Retirement Party dress on the move

As I drove up to my driveway, I smiled to see the stop sigh that said "Stop! Party here!"  Then I saw this

It was a great party!  

There were about 25 people, so just about the right size.  I think we had enough food to feed four times that many people!  The beat part was that I didn't have to do any of it.

After I got dressed, my daughter was shocked that my dress was too low cut.  Fortunately I had e trap fabric, but no extra time.  The magic of safety pins!  Here's a shot of me with my two wonderful kids

And, a full length shot of the dress with Andy, the DH

  I can see there are still some things I Need to tweak on the bodice of this dress to get it to be the most comfortable and fit the way I want it to, but all in all, I was very happy with how this dress turned out.

Summer top - S1426

It's been getting hotter every day here.  It is 101 today and going to get hotter later this week.  I can stay inside where there is A/C, but I can't live my life indoors.  Well, I can, but who would want to?
Anyway, I decided I wanted to make a few summer tops.  I hate wearing a bra when it's over 100 degrees out.  It's just one more layer that I don't want.  Strapless bras NEVER work for me, and I've tried dozens.  The one that actually works the best is the nu-bra adhesive bra, but when you are dripping sweat, this is not the best option either.  And forget going completely braless.  Not happening.  Well, it will happen with the right top - and that's exactly what I was looking for.





Enter simplicity 1426.

Now mind you, I am 57, so I am not talking about going out in public, but for at home, and working in the yard, this is perfect.  This pattern would be fast and easy if it fit right out of the envelope, but for this girl, that's not going to happen either.  The first thing I did was try to figure out how to do a FBA on this.  Here is my first shot.







 I think I will need to make some further adjustments.  It fits OK, but not exactly right.  I cut off part of the curve down at CF to avoid gapping, but now it is too tight there and pulls the CF up at the band as you can sort of see in the above photo.



I actually got the cups to fit almost perfectly, but I moved them farther apart at the center.  The only problem with this was that I had already cut the band and they did not fit correctly into the band.  What I SHOULD have done was eliminate how much I moved them apart from the side seam.  Unfortunately, I had already sewn the upper band, so that was not an option unless I wanted to take the whole thing apart.
This is good enough for now and for working in the yard.  I'd like to try it again making different alterations.  Also, the other views are all cute and it's going to be a long hot summer...






A lot of people were confused by the band instructions on this, but if you followed it step by step, it was really fine.  The problem I had was with the original pattern darts.  Look at this.  Any ideas WHY the size 4 would have a deeper dart than the size 12?  This just does not make sense to me.

Fun With Fabrics

Over the past year I have collected quite a few Cutting Line Designs patterns, although I have only made one up to this point.  I think I actually got this pattern at the PR pattern exchange at PR last month.    The pattern in Fun With Fabrics.  I had decided to make the top sleeveless, but after looking at the pattern pieces, I figured I better make it with sleeves first to see.  I didn’t have enough of the white fabric that I wanted to use to make it with sleeves, so I pulled this brown linen out of my stash to try.  I originally bought this to make a pair of summer pants, but after I got it home, I realized it was too thin and would probably be so wrinkly and light weight that it would look like pajamas!

I enjoyed making this top and the construction process.  The neck is bound with bias binding, but I must have bound it too tightly because now I can barely get it over my head!  Next time I will cut the neck larger because I’m really not a fan of jewel necklines, although I don’t think it looks bad on this.  

The band across the bottom with the buttons is a nice detail.  

Although it is really hot here in summer, and I don’t wear sleeves very often, this will be perfect for chilly mornings or evenings.

I usually go for more fitted styles, but this will fit my new RETIRED lifestyle just fine!

It doesn't look so bad...

It couldn't have come at a more perfect time.  The stash busting contest is exactly what I need.  I don't even have room for all of my stash.  Since we moved, even though I have a larger sewing room, and seemingly more cabinet space, I do not have room for all of my fabric!   A lot of it is in boxes and some is about to move to another room. My cabinets are either too shallow or too deep.  That just means I need to REDUCE.  And, perfect timing, because in less than a week I will be retired!

Well, here it is.  At least MOST of it.  It doesn't look so bad when you put it all in one picture!