The remedy...don't do alterations before going to bed. I'm working on Simplicity 4074, a wrap dress. Last night I did a bunch of alterations and in this particular style (not a traditional top), alterations need to be well thought out. It's not a standard neck opening. Another bugaboo with this pattern, I love the multi-sizes but...it has two fronts, you know the kind. Size 6 and 10 on one front, but the other sizes of the same piece are on another sheet. I hate that. So I have to superimpose them on top of each other and align them with the grainlines and lengthen/shorten lines to be able to blend from a 10 at the neck/shoulders to a 14 from the chest down. I always worry that something is not going to be quite right when I do that too. Today I will finish the alterations on the dress and move on to the pattern alterations for the remaining three. One thing's for sure, a muslin is a must for this dress. It's a little harder for me to gauge the fit when tissue-fitting a knit. And if there's negative ease, next to impossible. I have to rely on previous patterns I've altered to guide me. And one thing's for sure! I'm not going to ruin my beautiful knit fabric I purchased from Kashi. No way.
I also picked up some craft interfacing and batting to make some purses. Phyllis, one of the Sewing Divas, gave me the wonderful idea to use up my extra scrap pieces of wool (my lovely Paron's wools too!) to make purses. I'm going to keep one from each wool to match my outfits and sell the others. Really, what else would I do with these extra pieces? They're too nice to throw away, but too small to make a garment. I even bought a book yesterday to make some beautiful ribbon flowers for the purses (a special thank you to Kenneth King for that suggestion!). And lucky for me, the Poconos has a store called the American Ribbon and Craft outlet which has a bountiful stock of so many types of ribbons.
And speaking of Kenneth King, he has another article in the current issue of Threads. I love his articles! The documentation for his classes at Patternreview are top notch, and quickly skimming over his current article it appears to be the same clear cut, concise instructions. Gotta love that!
On another note, today I'm going to pick up my coat fabric from the dry cleaners too. It will be great to work on my last coat for the season, especially since coat pattern in the style I'm using is not as fussy with alterations. I think all that needs to be done is narrowing the shoulders a bit and checking the length. I can't wait to put those black leather welts in it too. BTW, speaking of leather, if you have a chance surf on over to Karen's blog, Sewing By the Seat of My Pants . She just finished her awesome black leather jacket! It's absolutely beautiful. Definitely a "can't miss" garment.
Happy Sewing!
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