I Am Undecided

I will get back to quilting soon. I am feeling the pull, but I need get this clothing stuff out of my system. And these tops don’t take long to make. It is hard to resist the dopamine hit of some instant-gratification projects.

The Laundry Day Tee does indeed fit better if I use the standard front pattern piece and add a boob bump as opposed to using the full bust pattern piece. This fits more like a swing top now and less like a tent.

The fabric is a very stretchy rayon jersey. I think this came from Stylemaker? Last spring, maybe? I’m trying hard to avoid black and white when I buy fabric, because I have so much of it in my closet, but I liked this print.

I stopped at the blueprint copy shop on my way home from town yesterday and had them print the Miramar pattern for me. It’s literally only two pattern pieces. The back is cut on the fold and the front is cut in two pieces and seamed. It took me 15 minutes to trace the pattern, another 15 minutes to cut the fabric, and half an hour to assemble it. I used some leftover Joann Fabrics double-brushed poly, of which I had just enough to make the short-sleeve tunic version:

This is a muslin, so it’s not hemmed.

I like the fit and the silhouette very much. The V-neck is very flattering and the depth is customizable. The scale of this print isn’t really appropriate for the design because of that front seam, but I it was a leftover, so I used it. I don’t even mind the grown-on sleeves, because they are tight to the arm, not floppy dolmans. I’d be inclined to redraft that bodice for set-in sleeves, though, especially if I were making a long-sleeve version.

The “eh” part of this top is that collar. It is cut as one with the fronts and seamed at the back neck. When the back is sewn to the fronts—the fronts are seamed last—the collar folds under. However, the only place where the folded-under part is secured to the rest of the bodice is for about 2” at the back of the neck. (The pattern warns against sewing it down any further than that as it can cause wrinkles on the front of the V.) The collar stays put once the top is on my body, but it requires a bit of fussing to get the front of the neck situated. I dislike fussing with my clothing.

I examined the T-shirt in my closet, the one that has the same kind of neckline. That top has a lined yoke on the back, put together in such a way that the collar is anchored neatly within the shoulder seam. And now my brain is obsessed with figuring out how to do something similar with this pattern.

Seamwork just released a video on the burrito method of making yokes. I suspect that if I concentrated on this problem enough—and watch the video several times—the answer will come to me. I am not sure I want to devote the time to it, however. I might need to park this in the back of my brain and let my subconscious wrestle with it. Perhaps I’ll have an epiphany at 2:00 am. If I had known I would like that top so much, I would have bought two of them last summer and deconstructed one.

[The Love Notions Olympia Dress and the Itch to Stitch Sovana Dress have similar necklines. Karina, at Lifting Pins and Needles, did a YouTube video about the Olympia Dress, and that neckline appears that it is constructed more like the one on my T-shirt.]

Further research is in order. At the very least, I would figure out how to topstitch that collar neatly so it stays in place.

I cut the tunic length for this muslin because it was obvious from some of the model photos that the T-shirt length would be too short. Indeed, I folded the hem up to see how much I would have to remove for this to be a good T-shirt length on me and it was only about 3”.

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I stopped in at the quilt store yesterday morning to pick up two new serger feet. Bernina released a shirring foot, a curve foot—it is shorter, to maneuver curves more easily—and a piping foot for bulky piping. The piping foot hasn’t come in yet, but I brought home the other two. I am eager to play around with them.

And I discovered that Spoonflower carries Bernina-designed fabric with the L890 serger in an allover pattern. Go look. I am so tempted to buy some and make myself a top to wear when I teach.

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We had our first plant sale planning meeting last night and decided who is going to grow what plants and what varieties. Last year, we had way too many tomatoes of too many varieties and I think we just confused people. We whittled the list down to about a dozen—a couple of cherry varieties, a couple of beefsteaks, some paste tomatoes, and a few yellow, green, and black ones. We also ran out of cukes and zucchini last year, so we’re planting more of those. I’ll need to get my seed order in this week. I am not ready for spring, but we’ll be planting seeds in the greenhouse in only six more weeks.