Measurements, Muslins, and Memories

Tera and I both signed up for the bodice muslin-making class at Sew Expo next month. We have to fill out a measurement sheet and send it in ahead of time—this week, actually—so the instructor can generate a test pattern for us. We’ll sew that up in class and make any necessary tweaks. I had to get the husband to help me with some of the measurements. He’s used to measuring inanimate objects in straight lines, not somewhat squishy live bodies, but my sheet is filled out and submitted. We shall see how close we got when I make the bodice muslin.

[I’m fairly well acquainted with my body measurements, so I don’t expect there to be a huge amount of tweaking required.]

I’ve got the Olympia/Miramar mashup cut out. I’m making the muslin in some navy blue double-brushed poly, although I haven’t had time to sew it up yet. The memorial service for my girls’ first-grade teacher was yesterday morning. The church was filled, as I expected it to be, and I got to visit with many of their teachers and other moms I haven’t seen since our kids grew up. The former principal of the school gave a beautiful eulogy. Jan, the teacher we were remembering, worked with our friend, Debbie, who did the flowers for DD#1’s wedding. Debbie taught at the school, too, and was also the bus driver. Before the service, Debbie and I reminisced about them doing the flowers for the wedding:

That’s Debbie on the left and Jan on the right. I love this picture. We were so fortunate to have a village help us raise our children.

After the service, I went to the quilt store south of town to get a wideback for the Sunbonnet Sue quilt. The top ended up being big enough that I decided I didn’t want to piece a backing. The store had the perfect backing for it and now I’ve got everything I need to get that top basted together so I can start quilting it.

I’ve settled on a final version for that See & Sew raglan top, the one I made in the floral rayon a few weeks ago. That top has pleats in the front, which I love, but it also had a pleat at the back neck. I am pretty sure that pleat at the back neck was there to ensure that the upper bodice wasn’t so tight that it restricted movement. However, it was driving me nuts in the finished garment. All that extra fabric below the pleat—which accounted for an additional 3” of width in the back—billowed out, distorting the sides of the garment and making it hang badly. On the floral raglan, I ended up taking in the sides by quite a bit, which helped, but I suspected the real issue was with that back pleat. The New Look raglan blouse pattern I tested out last week does not have either front or back pleats and it fits reasonably well.

I made yet another muslin of that pattern and removed the back pleat. What a huge improvement.

I keep telling myself that once I get a stable of patterns I’ve tweaked to my satisfaction, I can stop messing around with fitting. LOL. I doubt it. I like the challenge of making things fit. The next fitting project is going to be princess seams and, ultimately, an Upton dress.

I’m teaching two serger classes this week, both at the quilt store north of town. Tuesday’s class is on making baby items: beanies, leggings, and other useful pieces. Saturday’s class is on on a simple open-front knit cardigan. I have an idea for a pattern hack for that one. I pulled a similar Liz Claiborne cardigan out of my closet the other day. The only difference is that the sides of the cardigan angle down to a point at the side seam. I think I’m going to hack that pattern this week and cut one out to take to class with me to demo the construction. The silhouette of that LC cardi is very similar to the waterfall cardi I keep meaning to recreate, but the construction is far simpler.