Great Gatsby Sewing Challenge?

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Rochelle and I spent the end of last week texting about how excited we are for The Great Gatsby movie to come out on May 10th. We were joking about making dresses, taking photos of ourselves at the movie theater, and then doing a blog post of us having a virtual hang out session (we're dorks).


Would any of you be interested in joining in on our fun? I don't mean taking photos at the theater (although you could!), but do you have an interest in making 1920s inspired clothing for a Gatsby sewing challenge?

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Two muslins

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I spent this past weekend making muslins for two dresses (Laurel and Elisalex) and realized that due to my limited knowledge on fit my adjustments generally leave me feeling one of two ways, frustrated or ecstatic. It can be SO frustrating to make something that doesn't fit and not know how or where to begin to fix it. On the other hand, that feeling you get after things suddenly make sense and the alterations work is an amazing feeling! That's how it goes with leaning, though.


The Elisalex sewalong is going on right now and before I cut into my wild fabric I want to have a muslin that fits well. Thursday night I started working on the bodice and everything went smoothly, including sewing princess seams for the first time (!), but the fit is off. It's funny, it's easier to pinpoint changes that need to be made on other people's makes, but so hard for your own. I slept on it before making any crazy changes and I think I need to do a narrow shoulder adjustment, does that seem right? Or do I need to make other changes too?


Elisalex muslin
 The wrinkle on the center of the bodice front looks prominent in the photo above because of how I'm holding the camera in my hand. It's not as bad in the photo below.


Elisalex muslin

In the past it has been suggested that I make narrow shoulder adjustments, but I didn't have much success with the method I was using. For my second muslin of the weekend (Laurel) I decided to try a different technique from Gertie's book. I made the shoulder 3/4 inch smaller and reshaped the curve for the sleeve. This meant that I needed to also adjust the sleeve cap, which I did successfully, yay!

 Laurel muslin

Laurel muslin. Wrinkles are more pronounced in this photo.

The shoulder area no longer has the vertical lines, but now there are diagonal wrinkles :( Do you think it needs a FBA? I'm not sure, as I have never done one before. Or did I get too crazy with the shoulder adjustment and make it too narrow?

Even though Laurel isn't completely ready for its final fabric, I'm pretty excited that I learned a new adjustment (and did it correctly :) )! I'm dying to sew up this pattern, the fit is a lot more flattering that the shift dress I made earlier in the year.

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Shopping at Mood and earrings from Elladolce

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Last weekend Luke, Frankie (my dog), and I went to Mood for some fabric shopping. I felt bad making Luke and the pup wait, so I tried to be quick. Frankie had fun though, she had her first dog celebrity sighting and got to meet Oscar de la Renta, the Los Angeles Mood dog that hangs out in the store ;)


Even though Mood Fabrics is a 3+ hour drive from my house I make the trek when I need garment fabrics. You have more than likely checked out their website, so you know there is a huge selection (and even more in person!), but what really keeps me coming back is the customer service. The last two times I have been lucky enough to be helped by Silvana, she is amazing! Seriously, if you are ever there make sure you ask for her. She was so patient even when I asked a million questions, helpful, knowledgable, and fun to talk with.

Anyway, here is what I bought:

 Silk in a wild print.

This fabric is actually more of a wine color. I messed with the settings in Photoshop, but still couldn't get the correct hue :( The polkadots are my ironing board, fyi.

Another wild fabric. I've been super into fabrics that have a sixties feel to them, so I immediately fell in love with this one.

Yesterday my talented friend, Taryn, posted this photo on Instagram of earrings that she made. Ummmm, match made in heaven for the fabric I posted above? I immediately bought the two pairs on the right. Do you ever plan what you're going to wear with outfits that don't even exist yet? haha :) If you're like me and need jewelry for imaginary outfits (or real ones!) then check out her Etsy shop, you will not be disappointed.

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Bloglovin

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I got a new sewing machine

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If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram this is old news, but I got a sewing machine! I actually got it a while back, in late December. I held off on posting here about it because I wanted to actually use it before sharing my likes and dislikes.

What I like about my Pfaff Expression 3.0
  • The stitches. With my old Brother machine I was constantly fighting with the tension to get the perfect stitch (and it rarely happened).
  • The needle placement can be adjusted to the left or right. It's been useful when installing zippers!
  • There is an option to leave the needle down or up when you stop sewing. If it's in the needle down mode and you want the needle temporarily up a quick pedal press brings the needle back up.
  • Tons of decorative stitches for future quilts. One of my goals is to quit stitching in the ditch and use the pretty options available.
  • Storage compartments built into the machine for storing bobbins and presser feet. 
  • I never realized how much I needed a built in walking foot, but it makes a huge difference. Do you ever come to the end of a seam and see that one piece of fabric is slightly longer than the other? The lady that showed me the machine explained that with a walking foot this was less likely to happen. She was right.
  • There is a three step zig zag stitch that I love.
  • The space is amazing. The arm is long which was so helpful when I was working on my last quilt.
What I don't like about the machine
  • The manual that came with it doesn't give a lot of info on how to use all features. Maybe this is common, but I was hoping that for the money I spent on the machine that it would come with a thorough booklet. I know that I can take a class to learn it all, but the classes are offered on weekday afternoons and that doesn't work for me.
  • If I cut the thread and don't leave a long enough tail it slips through the needle really easily and I have to rethread. I can't just stick the thread through the needle though, I have to completely rethread everything.
Some of the features listed above may be old news to you guys, but they were new to me! Granted, my last machine was pretty basic, so almost anything is an upgrade :) I'm not currently using it to it's full potential, I still have a LOT to learn. So far I'm in love.

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I made pants!

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This is my weird "I made pants!!!!" pose because I am so excited to have made 1940s pants for Sew for Victory!

I have heard from a few people that Simplicity 3688 is fairly straightforward to sew, so I decided this would be a good first project to help with my fear of sewing pants.

This is my wearable muslin and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I am really really proud to have made pants, but on the other hand they aren't really my style, so I'm not 100% in love with them. Wide leg high waisted pants are new to me, but maybe I will grow to like them. They certainly are comfortable!

As this is a muslin I had no idea what I was getting into, so I cut a size closest to my measurements without making any adjustments. I machine basted the sides to try them out and they were too big. Each side was taken in by 3/8 inch and in hindsight it should probably be more.

Fit wise I know there are issues, but I'm not sure I want to try and tackle them. That makes me sound so lazy, but since I'm not 100% in love with these pants I wouldn't feel passionate enough to take the time necessary to fix the problems. I'm going to start fresh with a different pattern that I like more and see how that goes.

Serious face. The top is my first Colette make ever, a Sorbetto top from January of last year. It has gotten a lot of wear over the past fourteen months!


This twill is a cat hair magnet!!!

What is your favorite pants pattern? I think I might try making Colette's Juniper next. Or I might use the pattern in the Pant Fitting Technique class that I am enrolled in on Craftsy.

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Photo shoot and social networking

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In my last post I was debating which outfit to make for a photo shoot. Unfortunately, I didn't get anything done in time, so I ended up wearing a dress I bought four or five years ago for a work Christmas party. Kind of a bummer, but I knew that if I tried to get an outfit sewn in under a week it would be full of mistakes and memories of me cursing and crying.

The image above is an Instagram photo of the photographer's camera. It was my favorite one from the day and I can't wait to see the rest in a few weeks. Speaking of Instagram, I made my account public so if you want to lurk me now you can: misscrayolacreepy.

So far this post has nothing at all to do with sewing, so I think I will keep going with the theme and ask how you guys deal with all your comment spam on Blogger. I know that Oona has mentioned it, but lately it has gotten out of control! I don't like putting restrictions on who can comment on my posts, but with the amount of spam getting to my inbox it's just something I have to do :( A lot of you use Disqus, so I'm giving that a shot for now. What are your thoughts on Disqus, yay or nay? 

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