yesterday. Her role was to offer an honest opinion, something she's really good at doing. We went through the racks, piled the cart full, and then I tried on items six at a time. We didn't learn a whole lot new. Even when we were being brave, we weren't too far off.

Surprisingly, many of the dressier tops were constructed with stable knit fabrics. Apparently, I'm not alone in enjoying knit comfort. I tried on a long tunic that had possibilities. It was made from a lightweight fabric that draped but didn't cling. The shaping through the waist was fabulous. The shirred neckline and raglan sleeves - not so much. Something wasn't lying right through the shoulders. In fact...

... that was true with a lot of the garments. There wasn't one, out of 20-25 that I tried on, that I was tempted to bring home. They all had some kind construction or fitting flaw... or maybe... just possibly... I'm too picky - LOL - but really... I don't think that was it. There really were a lot of problems which explains again why I've always had so much trouble shopping and why I'm glad I sew.




We tried on all kinds of garments but, in particular, I wanted to try on blouses. We avoided anything stiff and opted for versions that were soft and drapey. Two had definite possibilities. Both were similar to Simplicity 2892. The first was like view C at right of the middle row except there was no band at the bottom and the armhole was cut in toward the neck - more halter top like. With a better fit through the shoulders, with either sleeves or the shoulder seam ending at the shoulder point, with a slightly lower neckline, it would work especially under sweaters and jackets. The second one was similar to the view bottom right with elastic shirring instead of a tie belt. The shirring highlighted my waist while the lower portion skimmed my hips. With a straight skirt, it would have looked soft and approachable. Soft with shape seemed to be the key although...

... the really short, very flouffy, skirt with the built up pleats on the hips had both of those and added fifty pounds exactly as we'd anticipated. I tried it on for a lark. It was a size ten. Nice to slip into that but I think it was the elastic waist and the excess hip ease helping me in. That was another delightful take-away -- the reinforcement that it's not about numbers. It's about fit and flatter, which I can achieve a whole lot easier by sewing a garment myself. I gathered lots of ideas and, by the time I got home, was more than ready to start on the grey frilly sweater knock-off.




The print t-shirt is my T & T. Placing the sweater over top allowed me to measure the different lines. In this image, the shoulder seams weren't aligned quite right yet. When they were, the center front was 2 1/8" lower than the neckline of my T & T and 3/4" narrower.




Whenever you're stitching without a pattern you have to figure out your own stitching order. I don't have a fancy machine for finishing the neck and will bind it similar to my t-shirt using the end of the ties to close the neckline. That means the neckline is last and the frill goes on first and I have to be careful not to stretch out the neck.




It appears as if the ribbing was knit right into the garment and then a narrow band of the fabric was sewn to stabilize the point where the ribbing started. There's no bulk of the seam there. My ribbing will be sewn on. On the sweater, the side seam extends through the ribbing. On mine, the ribbing will go on last and flow more smoothly around that corner.

Here are the alterations to my T & T pattern to show the sweater draft. I narrowed and lowered the neckline and drew a slight curve from the neck point to the hip point allowing for a 3/8" seam allowance. Because I have both 5/8" and 3/8" seam allowances, I was careful to mark them all on the pattern so I won't forget.

The neckline of the grey sweater was much higher than my t-shirt creating bulk at the back neck. That's the nice thing about making a copy. You don't need to copy it exactly. I lowered the back neckline, raised the armhole, and brought the shoulder point in - all changes that will fit my body better.




When you're re-drafting, keep playing with the lines until they create a nice shape. You can see that the top blue line is too abrupt. Although low enough in the back, it wouldn't sit nicely against the side of the neck. The bottom blue line is more gradual with better shape. It'll move around my neck much better.




Even though it looks blue in this image, the fabric is actually a dark lilac. Above, I'm using a 4.0 twin needle to create the ribbed edging. The spacing is the edge of the presser foot. After a few inches, I can tell this will work great for the grey ribbed sweater with the rhinestone buckle I showed the other day but not at all for this grey frilly copy. It's too stiff and won't drape the way I want it to, which means I'm looking for option B this morning. I have an idea. Hopefully it works. More tomorrow.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - Yesterday, the blog reached 100 followers. How wonderful. Thank you for sharing my journey.

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Personal Growth - If you want to live well make sure you understand all this. If you know what's good for you you'll learn this inside out. God's paths get you where you want to go. Right living people walk them easily; wrong living people are always tripping and stumbling. - Hosea 14

Yesterday, when I sat down to read my bible and journal, I asked God for a specific verse to help me with my frustration. I have to tell you that when my bible opened to these verses, I was not impressed. And how is that helpful? Since I feel like I'm tripping and stumbling, the implication is that I'm living wrong. I wanted a hug and a snuggle and an ANSWER however... God being God and all... this is what He gave me so I in turn gave it some thought.

In particular, I thought about what am I doing right here and right now that I could be doing better. I'm not waiting very patiently for whatever is to come. I'm not living in the now. I'm regurgitating the past and looking forward to the future while wasting the present. I'm not joyful and thankful to be making a home. I want to be somewhere else doing something else. I not thankful for the money I have. In my head, I'm spending the money I hope to earn. I'm making future plans but, as I've said once before, my future plans might not be God's future plans. THIS may be exactly where He wants me and if I'm grumbling and whining and feeling guilty and not enjoying and demanding and unappreciative, well... that's just not good.

I also thought about what am I doing that I shouldn't be doing. One BIG thing is spending way too much money especially on fabric. It might be a good deal only I'm buying at a much faster rate than I'm sewing and have passed stash through stockpile into hoard. It's getting ugly in the closet. Things are tumbling every which way. Enough.

And, I thought about what am I not doing that I should be doing. Along with being far more grateful for all that we have, I could use "it" more wisely. It has many definitions and more wisely means more actions on my part that aren't necessarily the things I really want to be doing but are the tasks that are mine right now. That's going to take a huge attitude adjustment. Grumble, grumble, whine, whine, SIGH.

My frustration is with the question of why did God bless me with these skills and interests and then make them so tough to move ahead with in this world? I'm not finding any answers to that question except that - right here and right now - the purpose of these gifts might be for my personal enjoyment and to share with like-minded individuals and that's it, that's all, that's good and enough.

I'm thinking about that. On one hand it seems so purposeless and I'm really not good at purposeless and quite possibly that's a big part of the lesson because on the other hand self care is so absolutely critical. I go around on this topic. I preach it to others and need to accept it for myself - to be still and know that God is God, that HE is in control, and that all things will work together for good if I keep my focus on what is right.