Fredrick invites Edith and Betsy on a lunch date

Hmmm sounds like an alternate reality "Archie" comic involving lobsters. But why lobsters Heather? Well because anthropomorphic lobsters are adorable and this outfit wouldn't have come about without one. I'm speaking of Fredrick my Luxulite brooch of course.

"Hello beautiful ladies. Yes, my body is red like I have been cooked and yet I still cling to life. Let us talk no more of this complicated set of circumstances."

I was smitten with Fredrick's googly eyes and possible tragic back story. How can I fix you and make you smile again gentle lobster? Regular outings to the grocery store to look at the lobster tank? Nautical themed shoes? I'm sure Dolly Clackett has some to spare.  A warm butter bath? Name it and it will be yours. Fredrick thought a moment and said, "The frog has informed me that you have lobster fabric in your stash. I would like to frolic on it and relive my carefree youth." Why dear Fred, I can do one better than that, I can make a lobster shirt. *Queue 80's sewing montage ending with me in front of a fence shouting TA DA!*

Wooo look at that, I "almost" make a googly eyed lobster shirt look classy.  The secret is the toe point.

It came to my attention that my wardrobe was lacking any sort of button down shirt in my current size. What? How could this have happened? Am I not the the self crowned "Queen of Archers"? This state of affairs had to rectified and fast least my button hole attachment decide to runway from home.

A couple patterns were considered, but I found myself in a retro mood and pulled out Maria Denmark's Edith pattern. The more fitted body seemed a better match to go with the stretch denim Betsy skirt I'd just finished. What's better than lobsters and denim? Pie and chiffon?  Cake and Corduroy? Wait let's not go down that road. It's making me hungry.

LOBSTERS, MAINE!

Some of you might remember that I made Edith last year around this time. Having to retrace the pattern was a bummer, but at least most of the fitting work could be transferred to the B 40 size.

Like last year I needed to....
1. Drop the bust dart an inch".
2. Shorten the tip of the front fish eye dart 3".
3. Take 1/2" off the top of the shoulder seams which was graded out to nothing at the collar. Then I dropped the bottom of the armholes 1".
4. Made standard 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment.
5. Curved the hem line up at the side seams for personal preferences.
6. Widened the facing about 5/8" after rereading my previous review about it being a bit narrow.

*I did not need to add ease to the hips on this size.  The top was short enough that it does not reach my wider 40" circumference area.

Once again I bias bound the armhole edges instead of turning and hemming.  As much as I hate sewing bias bindings, they do look nice once they are finished.

Some lobsters were traumatized by the sewing of this blouse.

Last year I wore Edith with Clover capris, but decided it looks equally well tucked into a Betsy pencil skirt. And I might not have sewn any Clover capris. Yes I am avoiding pants at all costs for as long as possible.

Someone tell past Heather to tuck in her shirt.

This Betsy is a combo of view's A and C.  Instead of tracing the regular vent on view A, I moved the paper over to view C and traced the pleated vent. Easy Peasy. Now a girl can have a pleated vent and a waistband. Natch. Don't know why it took me a couple of months to sew another denim pencil skirt. They go with about half of my wardrobe and I find them very comfortable in stretch denim.

Show us the money shot!

Fredrick was delighted with the blouse made in his honor.  I think a tiny tear of joy welled up in his googly eye.  Then he said, "Hey baby, let's go paint the town red like my skin." We hit all the hot spots, the grocery store, JoAnn's and of course Target.  People started at us with delight...or confusion/horror. I like to think that they were just jealous of our love and our sweet dance moves to Rock Lobster out in the parking lot. My Fred Schneider impression is tight.


P.S. You know Gillian, our favorite sewicalist of rainbow knits. She's moved her blog to wordpress and wanted to get the word out since no one using blogloving would know. So go refollow Gillian cause she knows how to wrap up a blog post unlike some people. *cough, me, cough*