The sewcialists do Green December and all I make is this (un)wearable muslin



So I was hoping this would be a wearable muslin, and it nearly was, and actually I thought it was, but then in the end it isn't.  But I don't really care because I have STRETCH VELVET for my next version. And if I'm very lucky/organised/neglectful of my children, said next version might even get done by Christmas*, which would be great because after that and New Year there aren't that many opportunities to wear all-over velvet.  Or are there? Yes, maybe there are.  Party dresses All The Time!

* at time of writing Christmas is still 3 whole days away. By the time you're reading this, I will know whether or not I've managed it. Can you stand the suspense??!

The pattern is the Lady Skater by Kitschycoo, made with 2 metres of bottle green shimmer jersey from Minerva Fabrics. The shimmer is subtle and got a lot more so after washing, and the fabric's actually pretty thin.  I wouldn't be able to wear this without an underlayer. None of this is a complaint - it's not exactly bad for £2.99 a metre! This just wasn't the right project for the fabric (a Renfrew would have been good, now I think of it. Oh well).

I cut a size 4 on the shoulders, with a 'fake FBA' by extending to size 5 at the underarm. Then I graded out to a 6 at the waist. (Basically, all changes I ever make to patterns involve turning the waist curves into rectangles or something). And it's testimony to a great pattern that when I first put it on, I was immediately, overwhelmingly gobsmacked by how darn good it looked. This despite the above fabric issues, and a couple of stupid mistakes which became clear once the fabulousness fell from my eyes and I was able to actually see what I'd sewn.

As you can see, I wasn't paying attention when I put the neckband on (because that's just the place to stop concentrating) and as a consequence it is uneven as sh*t. Plus I stretched the neckline wildly and it gapes.  Then, I made a very misguided attempt to 'fix' the gape:

 

 

 

Yes that's some darts. The kind of darts like, oh I'll just sew this here and see what happens. I doubt those ever work out well, do they?

 

 

Pre-darts, this dress hung in the wearable-unwearble balance, but they finally sealed its fate. However , it prettys up my dress form, so I'll take that and call it a win.

Also, in a coincidental (or not?) random act of idiocy, I managed while sewing this to machine stitch into my finger. I've always wondered how people did that, and to be honest I still don't know.  It hurt, but disappointingly it hardly bled and therefore even my children didn't appreciate the injury. In an interesting twist, I have yet to find the remaining third of the needle that broke. Where did it go? Could it still be in my finger??

Anyway, that's my underwhelming go at Green December sewing. But: velvet!! Coming up soon...