WIP: a floral pendrell

I have a hard time with vision sometimes, so I rely on you, of the lovely sewing community to give some proper advice.

I'm nearly finished with my second version of the Sewaholic Pendrell Blouse and I've made some fun changes I'm excited about. The pattern originally called for the ruffles to be folded and gathered, with the fold creating the edge of the ruffle. Makes for a really nice, neat finish!

On my Valentine's Dress I cheated and did a rolled hem on my serger and I really like the way it turned out. So for the ruffles on the pendrell, I cut them down the center where the fold would have been, and did a rolled hem on each piece. Instead of one double layered ruffle on each side, I've got two single layer ruffles on each side. MOAR RUFFLES.

For view B, there are two sets of ruffles, the first being placed on the princess seam at the shoulder, and the second being placed on the shoulder seam at the top of the armscye. The second set of ruffles are less ruffly and more of a cap. I'm thinking about just doing a second set like the first.

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK? I haven't pressed the princess seams, so excuse the bulkiness of the front.

Colette Violet

Last Friday, Made Sewing Studio here in Seattle hosted Sarai from Colette Patterns.

They announced there would be a discount for patterns purchased at the event, as well as an extra special 10% for those who showed up in a garment made from her line.

I originally bought the Violet because I saw Lauren's version and fell in love. Seriously, how adorable is that??

I took this opportunity as a challenge to put together the violet in a week. Put it together I did, however, I had one small (haha, see what I did there?) issue. The smallest size was measured at a bust 33", which is a full 3 inches larger than my bust measurement. Whatever is a girl to do?!

I traced off the pattern and using the "slash and spread"(overlap) technique, I made this sucker fit me.

I relied heavily on this article in threads magazine. Seriously. If you ever need to grade patterns, print that out. I did, and laminated it. That's how serious I am, it was a real help. I don't have any books on fit and grading, but I'm starting to think it might be a good idea to keep my eyes peeled for such things, especially given the sizing for the big 4 patterns.



So here's the top:

Let's talk about armscyes for a minute. I think mine are too low. The reason for that is when I lift my arm, SERIOUSLY limited range of motion, and it picks the blouse up which is really annoying.

On the photo on the left, you can see where the garment sits. On the photo on the right, I've drawn in the approximate line of my arm and arm pit. The red indicates the gap between the two. Other than that issue, I really love this pattern. If anybody has any ideas or tips, please comment. I can use the direction!

Oh, I also wondered how other people finish their arm-seams. I finished the sides with french seams and zig-zagged everything else, but I'm really clueless about arm finishes. This really is the first garment I've put together that has traditional sleeves. After the minoru I'm tempted to put raglan sleeves on everything!!

I used these wonderful tortoiseshell with metal accent buttons. The fabric of the shirt is a bit of an industrial blue/grey and I was worried that it would start to look like a uniform.

And a close up of my "blah blah blah" tag. It's just printed ribbon.

Once I've ironed out the sleeve fitting, I plan on making another one as part of my spring/summer wardrobe.

On another note, I took all of the plastic casing off of my machine this evening and checked everything out. I think it's really important to see how things work so you are a bit more educated on how they can be fixed. While I had it all taken apart I also oiled my machine. Oddly enough, my user manual recommends at least once a year, while some various sources on the internet recommend an oiling after every 8 hours of sewing. How often do you oil?