Sewing Karma: Week 1 April 5-11, 2010

April 5-11, 2010
Total points earned this week: 6
Total points spent this week: 0
Total accumulation: 6

Corduroy jumper into skirt finished April 7

Lint trap skirt – Sewing Projects | BurdaStyle.com
3pts
(Please excuse the ridiculously horrible picture of myself in which I have no waist and should have worn heels. I am experimenting with taking pictures of myself with a self timer and tripod and no assistant. As my current assistant is horrible at assisting. Gotta do everything myself. sheesh. And then my waist got camera shy for some reason and took a vacation. I had quite a difficult time fitting the waist of this skirt. I had a difficult time with the jumper as well. The pattern is for a waist 26 and I am a 28 so ok let out waist 2 inches. I did that with the jumper and then wound up taking it in again. Then I took in the waist on the skirt another 2 inches. The actual measurement of the skirt waist is now 28 which means it has no ease which make absolutely as much sense as ancient Greek to me. Needless to say I think my goal of learning how to fit is a worthy one. I just wish I had someone to help me pin.)

Sewing new buttons on Black Jacket finished April 8

3pts
(I 'heart' these buttons. They are this double layer thing that makes them look folded and flower like. This is the second time I replaced the buttons on this jacket. It originally had large self fabric covered flat buttons that were hideously ugly and cheap looking. I found these buttons a size smaller than the originals (and these) and had used those. Then I randomly found the larger ones when I hadn't been able to find them before and they have been waiting to be attached to the jacket. now they are.)

***Also, the beautiful and delightful Amanda Atkins is celebrating over at her blog and having a contest in which you can win one of her gorgeous prints. Just scope out her Etsy shop (and while you are there check out her and her mom's vintage shop, Stella by Star), pick your favorite, and comment on this post on her blog. Winners will be announced on Sunday April 17. My personal faves are Zelda, Remember when i loved you, A new beginning 1953 and I am saving up to buy all her paper dolls for my sewing room. ***

have you met Gloria?

Gloria was my high school graduation present. She is a Uniquely You dress form. The concept behind her is that she is a foam body, so she has some give and squishiness like a human body, with a fitted dress cover. The dress cover you fit to yourself or whoever and make the adjustments and then zip the dress over the form. There are 2 sizes you need to choose: the size of the foam body based on your hip and waist measurements and the size of the dress based on your bust measurement. I am kind of between sizes. I bought a small foam body with the smallest dress cover size. I should have bought the petite foam body size with the largest dress size. Needless to say Gloria is much bigger than I am and has earned the nickname Fat Gloria. I have never attempted to actually fit the dress cover partially because time and an assistant is needed and also because I was never really able to get the cover on her, unaltered, in the first place.

I have since lost the fitting instructions but I called Atlanta Thread where I originally bought Gloria from and asked if it was possible for them to send me another instruction sheet. So one should be on it was to me shortly. And then we will see what happens. I know some of the corset makers have taken an electric knife to the foam body to reduce the waist more. Any sculptors out there who want to assist me with this project???