Done with Muslin shirt

I'm done, woot woot, i'm done! Deciding that I didn't want to take the shirt apart to make it my pattern and deciding to do another one with the other markings. I have 2 sets of markings on my shirt 1st draft copy, original lines and my thought I needed to make adjustment lines. The back is still a bit big around the neck area and I know how to fix that, a pleat instead of a dart. I used to have a shirt that had a pleat at the center of the back neck area. I added more pintucks as well as extended a few pintucks I already had to the front and then attempted a half arse dying in dark green, except I didn't use a lot of green or prepped the material before dying. Opps! so here is the shirt. Despite it's flaws, i'm okay with it, and I could even wear it in public and not feel to bad about it.







I cut out another of this same pattern but this time in a lovely lavendar jersey knit. This material is soft and airy, I think I wanna make the rest into a dress or nightgown. I have a pattern that I bought to make a shirt from but now I can't seem to find it. UGH!



I can't believe it, i've reached 100 posts. WOOHOO!

Update on Muslin mock up

I'm almost finished with the mock up muslin shirt. I didn't do to bad, boy do I need to practice my sewing skills though. It's a perfect knock around shirt for cleaning though. I guess it's not all that bad, just not something I'd wear to work. I only have to hem the bottom, clip some threads and fix/add a few more pintucks. I want to make the shirt out of some lovely material I have but I need to get this pattern right.





1. I need to grade the pattern better. I guess that is the term to use.
2. Learn the terms and how to use them correctly. :)
3. Learn to copy a premade garment better
4. Practice pintucks. I think these are going to be a favorite little detail to add to some shirts to give them new life.
5. Get a tuneup on sewing machine
6. Learn to draft patterns
7. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
8. Learn to love my duct tape dummy dress form (I really hate that form)
9. More PRACTICE
10. Get better aquainted with my sewing machine and all of it's functions and attachments. The ruffler foot looks like some kind of alien probing device.


My machine is not a fancy schmancy machine, she's an old Kenmore 50-55+yrs old, give or take a few years. I love this machine and I even have a mate to match her. I also add an adorable pic of my kitty Guinness inspecting my sewing machine. He's almost a year old now, in fact he will be a year old on the 17th of this month. I've had him since he was hours old. As you can see both of my machines are Kenmores, marketed through Sears, way back in the day. The year i'm not exactly sure but it ranges somewhere between 50-60yrs old, both of them. I think I averaged them out to be about 54yrs old. This are true work horses, I don't think there are an plastic parts, just a few rubber parts and the only plastic is the stitch dials you load on the top to do decorative stitches with. One of my Kenmores is in a table top case and the other is in a carrying case which unfortunately for the case got damaged when it was shipped and only one thing got damaged on the machine. The damaged piece on the machine is a like a $3 fix, it's the metal rod that holds the spool of thread. No biggie. I have yet to use the second machine for sewing. I mostly got it as a just in case one breaks I have another or a parts machine. I've only come across one other Kenmore like mine and that was a few years back. I'd be lucky if I see another one of these for sale, I'd probably buy it.

National Sewing Month

I didn't know that September was National Sewing Month . It seems that it is.

So far this month, I've started sewing on the mock up shirt pattern. So far I have several things to change back and luckily I didn't cut those when I made a few alterations. So far I need to work on the arm holes, I have gapping in the front, a dart should easily fix that problem, but I don't really want a dart. I want the shirt to be just like the one I have and it doesn't have darts. Second I cut the neck hole just a wee bit bigger than I needed so I have a bit of gapping there and shirt sliding off shoulder. I haven't finished the shirt yet, I still have the other arm hole to finish up and the hemming and the opposite side dart. I did get a bit creative with the front to make it a bit smaller, pin tucks. I like the way they look. I had an idea to take some buttonhole thread and do a slip stitch around the tuck from top to bottom. Since this is a shirt to play around with and figure out where I need to make the proper adjustments, I can play. I still have enough muslin to make another mock up if I need to. I'm actually thinking of finishing this shirt and maybe dying it, like a fade from light to dark in say burgandy or bermuda blue.