Bollywood Bash ...

Well, we are home! The graduation is over and was wonderful! The Pilot managed to turn it into a second honeymoon by booking us a room in the fancy hotel we spent the original honeymoon in as well as our first anniversary. This was all done without my knowledge, so when I arrived with my bags, he says with a grin, "Don't unpack too much ... we're not staying long". What a night! The restaurant had a wonderful view of Lake Ontario and the city as it revolved, giving us the full view of the sunset over the horizon. Perfectly romantic! Even with all the others at the table. We all were very quiet as we sat with our spouses and watched the sun go down. It has been a long 10 months, even for those who were lucky enough to be with their families the whole time. For those of you who put up with my private and public rants over the past year, thanks for putting up with me. Your kind words of patience often helped me get through this single parent thing. Now I just need to adjust to him still being here all the time!

I almost called this post "The Eagle Has landed ... in Bollywood" but thought better of it. It just isn't me ... but almost! The dress was a huge success. The Pilot had spoken about the dress (All he knew was that it was silk, no more info allowed) to the women on course who wanted to know what was being worn so that they could judge what to wear themselves. He was no help to them, but the rampant curiousity had me almost swarmed when we arrived. Those who knew I had made the dress were amazed and were asking permission to touch the fabric. Those who didn't know, soon found out as the word spread throughout the wives. I even had a Stacy London moment as the wife of a US Air Force officer came up and said "SHUT UP! You did NOT make that dress! By. YOUR. SELF! Tell me you do this for a living and where because I want you to make me something! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT FABRIC!!!!!" Between that reaction and the two German Officer's wives who both gave great compliments (one wanted to know which boutique I shop at that sells matching shoes!), my ego got quite the boost that night ... even before the wine started to flow!

So, credit where credit is due: To Darrell, thanks for the fabrics and the confidence. We'll talk more when/if that US wife comes up for a fitting! To MB, thanks for all the encouragement and advice! Ells, your knowledge, as always, is a comfort when I ask for help. Enough small talk ... what you really want is to see the dress, right? So, here it is after the night of dancing and socializing! I did end up hand stitching a modesty panel in the day before I left, but I think that it still works ...


The gathering shifted a bit I think when I stitched the bodice to the waist panel, so I am not 100% with the way the bodice lies, especially in the centre panels of the front. I had some concern about the fabric and the pattern, but in the end, it turned out OK. The last bit of hindsight self-criticism? I think I should have NOT added the fullness to the bodice. To my mind, it really emphasizes the Twins. So, should I actually do this as a summer dress, there will be no additional fullness on top. Too bad the Pilot couldn't get the shoes in the shot ... he is learning how to use his new digi cam. Finally, he joins the rest of us in this century! Suffice it to say that I found a pair of strappy leather sandals in a beautiful bronze that actually matched the contrast on the dress and I found them at Sears of all places! Fate, my friends, it had to be fate!

Well, I am off to get supper going for the restless kidlings. Iffy weather and friends being away has made them restless ... time to go shopping, I think! It always makes me feel better!

Bollywood Gets a Makeover!

Yippee! The redesigned bodice works wonderful! Extending the contrast bands all the way to the waist panel looks really nice. The slight gathering on the bodice also works well. The fit is better and I love the look of it. Uniquely me!

Something that I found difficult was the understitching of the lining. I had to understitch the armscye and the neckline and I found that I had to start at one end of the armscye and then stop at the shoulder seam, then start back at the other end of the armsyce and do the same. It probably would have been easier if the shoulder was a bit wider, but I managed it anyway.

The skirt gathered like a dream as I laid it out so that there was less embellishment at the top edge. I even managed to French seam the sides and the contrast panels. All I have left to do is to hem the skirt and the lining. The zip is in and hand stitched already. I am happy with it, although I must say that this has been a hard journey. I probably could have done without the bodice gathers in hindsight, but I am not about to take it apart!

Tomorrow I leave to go bring back the Pilot for good. His course ends on Thursday and my sister is taking the kids for me for the week. Yup, we have reached the point in our parenthood journey that we are taking a few days WITHOUT the kids as we pack him up and attend all the functions this week. So, I hope to have the dress photo'd up and posted tonight. I may even have something else done as well ... I have the HP Trumpet skirt half cut out already. I had already done a muslin in the fall, so this is an easy sew up. It is getting the bias stripes matched up that is the fun part! I am dreaming in technicolour here as I also hope to have a simple bias top cut out and sewn together to hang overnight for early morning hemming.

See you all later (much later) on tonight ...

The Bollywood Saga Continues ...

Well, I have finished the bodice and pinned the waist panel to it to see if I like it more than I did this morning. I don't. I dislike it even more. As you can see, the pleats are really invisible and it is much fuller than the muslin was. Even though the pleats are mainly on the side, I don't think that moving them over closer to the CF would change the armscye puff. It just is not appealing to me as it would give the dress the appearance of a puff ball tied in the middle.

So, I spent the better part of this afternoon cutting out another bodice. This time, I started with the bodice mount/lining pieces. I liked the princess line of the mount and it fit well. I added 5/8" in length and also constructed a contrast band for the neckline. Instead of the simple V, I took the contrast band all the way to the waist semline, so the dress will have a Duro like effect. To keep some of the original feel of the dress, I also added some slight fullness to the bodice, which I will gather in. I kept the mount fitted without any gathering as per the original pattern. As the gathering is so slight, I am omitting the interlining. I suspect that the interlining is another reason for the extreme puff factor. This omission will, I hope, give the bodice a softer feel to it. We will soon see ...

Listening to Your Fabric

I am deep in the throes of Bollywood. I have completed the bodice, complete with one recut of the front. I am not sure what exactly went wrong there, but something did so I redid the fronts and things matched up this time around. I suspect that I forgot to add a s.a. on the contrast band I added. I am so glad that I reduced the gathering on the skirts, because I now have lots of Uh oh! fabric to play with! Of course, with each Uh oh! my wrap gets considerably smaller ...

Anyway, today's conundrum is the pleats. What looked very Grecian in the muslin, looks almost sloppy in the silk. I suspect it is the pussy willows that are causing the problem. The actual buds are almost chenille like, so when one lies on the crease of a pleat, they round it out like a gather. So, the seamline is trim and neat, but the pouf factor seems to be exagerated as the pleats are forced open by the fabric. As a result, I am going to remove all the pleating and gather the seamline. If I think it is still too full, then I will go back to the yardage and cut a new bodice, styled after the princess seamed bodice mount, only adding slight fullness at the bustline to echo the original design.

So, I am listening to the fabric on this one. The lesson for me? What looks good in muslin may not translate into the actual fabric. I trialed the gathers with a strip of the silk, I should have done the same with the pleats. I could have been done by now, but the song of the muslin was so much louder than the silk. It tends to be subtle and understated in it's teaching style. That muslin is so bold and bossy ... so pretentious, thinking it can behave like silk. This muslin didn't come through Ressy's dungeon, so I am not sure where it got such attitude!

Off to get the hair cut. I need a trim and Martin the Marvelous will be playing with the finish today as he tries to teach me how to "do" my hair to match this dress! If I can't do it on my own, then I have to try to get an appointment next week at a salon nearby the Pilot's residence. He comes home tonight for one last weekend trip.

On Shaving silk ...

No this is not typo. I don't mean saving, I mean SHAVING. As in with a razor blade. The pussy willows on the silk are almost velvet like but are actually just satin stitched patterns. That means that I have to shave it down in the seamline areas so that the seams are straight and that they lie flat. That tends to slow down the pace a bit. I found that a plain blade works best in the hand and that I need to angle it slightly to get the best shearing effect without slicing the base silk.

To test my method out, I stitched the contrast hem piece to the skirt bottom on the front panel prior to completing the French seam. I think that this will be the most time consuming portion of the project. I also think that I will be pretty good at French seams by the end of it as well!

All I managed to do was completely cut the garment out and to interface the waist lining and to construct the waist panels. I had the final Scouts leaders meeting tonight. But I did manage to get some time in, anyway! Off to bed ... tomorrow is another day!

Beginning Bollywood ... for real!

Although I said I wasn't going to sew over the weekend, Monkey Girl had a minor crisis. Her bathing suit from last year is too small and had a rip that was not worth fiddling with the stitch length on the serger for, so I threw together another suit for her. You see, she goes to the water park adjacent to the Rugby Pitch while Hamster Boy is playing. He is a proud member of the second tackle line on his squad. Now he gets to take down all the people he wants ... only he is discovering muscles he didn't know he had after an afternoon on the field! But he loves it! And I am proud to say that his squad won all their little games! WOO HOO! Go Scottish ...

I am about to head to the workshop to start cutting the fabric and lining. Unlike most linings, the Bollywood lining is not constructed independent of the dress and then bagged. Rather, it is attached in sections, so I actually have to cut the whole shebang out today. I am going to use some organza that I have in the stash for the bodice interlining rather than use self fabric or 2 layers of the lining.

I am taking a deep breath and readying myself for this. To keep me in the frame of mind (and to work them in), I am wearing the new shoes, bought just for this dress. I also am keenly aware of the fact that I only have 6 days in which to finish this dress and get the garden party dress done as well. So, I will be limiting my time online as I stick to the machines during the day. I will try to post my progress in the late evenings so that I have a means of ordering my thoughts for the next day. I make no promises about photos, however, until I have some significant progress made!

So, I am now off to pre-thread some needles for basting layers together and to layout and cut! I hope the silk is ready for this ...

Bollywood Begins ...

Although I seem to struggle with the HP pants, I must say that their upper body patterns are perfect for me. So far, I have only done a cardigan and a zip jacket and attempted a coat (which I altered beyond all need thus relegating it to the UFO bin). The two unaltered jackets fit like a dream with only the personal desire for a bit more length to the pieces. So, following this trend, I started the Bollywood dress. I cut out a size 16 from the old Glamour Girl range (which is now the "new" 16) and went for a muslin with standard s.a. of 5/8" in the lining/mount only. I started with this part as it is the more fitted portion of the dress.

The only alterations I had to do are extremely minor! First off, I needed to remove some ease to the front V neck by taking a dart out of about 1/2" at about 2" above the bustline. Then, in order to be able to wear the bra of my choice, I am raising the base of the V back by about 2", extending the zipper to a 16" vice the 14" called for. That, folks, is all I did. I know that the fit is supposed to be "neat" around the waist, and it is at this point of the evening. However, this is also due to me using 5/8" s.a at the CB seams vice the 3/4" called for. That extra 1/4" combined with control top pantyhose will make this dress perfect! So, tomorrow I will start cutting out the dress muslin and see about the fit of the BollyBodice.

I have to say that the fit styling of the lining is amazing! The bodice is a slight princess line with little easing required for the bustline (did I mention no FBA? at all??) that is then stitched to a waist panel. The skirt is also two piece, having a yoke and a skirt piece. This unit is then stitched to the bodice panel. There is a lot of shaping in the waist/hip area due to the separate pieces. Tomorrow I will take a picture and post it right away (now that I have figured out how to post with Picasa!) to show how nice this lies. I feel very glam in just the muslin with the shape this gives me. I would almost use this as a dress on it's own in a nicer fabric ... very 40's glam to my mind.

To say that I am excited about the so far lack of work is an understatement. Now if only I can get their pants to fit out of the package!

Birthday Unwrapping ...

Well, Monkey Girl's party is over and done with and mostly cleaned up. We'll leave the presents out until the Pilot and Hamster Boy come home from their camping trip tomorrow afternoon. The 7 invited girls had fun and cooled off at the end in the sprinkler. After all left, she and I snuggled on the sofa and watched Bugs Bunny, what is not to love about that?

The only part I didn't like was having to disassemble all the toys from their packages. Not only are they sealed in plastic, each piece is wired to the backing board and sometimes even elastic bound on top of that. Then all is taped on the back. Then the whole assembly is in another plastic package. That was the almost tiring part of the whole day!

I kept the girls occupied by tracing off a picture onto pillowcases which they painted with fabric paints. A whole 30 minutes of fun and minimal mess, I was very impressed! Now they all have a special pillowcase to take with them on vacations/car trips, etc. I like doing useful things at parties like this rather than spending $ on dollar store toys that last a day and lots of candy (not that they all didn't get a balloon and a few chocolates in their pillowcases!).

No sewing tonight, I am beat. Having a party without the guys here was great for Hamster Boy, but tiring on me and I know the Pilot was torn between the two events, but I think Hamster Boy needed him more. This past year has been really hard on my son and he really misses his father. He also got short changed on me a bit this year as I still have afternoons with Monkey Girl, but he is at school, so he has little to no solo Mommy time. I think we will go camping for a long weekend once this whole thing is done. That way he and I can get together again without him having to compete with his little sister.

I just finished watching Last of the Mohicans on TV. We saw it on the big screen on our honeymoon. We were in the Rockies at the time, it was the Fall rut, so the elk were in fine form. As we drove through the woods to get back to our little cabin, we had to stop to allow a herd to cross the road. We opened the windows and heard the antlers hitting tree branches and hooves on the road. Very eerie in the dark after seeing a movie like that ... we laughed about that for a while after! I also love the music of that movie. It is great for running to!

I have the muslin lining for the Bollywood dress cut out and ready to go. I will fit that and then go onto the actual bodice. There will be changes coming to the BollyBodice (thanks MB for that term!) now that I see the pattern piece. It appears that the bodice started as a regular block, then was slashed and spread, starting from the armscye, giving the fullness in the design. My initial feeling is that I don't need to have that much fullness. The plan is to gather in one side and then to convert the gathers to tucks to take out the fullness on the other to see which is more flattering to my shape. The only reviews I have seen are of ladies that are less endowed than I am, so I can't really use their photos as a comparison. Maybe I will just fill it out better? Finally a use for the Twins? LOL! I am off to bed after checking on the Rodent while his Boy is away. He's been kicking bedding out of his cage lately as he makes a new nest in the corner rather than in his little side room. Very messy ... naughty Rodent!

Playing Photo Catch Up ...

Sorry for the problems with the photos, it took me a bit to figure out how to post using Picasa! Here is the final post ...

I have been promising for a while now that I would get around to posting photos. Today is the day ... I have the long awaited Dragon shots, shots of the Raglan Princess T's and the Flower Girl dresses.

The initial dragon shots are out of date in that there has been some shape shifting due to going to the gym, so the fit is slightly different now. as such, I have re-taken shots of both pair to show the new fit. I may also cut off the khaki pair at the knee seam to make them into shorts.



The HP Chilled Out Sweats that needed a bit of tweaking are also shown below. Turns out what needed tweaking was my body! After one week at the gym and one week at home working out, things are "sitting" better but there is still room for improvement. This is why all the pant shots are new ones. The earlier ones just aren't real anymore! Amazing what some exercise can do in a short time! This feedback is much better than what I am seeing on the scales!


The Raglan T's got a work out this past weekend at the Area Centennial Beaveree. IT rained most of Saturday afternoon and was really muggy. I was quite comfy in those powerdry T's. And a couple of people actually asked where I bought the Beaver T's as the fabric were in Beaver colours (brown and blue). Very comfy indeed! The next ones will need to have a slightly larger neck opening, though. If I make this pattern in a woven, I will have to add more ease as they fit perfect for a knit. Not too tight and not constricting, but still fitted. LOVE IT! This T started out as this vintage Tunic pattern ...


and resulted in this new T:


Last, the Flower Girl dress. The first shot is the "muslin", where I used a donated stash cotton. I omitted the facing and used a foldover trim for the neckline instead. I also considerably shortened the skirt length, and only lined the sleeves in the muslin. The final version has the requested pink ribbons and unlined sleeves. The fabric is a bit heavier than I would have liked for a summer dress, but it works. There is some stretch to the fabric, so that is a benefit for the little girl who will be wearing it.



I am ready to go on towards Bollywood! I saw another version today. It was done in a silk, but not dupioni. Again, the wearer was not particularly buxom, but the dress seemed to emphasize the upper body and not have as much shape to it as I would like. This version had the added tulle underskirt, however, so that might emphasize the fullness even more. I am going to really need to take this slow as I want this to be fabulously fierce! To tease you all, here are the fabrics that Darrell picked out:


I'll post more later ... I am Bollywood bound for an hour or so before I get supper ready!

Bollywood, the Beginning ...

I took the Pilot to Darrell's today. I managed to baste in a sleeve and a cuff as well as the collar before we went. It made for a long night and an early morning, but it was worth it. The shirt got the stamp of approval from Darrell wrt fit. He gave some advice for hem lengths on formal vs casual shirts that the Pilot actually listened to as well. Turns out that he now likes having shirts untucked ... after almost 20 years, he has surprised me! We then looked at the shirting selections (with me hiding the price tags) so that I have my limits of colours. Bold stripes are out and don't even mention pink (although with his colouring, he certainly could pull it off!) but he will take some patterns in his shirts, thank you very much! I now have permission to mass produce shirts in both casual and more formal fabrics as much as I want. His new post will require civilian business attire for Fridays so come July, he will need them!

While I was there, Darrell slipped me a bag with my fabrics, lining, thread (some silk and some Poly/cotton) and a zipper. The fabric is even more luscious than the sample. I will try to match it to pantone cards and take a photo later on. We are not letting the Pilot see what is happening, you see. I want a complete surprise on his part. As for this Blog, when I mention my sewing site, my Techno Peasant hubby thinks I am referring to either Pattern Review or Stitcher's guild. He is blissfully unaware of Newman's Needle as anything other than my business name!

Re. the shirt, I have to re-cut the right front panel as it had a little mishap with the serger, it decided that it needed to be up close and personal when I was trimming the neckline seam. I have a nick about 1/4" that is butting up to the placket seam. Good thing I have enough to re cut that panel and then redo. Now I just have to rip all that stitching ... good thing to do while watching the hockey game tomorrow ... GO SENS GO!

Now. The dress. I have taken the instructions out and given them a glance. They are written well enough, but I think I need to see the pieces they are talking about to make them click in the brain. Aside from the lining being called the mount, there appears to be side and front/back panels. That is a surprise at that doesn't show in the drawing. Also, the only review I have seen doesn't mention it either. So, I think that the only way to go forward from here is to take the pattern out and start cutting pieces. I have to decide if I am going to choose a 14 or a 12 in this. When I made the Patchoulli, I cut and sewed a muslin of the bodice without any changes to guage fit and then hacked and slashed from there. I will do the same thing with this one.

Can't wait to see what that envelope holds!

Confessions of a Confused Sewer ...

I finished the final alterations to the Dragon version #2 the other night. Even though I took in that back leg seam, they still bag out on me. I am NOT HAPPY! They look not too bad until I take the digi camera shot of the back. Then I can see all the wrinkles. Ick. It wasn't until I read the latest Threads issue that I had a lightbulb moment. This pattern needs drapey fabric. For me, that meant something lightweight. The article by Linda Lee on choosing pant fabrics for drape showed that I was really wrong about drape. I think that I actually need something heavier in weight but not hand to carry off the extra ease in these pants. I think the fabrics I have been using are too crisp despite their lightweight. So, seeing as I don't have anything in the stash that will suit this pattern, it has to go on an extended hiatus. Dragon hibernation if you will ...

On the other hand, I do have lots to keep me busy. The Flower Girl muslin is 50% done. I should have it to hem stage by supper. That way I can arrange a fitting for it later in the week. Tomorrow will be the Pilot's shirt second muslin. This one will be sewn up in some lovely shirting given to me by Mary Beth over at The Stitchery (sending lots of virtual hugs, MB!). I need to have that done quickly as we have a fitting on Wednesday with Darrell. Also, I want to have a muslin of the bodice of the Bollywood Dress done for he same day. That way I can get Darrell's help if I need it without a second trip downtown. I pick up the fabric Wednesday as it has arrived. He promised to have the lining and silk thread to match when I get there. I love that man!

My other clients have given the thumbs up on the field test of the rip stop nylon for the salon capes, so I can go ahead and start with those once the Flower Girl is fitted and approved. Those capes can be whipped up in a day, I think. I just have to wait for the fabric to arrive ...

Daily Dragon Update #1

Well, it is almost midnight up here in Canada's capital city. I am off to bed, but first I wanted to post an update on the pants. I have the fronts completely sewn (fly included), using 3/8" s.a. for all vertical seams (fly excepted). I pinned the front to Mindy to see how they shape up width wise. Looking good so far ... she seems to have some room to move, so let's keep our fingers crossed!

The Pilot didn't make it home this weekend, so it is just the monkeys and me. We start with dance class in the morning and then progress to a birthday party at an indoor Mini Golf for 2 hours for a friend of Monkey Girl. The older siblings of Birthday boy is a classmate and Scout mate of Hamster Boy, so I think we will tag along and do some glow in the dark golfing ourselves! Then, once we get home, it will be time to dust off the Domestic Diva costumes as we all work together to clean the house. All the nice temps have caused the trees to bud out, releasing massive amounts of pollen, so I have been laid up with allergies this week. Tomorrow while she is dancing away, I will buy some Claritin! Three days of this is quite enough, thank you very much!

A little teaser ... I went to visit Darrell today at his shop and fondled his silk samples. Let's just say I am super motivated to get these pants done and to progress to the client work this week. I hate being at the mercy of the postal system and customs, but I am for one project so I just have to work one project at a time. That means, the pants then the flower girl dress. Salon work can't start until the fabric arrives.