sencha complete!

So I went to Season again yesterday and got some fabric to make the final version of the Sencha blouse; I got this lovely purple satin. Here are my problems with the lovely purple satin:

• it is very slippery, which equals difficult to cut
• it's very hot here right now and I kept leaving little sweat trails on the fabric
• I can't wear it any time soon

Other than that I adore it! Once it cools down I think that it'll be fine; I"m not such a sweaty beast when it's not constantly edging towards 40 Celsius. 

Here's the final result:

I usually wear that skirt cinched up higher but I think with the darts of the blouse it actually works quite well. I added the bow too. I think this blouse will look absolutely super with a cardigan as well, but there is no way in hell I'm trying it out right now. Too damned hot. Oh well! 

At Season yesterday I also bought notions for the physics skirt (finally!) and matching ribbon to make bows and flowers; very exciting! I also got an easy pattern from BurdaStyle so I think I might have a new style of skirt in my repertoire. I want to get as much done as possible before the interns arrive; I also want to make this dress; I think I can harvest the elastic from other sources in my wardrobe, and I might use an old sheet or something too. Plus, again, this is a dress that could be paired with a cardigan, assuming it ever cools down here.

Here's another shot of the Sencha!

Sencha Part 3

Even though it's record-breakingly hot I decided to work some more on my Sencha blouse today. As you'll recall we last saw it pinned together, so today I decided to loosely stitch it together (tucks and all) to get an idea of how things were working. Since I'd decided this one would solely, forever and ever, be a muslin I made all the marks in permanent marker...

(That's The Graduate playing in the background) and then I got to stitching. I am especially pleased with the tucks:

After I had stitched everything together I took some pictures; I still think it's a bit loose but I feel like it's not supposed to be the tightest thing ever. 

I like it, though! I tried it on with a high-waisted skirt and belt, too, to make sure it would look alright tucked in (I apologize for the blurriness of the first picture):

I'm really quite pleased with it; I think in a more silky fabric it would fall lay better, but I feel like it's quite grown-up and nice. Plus it focuses a lot on the boobs, so I'm happy. Now I just have to unpick all the stitches and figure out what fabric to make a real one out of! Hurrah!

Sencha Part 2

When we last left the Sencha, I was annoyed with how the shoulders fit (the sleeves felt tight), the tightness across the bust and the way it looked like a hospital gown (funny enough, someone else thought the same thing!). So I did some quick research to see if anyone had done a full bust adjustment/alteration (FBA) on the Sencha pattern and, lo and behold, someone had! AND they made a tutorial! AND it was requested by someone named Rachel! Will wonders ever cease? So here's the tutorial.

I got my supplies ready: the pattern tissue, a marker for marking, duct tape (classy!) for taping, and scrap paper for filling in the gaps (only the first two are pictured here):

Then I did the tissue-fitting, and marked the bust point (while wearing a bra this time, learned my lesson).

I also took this opprotunity to transfer from my first muslin piece of the front bodice the neckline adjustment I'd made.

Then I drew in the lines to be cut and spread...

...and cut and spread them.

Then I used the scrap paper and tape to fill in the gap of the pattern. View one:

and view two:

After that I cut another front bodice piece out of the Ikea sheet and pinned it all together to get an idea about the fitting.

A little blurry but much better. The sleeves didn't feel as ridiculous anymore, the neck looks good (I might even take a bit more out of it), and it fits better over the bust. The issue now is with the waist; the tutorial linked to above suggests taking some out of the waist, which I didn't do because, as usual, I'm paranoid about making it too small. So before doing that I decided to try the tucks on one side to see how that brought things in.

Much nicer, BUT again I wonder if I should take some more in on the waist. I think the next step (again, its way too hot in my flat and I can't work on this for extended periods... unless I bring my fan into the entry way... which I totally could and I just now realized) will be to baste (listen to me, saying such words!) the tucks in on both sides of the bodice and try it again, and figure out how much to take off the waist.

I never thought I'd spend so much time on something I can't actually wear out of the house (the fabric's too thin) but I figure if I get the muslin exactly right, I can produce numerous copies of this blouse easily and quickly. So I'm working hard on it. To leave with here's another picture of it with tucks pinned on one side (and, as an aside, I'm way more in love with tucks than with regular darts).

I think the thing I'm most pleased with is this means I can get other Colette patterns, now knowing they fit fairly well and are adorable. I might even have to got with a smaller size, but we'll see how the next phase of muslin fitting goes.

Sencha Part 1

I've started working on the muslin for view one of this pattern from Colette Patterns:

I'm very excited about it. I thought I might have to do a Full Bust Adjustment/Alteration (FBA) but I wasn't sure because apparently Colette Patterns are made for the curvier lass; we'll see how that turned out further down in the post.

Okay, so, first things first I cut the pattern pieces out.

This is what I'm making the muslin out of, a pink Ikea sheet which was on sale, and which is going to make splended trim for the numbers dress I'll start on once I get through with the Sencha.

Then I ironed the sheet.

After that I pinned the first pattern piece (appropriately, "A") to the sheet; in the instructions it's recommended that you use pattern weights but 1) I don't have a large enough surface and 2) I don't have pattern weights. Every time I considered buying some while I was in America all I could think was "How is it logical to buy something with the word 'weight' in it to take in your luggage?" 

I traced around it in tailor's chalk and then removed the pattern piece. Then I cut it out. Voila!

I repeated those steps with part "B," and transfered the tuck marks and button holes to the muslin.

  

Then I pinned it all up to get a feel for the fit of it. 

As I read in a couple reviews, the neck's a bit weird... really quite small. Also the shoulders tugged a little but I think that will be solved after I do an FBA. Yeah, I decided I probably should. Granted, the idea I got of what it looked like on is a bit skewed because I'm such a genius I didn't wear a bra (added bonus: I'm also not wearing pants!) but I feel like, with an FBA and a bra some of the stress will come off of the shoulders. 

  

The back fits like a dream, though, which is good. Anyway, now I have to teach myself how to do an FBA. I'm kind of excited about it though because, as a DDD girl, I'm sure I'll have to do them often in my making-things-from-patterns life. I'm taking a break from it for now though because it is so hot in my flat I was actually dripping sweat on to the muslin. Gross.