I finished this tennis bag, the instructions for which I found on Sew Mama Sew.

It's pretty simple, and the instructions are good, but I still managed to screw it up.

First off, I tried to make it up quickly before I went on our RV trip. I had a few hours and really, it could have been completed if things had gone smoothly.

But things never go smoothly.

Another Cashmerette Upton, this one for my sister. She couldn't find one for sale that had the features she wanted such as long sleeves. (Her daughter is getting married in March.) I offered to try to make her a dress. I was excited she was willing to give me a chance to do it.

She described what she wanted, and I couldn't help thinking the Upton was perfect. I had just made it with a scoop neckline but she wanted V-neck in front and back, and lo and behold, the pattern comes with that neckline.

I was especially excited to work on a dress for someone else because I thought it would be easier to fit another person rather than myself. It was. Too bad other elements of this dress, namely those having to do with the fabric choices, gave me fits.

I first made two muslins, one with the gored skirt and the other with the pleats. She preferred the gored. The bodice needed some adjustments. Fortunately, I'd had to do the same sorts of things on my version of the Upton, particularly fitting the princess seams around the bust, so I knew how to do them. 

Here's mockup #1 of the gored dress.

Here's mockup #1 of the pleated dress.

I don't have pictures of the second and third mockups. But everything went very smoothly.

The challenges started with the Bemberg lining and poly satin dress fabric.

I started with the lining. I have worked with Bemberg before and don't remember it being this infuriatingly slippery. Maybe I wasn't as careful back then or as tuned in.

This stuff was like working with liquid. I did some research and knew I had to cut it on tissue paper. I followed the advice of some who recommended pins and scissors, not weights and rotary cutter. Cutting seemed to go well. But when I removed the pins and the fabric relaxed, the cut fabric and the paper pattern pieces did not line up. 

The misalignment was actually worse than in that photo. So, back to the research. I next decided to recut the bodice of the lining but first soaking the fabric in gelatin, letting it dry, ironing again, then cutting. The gelatin worked great, stabilizing the fabric enough to cut and sew.  The skirt I just sewed sans gelatin, figuring I could manage with just straight lines. It was slow going but seemed okay. Lining done. 

The dress fabric was a different problem. The fabric is a heavier-weight satin and it is washable. I prewashed it and the Bemberg because I didn't want to have to worry about water spots when I was ironing, plus a washable dress is a damned nice thing to have.

But washing it left wrinkles that would not come out. And though I didn't want to iron the bejeebus out of it for fear of dulling or damaging it, I ironed it a lot.

Finally, I reached out to Mood and they suggested steaming it. So I bought a nice steamer and tried. It still took a lot of steam, but the wrinkles did come out.

From that point on, the fabric was easy to work with, except for ironing seams—it was difficult to get them to iron nice and flat. The satin cut and sewed nicely. Mood also recommended 1" seam allowances and serging the edges to arrest the fraying, both of which I did, thankfully.

Changing to a 1" seam allowance did create another problem, one that didn't surface until I was basting the lining together. Fixing it created another problem that I didn't catch until my sister was trying on the basted gown. And fixing that was not easy.

The original seam allowance was 1/2", so I added another 1/2" to all my pattern pieces before cutting the fabric. That is, all but one, as it turns out. 

I apparently forgot to add the extra seam allowance to the middle skirt panel. I hadn't sewed that piece to the lining yet, so I decided to use a 1/2" seam allowance for that piece. That meant I had to trim 1/2" from the two front side panels of the lining, which I did. Lining turned out perfectly--all the seams lined up.

For the dress, I decided to cut a new front panel. I had just enough fabric left to do it. Given the piece was just straight lines, I didn't bother adding 1/2" to the paper pattern piece, I just used my ruler to add the 1/2" as I cut. Note to self: no, no, no. Just do the careful thing next time.

When Mona tried on the basted dress, it fit nicely, but WTF...

Every mockup had sewn up so well it never dawned on me to check the seam alignment.  This was way off.

To make a long story short, the problem was that I had not added a consistent 1/2" to the new piece when I cut the fabric out. I did not have enough fabric left to cut another panel. I had enough for a new waistband, which I cut out.

Fortunately, I did have enough seam allowance of the front skirt panel to fix the misalignment. Unfortunately, I had to use some of the seam allowance, not reduce it, so the folds of the released seams would show--on the front panel of the dress. I could only pray that the steamer would remove them and that no needle holes would show. They didn't, but the folds were not easy to eliminate.

At any rate, there was a bunch of basting, checking, unbasting and shifting, rebasting, and repeat before the seams lined up. Gawd.

I was super afraid about sewing the lining to the dress at the neckline and inserting the invisible zipper. But thank goodness, both went very smoothly.

Mona came to my house to try the dress on before I sewed the zipper in permanently, sewed the lining to the zipper tape, and hemmed the dress. I told her it would take 1-2 hours. It took 5. 

But she was pleased with the dress and she looked amazing in it!

These are still not performance fabric, just some stretchy jersey. Oh, the black and white is rayon. It will probably not hold up. They are very comfy, though. Great posture. Jeez.

I have two of these Nike skorts that I have owned for at least 10 years. It could easily be 20. I love them. Super comfortable. The short part has a nice gusset that is more like a rectangle than a triangle. It goes from the bottom of one leg, across the crotch, and down to the bottom of the other leg. No seams around the sensitive bits. It seems a better design.

So I figured I'd try to copy it. The skirt of this version is a very thin cotton jersey. It's a little too thin and maybe too static-producing to be suitable for tennis, but I'll give it a shot. The skort is likewise too thin but it's 4-way stretch so it could in theory work.

I made the waistband too long so it scrunches up hideously. It's not uncomfortable, and a tee-shirt hides it pretty well. I used drawstring elastic because that's what the Nike shorts have. It's coming in handy on the Nike shorts, whose elastic is losing its elasticity after all these years, but it's rather overkill on this copy, although maybe I was thinking I wouldn't have to be so precise with the waistband length.

I will shorten the waistband by 7 inches next time, and I was thinking I'd add a few inches in length. Maybe, maybe not.

On the first Shenanigan skort that I made, I used 2-inch wide elastic for the waistband. It's okay, but some skorts I have from CostCo use a narrow bit of elastic at the top of the waistband, and I like those a lot.

So for this next skort, I made two changes.

First, I expanded the gusset by at least 1/2 inch all around. It's much more comfortable.

Second, I used 1/2-inch elastic as opposed to the 2-inch wide stuff. I put the narrower elastic inside the same-sized waistband as the first version, i.e., the elastic just runs around the top of it.

If not for the weird drape of this polyester fabric, this skirt might have worked. It's comfortable, and I like the narrow elastic. I made a dress out of this same fabric, and I never wore it because of the same creepy drape, which highlights every teeny tiny bump underneath.

So I won't ever be wearing this one either, but I will try this same pattern in a different fabric. 

I've looked all over and this is the only skort pattern I saw that I remotely liked. There is a good one on Cashmerette's site, but you can only get it if you sign up for a year of their club. Hmmm. I don't want your club. I won't use your club. But I can't buy one stinking pattern if I don't join your club? Strange business model.

Anywho.

This skort was very easy to put together. The directions were clear (the tutorial on inserting the gusset was key), and the pattern was well drafted. I did struggle getting the flounce on—right sides together, back of the flounce on the back of the skirt (both nearly indistinguishable), oriented correctly. Oh, a difficulty with the legs/gusset in that I had sewed one leg right sides together and the other backs together (because it's hard to see what's the back and front in my basement). I discovered it when trying to insert the gusset. Had to redo one leg.

It's pretty comfortable. The skort is an athletic, 4-way stretch fabric, but the skirt is some rayon jersey I had left over from a dress. The flounce is a thin rayon jersey. I like it for this. The pattern accentuates my belly, which is hard to tell from these photos because I took great care, and several photos, to hide it.

Update: I'm pretty sure that the reason the skirt falls funny in the front is because I mixed up the front and back skirt pieces. 

Of course, I'll wear it with my shirt down, so no one will know.

My husband repainted so we needed new curtains. Looked all over for material we liked and in the end, the best choice was a home decor fabric from Joann's. I had seen it but didn't want to spend $50 a yard, but by the time we decided to go ahead, there was a sale and we got it for half off.

There is one large picture window and eight 3-foot windows.

I made pillows too. I recovered the one rectangular couch pillow we had, took the stuffing out of a square one and reshaped it and put it in a muslin shell I made and had another rectangular pillow of the same size as the other. Then I had two square blanks and enough fabric to cover them as well.  Close ups:​

O.M.G. I did it. I completed an actual Upton in real fabric (a lawn). 

I lost count but looking at this pile, it was at least 10 muslins. ​

This post documents the first set of muslin making, which mostly was trying to figure out which base size to start with and a few major adjustments (lower bust point, lengthen torso, and do forward shoulder adjustment). I went with a size 4 and a C/D bust. I also lost track of all the changes I made, but here are those I remember:

1. Graded to a 6 at the waist and hips
2. Lowered BP 1 inch
3. Lengthened torso 1 inch 
4. Made a forward shoulder adjustment
5. Scooped out curve on princess seam above and below bust point
6. Took darts out of neckline to reduce gaping, 1/4" on each side, tapering to nothing toward bust
7. Lowered armpit 1/2" and lengthened sleeve curve correspondingly
8. Shortened skirt. A lot. A total of maybe 4–5 inches
9. Changed closure from a back zipper to a button front (Cut back on fold instead of front. Cut front along center front and added seam allowance. Added a placket.)
10. Finally, I made bias binding and used it on the neckline

Oh yeah. I did add the pockets but could have kicked myself after. I don't really need pockets and I think they might disturb the fall of the skirt. Also, I didn't put notches on the pattern where they were supposed to go and I put the a little too low. 

Still this is super comfortable and I'm pretty pleased. I'm not sure I like the box pleats. The next one I make (I bought the fabric at the same time I bought the fabric for this version) might get regular pleats like on the McCalls shirtdress I made that this Upton is supposed to be an improvement on. It is, with the possible exception of the pleats.

Oh, I almost forgot. I discovered a couple new things about my machine. First, OMG it's so easy to sew buttons on with it.

However, I had to lower the feed dogs to do it—that's how it's done on my Pfaff—but I forgot that the stupid things get stuck when put down. So, I found a single YouTube where a guy explained how to fix it on a machine similar to mine (the predecessor, I suppose), and I managed to fix mine using his information even though my machine is not constructed the same. They updated the guts but still made a feed dog mechanism that sucks.

Finally, my buttonhole function is going haywire. I sewed about 5 buttonholes, and it started screwing up, jamming and bunching thread. Then I noticed only 1 of the buttonholes I'd sewn was correct. I had to take them all out and research alternatives. I found a good YouTube that showed a system that worked for me. 

1. Mark the buttonhole placement (a vertical line through the middle and a top and bottom line that can be seen when the presser foot is down)
2. The basic idea is to sew a wide zigzag at the top of the hole (5 stitches), a narrow zigzag along the right and left sides, and another wide zigzag at the bottom (another 5 stitches). 
3. The settings I used for WIDE were: length, 0.8, width 6.0 and NARROW: length 0.8, width 2.5. Worked like a charm and without the anxiety of that stupid automatic buttonhole.

The Upton fitting directions say to sew up the WHOLE dress for each muslin. Thank goodness I was reading Sarah Veblen's fitting book while I was working on this dress. She says no to sleeves and skirt, just fit the bodice first. I also found her HBL or horizontal balance lines very helpful with the second set of muslins. But I learned how to adjust the princess line by watching this really helpful video where she explains how a princess seam is just a version of a darted bodice and how to get a good line for your body. 

It's hot now, and I need some tank tops for tennis! The two Aura tanks I made out of Nike fabric are super comfortable, and I love wearing them. So I decided rather than hunt in a crap shoot online for the right fabric, I'd head on over to Salvation Army and find some XL shirts with fabric I could see and feel. 

I found a lot of shirts that would work and got five. That's probably got way more than I needed, but, what can I say? I thought it would be such a simple thing to sew these into tank tops, and I guess I got carried away. Too bad it didn't turn out to be so easy.  ​

Putting the shirts together went so quickly at first...cutting out the front and back and sewing up the shell; then, it went downhill fast. It was tedious and time consuming. It took me about 4 days to finish all of these once the front and back were sewn together! Here are the steps.

• Hunt for enough fabric in the scraps for the neckline binding and the two armhole bindings and cut the strips. (I found enough for all tanks except for the teal. For that, I considered a number of fabrics in my stash, from a thicker black labeled "performance," to black and white cotton rib knit. In the end, I used some scraps of blue Nike fabric because it was soft, and I know how it wears. The color doesn't really match, but none of the other options looked much better, so I went with assured comfort.)
• Sew the strips together to get enough length for each binding. (I generally used the fabric from the XL arms, cut 1.5-inch-width strips, and sewed 2 strips together for each armhole binding and anywhere from 3 to 5 for the neckband.)
• Pin the bindings onto the neck and armhole openings
• Baste the bindings on
• Serge the bindings on
• Press all the bindings (twice; once as sewn and twice with the binding turned right side up)
• Coverstitch all the bindings
• Press all the coverstitching

These days, I baste stuff together before going to the serger; it's too easy to fuck up on a serger with the tiniest wrong movement, and it's too much to serge and hold a seam together, especially where bindings, narrow seams, and armholes and necks are involved. So I like to have the seam secured first so there is only one thing to do on the serger—follow the basted line and sew.

Why did it seem so endless and tedious? Well, with 5 shirts, that's 5 neckbands and 10 armholes for a total of 15 bindings, which equals 100 percent Crazy Town.

Here's a close up of the bands. 

Theme: sucky fit and excessive ease in big-company commercial patterns.

I wanted to make a robe for a friend and I figured I'd use the same pattern I'd used to make my robe. Since I was making a different size and she is short, I decided to make a muslin. Before I made it, I chopped 4 inches off the length of the front/back and the sleeves (because on mine the sleeves are way too long). 

When she tried on the muslin, the sleeves were still an inch too long. The front hiked up above the horizontal line I'd drawn for fitting, indicating the need for a full-bust adjustment. I mean, it's just a robe, but an XL with no dart? They go to the trouble of making you cut and sew a two-part sleeve, but the fit of the overall robe is terrible. What surprised me was how voluminous the sleeves were. It was insane. plus, they are very low, and I worried it would restrict arm movement, especially when I narrowed the sleeves.

So I cut another inch off the sleeve length and narrowed the top of the sleeves 2 inches and the underside another 1.5 inches. I also added a dart and did an FBA of 1 inch. Unfortunately, I was too lazy to raise the armhole after all that. 

Then I sewed it up in a flannel print she'd purchased, added some satiny lining fabric for trim, and voila, fits pretty nice, looks pretty cute.

Damn, maybe the sleeves are still too fricking long.
​

Here is my robe. I don't think I ever put it in the blog. I wear it, but the sleeves are annoying.

Here's a better view of how long the sleeves are!

Maybe I made too big a size or something. I never noticed wearing it that it was oversized, other than the sleeves.