Sunday 3 April 2016

Prioritising work clothing over costumes for a while

Due to a massive restructure (dividing the division that I work in a government department into 3 separate entities with a new reporting line for each) I have employment uncertainty as my unit doesn't exist in the new order that starts on 1 July.  I'll find out around the end of this month if I'm being made redundant or redeployed and if redundant if it's 1 months notice or not much more than that with an end date of 30 June.  So I'm proatively job hunting as well as aiming for redeployment.

However I'm facing the reality that my work clothing has deteriorated ... I barely have things I'd wear to a new job. Some but not a weeks worth.  I'm working with files which are grubby etc so not having quality hasn't been a major problem until now.

At least 2 of my planned dresses were in prints that aren't work appropriate - martini glasses or mermaids.  So I've bought 2 vintage fabrics that I can use without facing an awkward conversation.  A dark maroon/brown print and a blue/green sateen with zero stretch. Like pockets I don't do stretch wovens.





Saturday 2 April 2016

Cutting out the March dress in March

Inching my way to productivity, I also got my March dress selected and cut out in March.



I selected the Anne Adams 4843 and the red/black vintage print and will use the contrast black for the lapel collar.  I compared the bodice of AA4571 with the AA4843 and although the pattern size is 22.5 & 26.5 respectively there was a change in size numbering so that there's 1 size difference.  Other than being one size larger and having neck not shoulder darts on teh back there wasn't any difference between the two bodices in regards to size so I simply used the 4571 bodice with the 4843 skirt pieces. I cut the hips wider as I'm concerned about sitting ease, better to need to take in than be faced with too small. Especially after my Lilly Rose disaster.



Oh and I'm going to stitch darts under the bust not leave them as tucks. I need skimming under the giant boobs of doom, not extra fabric fluffing out to resemble a potato. I'm going to make three-quarter sleeves and stitch a shaped cuff in black on it (no extra volume) to work with the black revere. And zero pockets.  Me and pockets aren't a thing.

Cutting out the February Dress in March

I got to the point of having to do the intitial fit alterations  height + FBA (full bust alteration) on my January dress pattern and balked.  Doing it properly is the only way it's going to work and I just wanted something simpler to sew. So in March I finally got my February dress patternwork done and the dress cut out.

I'm using Anne Adams 4571 with my strawberry print fabric and a green undercollar.  I tried navy or raspberry and it just looked drab. The pale green and yellow would make me look ill, so I went for the green.  I might even have buttons in stash, once I find some old shirts that I was going to patchwork a throw blanket from. If I can't find them quickly then I'll buy some new ones tomorrow. Done is better than procrastinating.


I added 1cm at the side seam cos it seemed like a snug fit, added a 4cm FBA and made the mock up.  I ended up having to do a square shoulder alteration, adding 2cm at the shoulder edge (1.5cm on the back, 0.5cm on front) tapering to zero a the neck. I also had to do a narrow shoulder alteration of 1.5cm and raise the underarm by 1cm. Plus lower the bust point and shorten the dart as it finished far too close to bust point.  It looked better to move the underdart ending too, but not  necessarily shift the darts closer to the side seam.