I Am a Princess

I went to sewing on Thursday but didn’t stay long. I love all of those women, but even being around people I like is too much sometimes.

At home, on the cutting table, was a project I’ve been wanting to tackle for a while: doing a full bust adjustment on a princess seam design. I love princess seams. I think they are very flattering, but I’m hardly ever able to find garments with princess seams that have enough room for me.

I went through the pattern stash the other day and pulled out this one:

I almost didn’t buy this pattern because I was not crazy about any of the designs. For experimenting with an FBA, though, view D was perfect. I traced the pattern pieces before I left for sewing. When I got back, I slashed and spread the side front pattern pieces according to this tutorial.

I also set the coverstitch machine up for chainstitching so I could try basting my pattern pieces together that way. A chainstitch is the same kind of “unzipping” stitch that is found on feed bags. Oh my, is that slick. I was able to baste the pieces together and then take them apart again.

I cut a muslin out of some mystery rack cotton jersey from Walmart. Amazingly, I nailed the FBA on the first try. The princess seams lie exactly where they are supposed to with no pulling or excess. (Yay, me!) I hadn’t taken enough off at the sides, though, so I unzipped the pieces, removed the requisite amount of fabric, then re-sewed them. All of those changes were transferred to the pattern pieces. By the time I got to that point, it was dinnertime and I had to set the project aside.

Before I picked it up again yesterday morning, I finished another LC knockoff top. The serger was already threaded with pink thread and I didn’t want to change it twice.

This is the second top made from the deconstructed-top-turned-pattern. The first was a royal blue and white striped version. (I even matched the stripes at the side seams.) Both fabrics came from the Walmart Mystery Rack. Both are lightweight DBP. It’s a bit too cold outside to wear either of them comfortably right now, although I suspect they will get a lot of wear in the spring. I’ve got one more length of Walmart DBP that is destined to become another one of these.

Back to the princess seams. The muslin body was done, so I put one sleeve into it to test that fit. I’m almost never happy with the way sleeves are drafted on these patterns. They tend to be drafted as slightly (or more than slightly) dropped shoulders, even with shaped sleeve caps, and I think they are sloppy and oversized. I don’t want to be hauling that excess fabric around under my arm. I scooped an inch out of the armscye on both back and front pieces to make them fit closer to the shoulder. I then re-measured the armscye and the length of the sleeve cap and adjusted the sleeve cap accordingly. I think the sleeve could use a bit more tweaking, but I got it to where it was good enough.

The cotton jersey worked for the initial muslin, but this is a tunic that wants a fabric with some weight to it. I pulled a chunk of black cotton interlock out of the stash—another Walmart fabric—and cut a second top using my altered pattern. You’ll have to take my word for it that it fits. I could not get a good picture of me wearing it, and it looks funny on my dress form because the dress form is not as busty as I am. I put the cowl from view B on my version and I like it very much. The top is cozy and the length is perfect, although cotton interlock is probably my least favorite knit fabric. It’s beefy but it has zero recovery. I would like to make this again in a cotton fleece—the Robert Kaufmann Trainers fleece is lovely—or a rayon French terry. I would choose something other than black because my wardrobe is funereal enough as it is. And if this pattern were lengthened into a dress, I think it would be spectacular in a ponte.

Goal achieved. I have a good princess seam bodice pattern that I can hack into other tops and dresses. Having those inexpensive cuts of knit fabric from Walmart in the stash to use for muslins is great.

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The indoor lettuce system is up and running:

I pointed out to the husband, though, that it takes weeks for a tray of lettuce to grow into enough for a salad that he demolishes in one or two meals. The lettuce will grow back at least once after cutting and I have trays going on rotation, but I’d have to have three or four of these systems running to grow enough for him to have a salad every night.

One of my friends said to me once that she buys a rotisserie chicken from Costco and it’s enough to feed her and her husband for several nights. Huh. I wonder what that’s like.