Murphy's back ...

First off, Monkey Girl's dress has been finished and a review is posted over at PR. For those of you whose time is limited, here is a shot of her in all her glory: for those of you with sharp eyes, Mindy is wearing the beginnings of the Butterick twist top behind Monkey Girl ...

I thought that I had rid myself of that blasted Murphy's luck having read over at Gorgeous Things that Diva Ann's sewing life has been as bad as mine of late (only with much better stash and skill!). I was almost sure that Murphy was off visiting Ann and the Boston Irish when today, after Mass, I found that the sleeve piece for the Marfy dress has gone AWOL. I have searched but can't find it. So, just to spite Murphy and show him that he can't bother me anymore, I am not going to worry about it. I am going to be resourceful and use the armscye from a Marfy top I have already fitted and use that sleeve as a basis for the dress.

Here are the pattern pieces (minus the sleeve) laid out on the green linen look fabric I am using. The pieces are laid out to give an approximation of the finished product. It is not laid out on grain, as you can tell by the bodice piece, which is supposed to be on a CF fold. The side panels will be angled when laid out properly.

I am playing with the FBA on this one. I have to do one, that is without question. I also know that I don't want to sew the new dart, so do I close it out and leave it or do I rotate it to the existing dart and make it even bigger? I am going to do one bodice in each style and see which one I like better fit and style wise. Stay tuned for more!

As an aside, I went browsing for patterns online while the ham was cooking and found these two patterns.The first one, the mock wrap, has gotten rave reviews over at PR. I have been resisting the dress as I have other wraps in the pattern stash already. But a closer look showed me that this one has princess lines to it. That gives me many more options for customization. So, it is back on my buy list.The second one is a very close to being a knit version of the HP Bollywood dress (which I love and am going to be starting in about 2 weeks). I love that this is for a knit and the variety of looks in this one pattern. I can see me wearing this dress in most of its versions. What drew me to this dress was the waistline inserts. It can be plain, ruched or even have a waist twist on it. What is not to love about that? Sleeved, sleeveless and a wrap front option. I see almost my whole summer knit wardrobe for tops and dresses in this one envelope! All I need is some city shorts and bottoms and I am ready for summer! I have a number of woven projects on the board right now, but after those are done, this pattern is going to be on the table in all it's glory. Now all I need is some nice summer colours and prints ...

Drat that Murphy!!

When I was a small child, I remember my father telling me how they used blame Murphy for all the problems with the aircraft that he worked on. All I could think of was that Murphy must have been a klutz who didn't know how to put tools back in their rightful place. As I got older, I wizened up and figured out about Murphy's Law. He sure does get in the way of things, that Murphy ... What I want to know is, why, with all the other things in my house that he could have played with, why did he go into my bra drawer???!!!

Some time ago, using a kit and a custom drafted pattern, I sewed up my first bra. Constant wear had finally resulted in the elastic loosening enough that I went about making another bra. Great, now I have those two plus my wonderful sports bra to wear with my strapless on stand by if absolutely necessary. Good to go and sew other things, right? Murphy must subscribe to Bloglines or have an RSS feed, cause he knew that now would be the best time to come and pay a visit. First, he took the slight tear in the lace of the first bra and must have stuck both his thumbs in, making it a certifiable hole. Not satisfied with that bit of mischief, he then took my sports bra and poked a hole in the underwire casing, making it just big enough that when I do any exercise, I get poked! Now I am down to my new bra and my (of course) BLACK strapless! Not only do I have to put everything else down and "throw" together a bra, I also have to repair that casing on the other bra so that I can exercise in some semblance of comfort!

The seamstress/adventuress in me is wondering if I should take the sports bra completely apart and draft a pattern from it and make a new one. The sane part of me is yelling "ARE YOU NUTS?!" It is only a casing ... the rest is still practically brand new (that tells you how much exercise I actually do, unfortunately), and then, in the background, I hear that Murphy, snorting as he tries not to laugh too loudly. I bet he was the one who roused all them UFO's from their sleep last month! I wonder if they got sick of him and kicked him out of the workshop and that is how he ended up in my dresser ... or maybe he followed Hamsterboy as he carried all those pants I had been meaning to shorten for him upstairs to his room? The pants don't need shortening any more, BTW. Hamsterboy has done a growth spurt now that the sun has warmed up. The UFO pile is much smaller now that I have gleaned the too small and the just rights and the I'll never wear it even if I do finish it from the pile. I wonder where he will strike next ... maybe he''ll see something more interesting on somebody else's Blog and leave me alone for a while so that I can sew some bras!

Too many things to do ...

Well, the living room is painted and the furniture re-arranged and the sheers re-hung. Now all that is left is to buy the new drapes and hang the photos. The dining room has been stripped of the resident border and the walls patched. I have bought the new paint and am ready to roll with that room next ... but this weekend I fully intend to get moving on that coat! I recently found a TV on Craig's List that I intended to use for workouts in the basement, but seeing as I also have cable in the workshop, there is no reason I can't watch CSI while I cut and baste, right? So, tonight I will move the TV to my room and get at it! NO excuses (barring the kids of course ...)! The weather has been warm and rainy lately so the motivation to sew this has been minimal, but I want to avoid having to sew and freeze at the same time!

Tomorrow the kids have a day off. Monkey 1 is having a friend over for the day as both parents are working. Monkey 2 will be "helping" me paint the dining room while she isn't annoying the elder monkeys ... Then off to see "Happy Feet" the movie tomorrow afternoon. I might even get some sewing in ... she can work on her crazy quilt in the shop with me. (TV will be moved back by then, the monkeys have yet to discover that the cable actually works downstairs and I want to keep it that way!)

Thirty more minutes till monkey bed time ... they were supposed to tour a fire hall tonight with Scouts (we call the 5-8 year old Scouts Beavers up here in Canada). As I arrived, the trucks were rolling out on a multi vehicle accident. No tour this week ... lots of disappointed Beavers, but at least they got to see the trucks at work as they drove by the accident (another feeble attempt at finding silver linings in every cloud)!

Tomorrow I will be posting photos of the flannel version of the coat's outer layer. Wear your sunglasses ... it is a bright yellow!

Edited to add: Murphy's law has struck again! Little monkey has a bad belly ache and is in the living room on the sofa with the hot water bottle. No sewing tonight now. This seems to be becomming a regular Thursday night occurence lately. I wonder if it is something else. Dad is not coming home this weekend, maybe she is just reaching out as she misses him?