Where did summer go?

I've noticed that it's stone dark now by 8p, and that can only mean one thing. Summer is nearly over. On the other hand, the weather has been so wonderful the last few weeks that I'm starting to realize that September and October are the best time of year out here. The fog isn't as heavy and, with the inversion, it's a nearly constant 73F outside. Granted, we were 30F cooler this morning (hello FOG!), but it'd mostly pulled back by 9a and was already warming up. Too bad I had to go to the office because this is still sitting on my worktable:

From Garment Class

Yup, after another weekend down with Barbara, Suzanne and Jeane, my shirt fabric is cut, overlocked, interfaced, stay-stitched and ready to assemble. It was a lot of work to get here, and it's worth noting where I started.

The goal for last weekend, for me, was to learn how to modify a commercial pattern in order to make a shirt. There are benefits to doing this - in particular, having arms, cuffs, collar, and other fiddly pieces already addressed seemed like a real benefit when we were working on the jacket. Plus, it's a good skill to have. So, prior to the previous class, I hit JoAnn and found some likely contenders. I settled on this:

I liked the fitted look of the front and the non-traditional collar. Plus, I was pretty sure I had enough fabric! So we laid out the pattern and got to work. Once again I don't have pictures of the whole process because we work pretty fast and furious. But, it essentially went like this:

• 1. Open the pattern and check front/back for fit against the sloper. Move the shoulder seam accordingly, increase the Front-to-waist, move darts. Leave all other parts the same and make a muslin.
• 2. Try on muslin, confirm "good enough" and then attach collar and sleeves. Move dart points (again), change armhole curve, reshape sleeve, try on again, realize I need another full muslin.
• 3. Make second muslin, try on and confirm WTF!?!? on where we moved the darts, slash/open sleeve cap to add more ease, make another round of sleeves, try on again, and then come up with final dart placement and agree that sleeves are "good enough."

It's now mid-afternoon on Sunday and I need to get back that night. It's a 7h drive, so we sat down and talked through the details of the finer points of sewing up the shirt (collar attachment, cuff easing, button bands, etc.) and then I jumped in the car and headed home. I had notes on what needed modifying one last time on the tissue paper pattern so I felt confident when it was time to get going.

The next weekend, I picked up woven interfacing and the other things I'd need to sew up the shirt and then spent the day on Sunday doing cutting and prep. I made it a point not to fuss. The stripes aren't perfectly vertical/horizontal. The unfinished edges may still end up a bit wonky, but they're overlocked so they won't move. I've interfaced where the fabric needs it and even preshrunk the interfacing before putting it on.

It's just sewing now and I'm feeling confident. The classes have shown me so much about the process that none of it seems intimidating. And, this being the third bit of fabric that I've cut up, I think I'm over it. I've also picked up some really, really good books on tailoring that will remind me of the steps I went through with Jeane, so I think it'll all be just fine.

The other thing we learned was that it's probably easier to just make the pattern from our slopers rather than trying to modify a commercial one. My homework is going to be drafting a shirt pattern based on my sloper between now and our next meeting in December. In December, we'll make arm slopers and then we'll transfer that to my shirt pattern. Perfect.

And Chris is even up for me taking all his measurements because I'm feeling confident enough to start sewing for him. He'll get a shirt for sure, hopefully a jacket as well in the near future. And it'll look great over a knitted vest.

I'll make a mental note to take more pictures as I'm sewing stuff. And hey, there's that tapestry thing we're doing, too.

So, Lynn - how's that blanket coming? And Sarah, what this I hear about cotton singles for tablet weaving?

I know I'm not the only one who's been productive.