The Sewaholic Cambie

This dress! THIS DRESS. I may never make anything again, other than this dress over and over again, I love it that much. I can't wait to try it again with the full skirt (although I'm totally thrilled with how the a-line fits).

It's the Cambie dress from Sewaholic. I did have to make a ton of adjustments to the top (full bust adjustment, add side darts, shorten front and back, take a tuck out of the back for my swayback), but I think it's a very well crafted pattern, and the dress itself was very easy to sew (even with a full lining!).

Of course, by the time I sewed the real thing I'd already made 3 muslins, so that might be why it was so quick...

The perks of custom fit: I think this is the first dress I've owned since I was 13 where the front waistband didn't end up sitting higher than the back. In fact, it's actually lower, because that's how my natural waistband is due to my terrible posture (aka sway back).

Also, I'm in love with the fabric.

So there you have it - it took 2 months, but it was totally worth it. I even got it finished in time to wear in New York for my parents' choir concert. And one day I'm going to have a closet full of Cambies.

MMM '13 Week 3

 May 15: Apparently I forgot to turn on the lights!

 May 16: Tired of this skirt. I'm sure I'll get over it once I've had a few weeks away. :)

 May 17: I got a lot of compliments on this outfit - mostly on the pants and shoes combination!

 

May 18 (okay, and May 20): New shirt! Just in time.

May 21: I got the orange shoes back from the repair guy just in time - they go with almost everything I've made. You'll see them again.

May 22: In reality I wore the little white cardigan with this all day.

Shirt: complete!

Hello! I have, amazingly enough, actually finished the shirt I started back in March. I KNOW.

(Nice pyjama pants, right?) To catch you up on all the delays, there was the FBA I had to make that was far too roomy in the centre, requiring me to unpick the sash and figure out a workaround. There was the fact that this material is a complete pain to work with - the needle kept getting stuck in the embroidery. And then, right at the end, when I finally figured out how to the binding in the arm and neckhole (terrible instructions), my machine was too wimpy to sew through all the layers. I think it might be time to upgrade my machine.

I'm very happy with how the shirt turned out, but I'm unconvinced that it's really for me. I think if I'd tried it on in a store I might have put it back. It could use a little more width around the hips. But we'll see! I'm sure I'll wear it a bunch before the end of Me Made May, just so I have another shirt.

And now, I'm hurrying through my dress, which I desperately want to finish before I head to New York (next Friday).  I think it's possible, but there's always the zipper to throw me off.

MMM '13 Week 2

 May 8. Am I standing funny or are my breasts really that lopsided?

 May 9. I really don't mean to cut off my shoes in these photos. They are cute yellow sneakers.

 May 10. It's a good thing it cooled down again, because this shirt only seems to go with my fall and winter clothes.

 May 11. If nothing else, this is forcing me to wear this skirt in ways that don't involve trying to match the orange thread.

May 12. Yes, it's true, I wore basically the same thing on Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of legwear in honour of the giant HAIL.

 May 13. Monday morning, too tired to stand up. I liked this combo. It's cuter when you can see the shoes.

May 14. I didn't like the shoes and swapped them for boots. I miss my lost mary janes.

Me-Made-May Week 1

Day 1. As you can see by the backwards writing, I was still attempting the mirror shots. :)

 Day 2. Look, I learned how to use the self-timer!

 Day 3. Forgot my sign - I made the skirt. I took this photo after work, so I'm a little wrinkled.

 Day 4 (weekend). I never wear this skirt. It's pretty obvious why when I look at it - I look twice as short as normal. I might try to shorten it, although frankly I think I might just get rid of it. And the shirt, too, really. Super unattractive all around.

 Day 6.

Day 7. I said on Twitter that jean skirts make me feel like I'm 12 years old. They're so useful, though.

I have one more skirt that I haven't worn yet, and then it's back to these! We'll see if I can manage to make them more interesting next time around.

Dress update

I'm actually enjoying doing the fitting adjustments on this dress - surprise!

When we last spoke, I'd made adjustments on the bodice, moved the darts, and had the side seams come out all uneven. So I made a new version of the pattern piece for the front bodice, with my adjusted darts, and evened out the side seam. Then cut out a new muslin of the top.

Here's where I am now: I had to shorten the shoulders - on the front I took it from the straps, and on the back I shortened the whole thing. Amazingly, this made the side seams the same length as the front (they were longer before). Awesome thing #1: I sewed up the back where the zipper will go, and still managed to squish it on, which helped immensely - I can't really figure out how to adjust the back by myself with my short arms, but at least I can see where the problem is! I do need to do a sway back adjustment, since the back is dipping down below my waist. And my adjustments to make the side seams straight means the bottom of the bodice is now bigger than the waistband, so I need to figure that out. Maybe make the darts from the waist bigger? Or just redraw the seams. Phew!

It's kind of hard to see with my crap self-portraits, but in the second photo on the right you can see that the back is dipping below my waist, and is also wrinkling around there. You can see the imbalance a bit in the last photo too. Also, please enjoy my pyjama pants.

Awesome thing #2: the fact that I managed to take a photo of my back in the mirror. SKILLS.

Update! I made the swayback adjustment, which seems to have worked well. And the waistband seems to fit to the skirt now, which makes no sense to me, but okay. Having sewed the waistband on, though, I suspect it's a bit too short right in the front. And possibly too large around the waist. I may be making yet one more copy of the shirt front pattern pieces. I'll attach the skirt and see how it works first.

(As for the ongoing shirt, my adjustment worked this time, hooray! And then I futzed with seam finishes for a while. I'm now ignoring it because the next step is to trim the edges with bias tape, which scares me a little.)

Me-Made May and more fun with muslins

Yes, I took the pledge. I'm going to participate in Me-Made May by wearing one thing made by me each day in May (except when I'm in NY). I only have something like 6 things so far, unless I manage to finish either March's failed shirt, or April's dress, so there'll be a lot of repeating clothes. But maybe it'll encourage me to hurry up and make more. :)

Meanwhile, last night I unpicked the shirt to make one more attempt at a bust adjustment that will actually work. I hope it does - I really like the fabric, despite it being a PAIN to sew. It's got these embroidered flowers that my wussy machine doesn't want to sew over. All will be forgiven if I can make the shirt work, though.

And I'm working on fitting my dress. I did a full-bust adjustment following the slash-and-spread method from this great book: Fit for Real People.

I needed to add 3 inches to each slash, which meant I ended up having to add a dart to the side (as well as the one from the waist that was already there). But adding 3 inches at each of those cuts, the new dart, and trying to go from a 12 at the top to a 16 waist, meant that my edges didn't end up straight. I still have some figuring out to do! I had to move the darts at bit, too, although I think I managed to get them ending at the right place so I don't have dart nipples. Anyway, I've had to try for another version of the front bust piece - as soon as I get more practice material, take 2 will be underway.

And then, after making two things that needed adjustment, I think my next project is going to be a super basic skirt!