Operation Xmas Dress Part 3 - Fitting Adjustments

At long last another post in the Christmas dress series. In the last segment I'd futzed around with grading until the pattern fit my general dimensions. Today I'm going to talk about the fitting adjustments that were made to fit the pattern to my figure.

After trying on muslin #2 I had the following concerns - the dart had been dropped too low, the front neckline still felt a bit big, and there seemed to be too much extra length in the shoulder area. I also had figure out what skirt length to use.

In the end I made a ton of bodice muslins and quit at the point were my patience ran out.  You'll only see the final muslin since people under deadlines can't wait to favorable photo days. (There wasn't much difference between them anyway.)

Break down of all the final fitting adjustments. 
1. Raised the bust dart 1/2".
I'd previously dropped it 1.5 inches from the original position, so final dart location is 1" lower than the original.

2. Put a 3/4" hollow chest adjustment in front neckline.
In muslin #2 I felt neckline was still exposing a lot of my shoulder.  I'd picked a dress with sleeves so that I didn't have to mess around with special undergarments, but the neckline was exposing the whole bra strap.  Adding a hollow chest adjustment helped bring the neckline closer into the neck, giving me more bra coverage.  I didn't need to adjust the back neckline in anyway, probably because my forward shoulders need extra length in that area.

3. Removed 3/8" of grading in the shoulder area only. This change was made to both the front and back bodice.
McCall's 9572 has an elbow dart and it wasn't in the correct position. With the added grading the shoulder area felt a bit too big, even though the waist was perfect.  This makes sense because my shoulder/bust area is a size smaller than my waist/hip area.  Lucky for me a solution wasn't hard to figure out.
I'd put one of the grading lines right next to the side seam and decided it to use the underarm notch as a separation point.  I cut the notch deeper so that it connected with the grading line, breaking it into two parts. Then I removed 3/8" by moving upper part of the graded area back together. This operation left a small bump out under the notch area. To "true" the area I redrew the underarm curve.  Here's a picture of that adjustment before add the sloping shoulder adjustment mentioned in step 5.

4. Raised the kimono sleeve curve 1/2".
The ease in the upper part of the kimono sleeve was a bit too much for my modern tastes.  I decided to reduce that area by raising the curve of the kimono sleeve and narrowing the upper part of the arm. To do this I redrew the curve 1/2" higher than the original position and blended the underarm seam into the elbow area. (Didn't take a picture of this before cutting off the excess. Oops.)

5. Made a 1/2" sloping shoulder adjustment to sleeves.
After mocking up some of these changes I was still getting a horizontal fold across the back at the sleeve area.  (Super crappy photo below so you can get a general idea what I'm talking about.)

 Instagram was polled about this problem since I had no idea what was up. The general consensus was that it was excess fabric from my sloping shoulders.  I made a 1/2" adjustment for this using the "Fit for Real People" technique pictured below.

I'm only half convinced it made a real difference to the fit. Seems I need to work on more kimono sleeve fitting.

6. Shortened bodice by 1/4".
Took a scant quarter inch off that the bottom of the bodice. This length probably could have been left on because I ended up lining the bodice.

7. Shortened skirt by ????
OK I do know how much I shortened the skirt, it's just different in this muslin than it is in the final dress.  The muslin was shortened by 6" which turned out to be too short with the bias sucking back up.  On the final dress I shortened the skirt by 2".

Here's what all those adjustments look made up in the final muslin.

Front

Side

Back

There's still some wrinkling going on under the arm on the back. I may need a larger sloping shoulder adjustment then a 1/2".  On the other hand kimono sleeves without gussets are going to have more ease which equal wrinkles.  It's something I could have worked on some more, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort. Girl can't wear a muslin to her in-laws house on Christmas day.

Part 4 "The final dress" post will arrive when ever I get a photo opportunity. So far non rainy days have been few and far between and usually happen when I'm the sole parent around. Let's hope the next one collides with some toddler free time and maybe semi-warm temps.

What I did and didn't wear this year

First off let me apologize for disappearing right in the middle of the Christmas dress series.  The germs found me and I had to let go of all my grand December blogging plans. Life does like to mess up your plans, doesn't it? The good news is that the Christmas dress did get finished on time and I promise to continue the series in January.

Today I wanted to do a year in round up of sorts. My original plan was to do Gillian's top 5 lists, but with all the germs and visiting relatives the time got away from me.  Instead I'm going to do a variation on that theme and give you some lists of my own. So grab some refreshments and find out what I really wore this year,

Patterns/Garments I was excited about and then never wore.
1. By Hand London - Flora Dress

I looooved sewing this dress. I love the fabric and looking at photos I still think it's a flattering garment. However it was never worn during the summer.  Last week I put it on to wear with tights and sweater and immediately took to back off again. The problem is the skirt length. Above the knee just isn't for me. I like plenty of length for bending over and to have my knees covered.

2 - My Cambie Hack

 

I had high hopes for this hack and instead sewed up a dress that didn't appeal to me at all. Oops. I'm starting to think that while I love piping details on other people, it might be something that doesn't work on me.

3 - My Fauxneta

I have no idea why this dress never got worn.  "Maybe" the full skirt seemed less flattering than my other wardrobe choices?  Who knows! There were other garments that didn't get worn, but most of them I would chalk up to my changing taste in clothing.

Patterns/Garments I thought weren't my style but then got worn to death

1. Closet Case Files - Nettie Bodysuit

If you had told me last year that I'd happy wear a bodysuit in 2014 I would have laughed in your face. Full out cackling with maybe some pointing in your general direction.  "HAA HAA HAA! You don't know me at all." Well the joke is on me because Nettie turned out to be one of my TNT's for the year. I'm wearing one right now while typing this blog post. It turns out that if a body suit doesn't give you a constant wedgie, like the ones in the 80's did, then they are really comfortable to wear.  I also found them to coordinate well with all the skirts in my closet. 

2. Christine Haynes - Emery dress as a skirt

I've never been a big fan of skirts with gathers at the waist, because more bulk in the area always seemed unflattering.  However when I won a copy of the Emery pattern from Jennifer there was no reason not to try it out.  On Emery the amount of fabric that gets gathered at the waist is significantly less than vintage patterns. For me this worked out great and I found myself wearing these skirts often during the summer.

3. By Hand London - Maxi Anna

 

As I stated back in the original review, maxi dresses aren't my thing and I only bought this pattern long after the fact for the bodice. Then I went and made this pattern out of one of my "precious" Etsy purchases and fell in the love with it.  The dress is a "having a good hair day" sort of garment since it screams for attention. HELLOOO, I'm red and dramatic!   However I did wear it many times during the summer and was sad to pack it away when the cold temps set in.  (Side note - the origin story for the Tiki Goddess was probably the most fun I had writing this year.)

Patterns/Garments that I knew were gonna be awesome and were. ;)

1. Bluegingerdoll - Betsy pencil skirt

Pencil skirts and I go together like peas and carrots.  I love both the silhouette and find then comfortable to wear when made up in stretch wovens.  So it's no surprise that the Betsy pencil skirt is my other big TNT of the year.  At this time I've made 5 of them and still have plans for more. This denim version with the pleated kick pleat is my favorite out of the bunch.

2. Jolie Marie Louise - Lea Dress

I fell in love with this pattern at first sight and knew exactly what fabric to use. Lucky for me the finished dress turned out just how I'd imagined.  It's pretty, comfortable and rates as one of my top makes for the year. I put it away for the summer, but missed it so much that it go dug back out and wore it with sweaters and tights. Never leave me again Lea dress. 

3. The Anna/Emery Combo - The Painterly Poppy Dress

How could it not be in the year in wrap up? It is the dress to end all dresses! OK, I'm a little biased since the fabric will always be amazing and because the dress did win me some Dolly Clackett swag. Thanks Roisin!
This dress was one of those projects where the fabric tells you what to do and you just follow instructions. At the end of it you've had some fun but are some what amazed that you had anything to do with the dress. "Did I just make this....Sweet!"
I don't wear this dress as much as the other things in my list.  It's on the fancy side and the I don't have lower shoes that match as well as the 4" grape heels. (I love me a pretty shoe, but I'm not grocery shopping in 4" heels)  Despite that this dress will always be a favorite because it was made for a great reason, the Dolly Clackett sew-a-long to celebrate Roisin's wedding. 

Hope you enjoyed my little year end wrap up. Personally I like to find out what things really get worn after the initial, "I made this!!" feeling wears off. It's also a good reminder for me that trying patterns that that I initially wrote off sometimes yields great results.

In closing I still feel very blessed to have met so many like minded people through sewing and blogging. If if wasn't for this blog and social media I wouldn't have anyone to discuss patterns, fabric hoarding, fitting and the like. Thank you for reading and commenting through out the year. I hope that all of you a happy and productive 2015. 

Operation Xmas Dress Part 2 - Grading

When last we "talked" I'd stumbled across the perfect vintage pattern for my Xmas dress only to find it was several sizes too small. It's times like these that I wish that my genetic stock was a little more "willowy" than "sturdy."  But what are you gonna do, not eat cake? Perish the thought!

Anyway the obvious solution was to grade the pattern, but I balked at this at first.  To be honest grading is one of those things that I don't really understand  Once you get beyond, "increasing the size of the pattern by increments" my brain just zones out thinking about when it can eat cookies. Cookies are much more interesting than mathematical problems.  This is why I have to bribe my brain with cookies to do mathematical problems.  

In the end I decided to buy the pattern and give grading a shot for two reasons.  The first was that I'd done a 4" grade on the Brasilia dress and that turned out fine.  Secondly McCall's 9572 is a fairly simple garment and there weren't more than 4 pieces to worry about. Surely even a grading nob can manage 4 pieces. At least that's what I told myself while pressing purchase.

So hopes were running high when my pattern arrived and I gleefully traced out the bodice pieces. It was then that it struck me, A - the bodice is on the bias and B - now which way do I grade this? There was also the added question of what to do with the kimono sleeve.  How much grading did it need and were would one put that grading? I decided to just grade the bust and waist area and hope that kimono sleeve was wide enough without changes.

After staring at the pattern piece a bit, I decided to put the grading parallel to the CF. Spoiler - This Was Incorrect.  But hey I do stupid things so you can learn from my mistakes. Yeah that's it. 

Here's my pattern piece with the grading lines running through the neckline. You'll see why this was a bad idea in a minute.  But first let's talk about a 4" grade for those that may know nothing about this.  

OK, so my pattern needs 4" of width added to it. I want to take the total amount of extra ease needed and divide it by 4, because each pattern piece is a quarter of the total width of the garment. Luckily for me this is elementary math and even my brain can spit out "add one 1 inch to pattern" without strain.   To add the inch to the pattern, 3 lines are drawn on as cutting guide lines. The pattern is cut apart on these line and then taped back together with the extra ease added between them. The inch is broken down to 3/8" added to the outer line, 1/2" to the middle line and 3/8" to the other outer line. This process is repeated on the back and in the end you have 4 extra inches added to the pattern.  And that my friends is minimum explanation of a 4" grade.

Now I have blurry muslin pics. Hooray? Here's muslin #1 with a petticoat underneath.

OK, so the reason you don't want to add an inch to your neckline is that you get a gappy neckline. No shit, Sherlock.  But as you can see this didn't occur to me until after I'd gone and done it.  Other fitting issues I noticed were that the skirt is too long for my 5' 6" height, the bust dart is in the wrong place and the cuff area of the kimono sleeve is too tight.  On the plus side the waist area fit perfectly and I could see the torso length was almost right.  

With all that information it was time to go back to the drawing board and regrade my bodice. This time I put the grading lines parallel with the grain line.  On the back I had to skew them off grain slightly to get 3 to fit into the waist area.

I also dropped the bust dart 1.5" and added just a bit more width down at the cuff of the kimono sleeve.

With those changes I decided to sew muslin #2 to make sure my grading change was successful. Here's the pictures of that version.

A non gappy neckline is a plus and my waist area is still fitting nicely.  Of course the dress still needs my personal fitting tweaks to look really good and we'll talk about those in part 3. Ooooohhhhh, more muslin photos just waiting in the wings. I bet you can hardly wait.

Operation Xmas Dress, Part 1 - The Pattern

Last December I wanted to make a Christmas dress.  There was no exact pattern in mind, just hazy thoughts of something with a V neck, sleeves and a full skirt.  Oh and it had to be green, soft forest green.  Crazy right? You'd think little miss "red is a neutral" would be all over a bright red dress. Seems my subconscious wanted something a little different.

The dress didn't happen last year because the whole house got some sort of horrible chest cold right at the beginning of December. Merry Christmas! Hope you didn't need that lung. I spent most of December in a zombie state of sickness until finally going to the doctor to beg antibiotics.  (Side Note - Middle aged male doctors who act like you're being dramatic about a "slight chest cold" can suck it.) Annnnyway, once the drugs kicked in there was only time to whip together a quick knit dress for the 25th. Any disappointment I might have felt was negated by finally being able to lay down horizontally without going into a 10 minute coughing spasm. Thank you modern medicine.

I thought the green Christmas dress was one of those passing sewing fancies that would dissipate after the hard deadline had passed. Don't know about you, but that sort of thing happens all the time around here. Must be some weird deadline induced creatively left over from college.  However the green Christmas dress did not go away. It danced around my brain on a regular basis, a riddle that had to be solved.  The basic bones of what I wanted in the garment were still the same, V neck, sleeves, full skirt.  But nailing down an actual pattern continued to be difficult. Several options and hacks were considered, but they all felt wrong. In fact I had that annoying sensation that I'd "know the pattern when I saw it." That's great intuition, but where the heck is a girl supposed to look after tossing the stash and surfing the web?   Then late November I was browsing vintage patterns on Etsy and I SAW IT!

BAM - McCall's 9572. V-neck? Check.  Sleeve? Check. Full Skirt? Check.  Add simple looking to sew, but still elegant. Check, check, CHECK! I was also lucky this pattern wasn't one of those wildly popular vintage designs and thus had the very affordable price tag 15 bucks. Heck I buy new patterns more expensive then that. So everything was coming up Heather except for one slight snag, the pattern wasn't my size.

Yes my sewing friends, this particular pattern was a size 14.  My vintage size hovers in the 18-20 range, depending on the manufacturer. The body measurements for the dress are  Bust - 32, Waist 26.5, Hip - 35, a full 4 inches smaller than any of my measurements. A quick search of the pattern number showed that this was the largest size available for purchase. If I was going to make this dress than I was gonna have to grade it up. So I bought the pattern and graded it up, but that is a story for another day.

Ginger Jeans Part 2 - Leopard Party

Today I'm straining the edges of tasteful dressing in the form of leopard jeans. Yes that's right, leopard jeans.  Meooowwww. Jungle January has come early.

Last year Marcy Tilton posted this denim and I resisted it for a long time. A loooong time considering that my browser finds it's way to the website pretty much every day.  Then one week Marcy put this fabric on the "deal of the week" page and only a saint/lover of nothing but solids could resist leopard print denim on sale. I am neither one of those things and leopard denim came to live in my stash. I hear Pretty Grievances yelling "Amen!"

These were sewn right after finishing my first pair of Gingers and some further fitting changes were made.

1. Reduced the front rise by 3/8".  The rise was definitely too long on the previous pair. I'm a bit unsure if it's the correct length now, as this area is always hard for me to judge.

2. Added more width to the front waist area by cutting into the fly area and spreading 1/2". This gives more room for "post mommy gut" and the like.  I went a little too far with this adjustment and need to scale it back to half of that amount of ease.

3. Cut down the front of the jeans 3/8" at the zipper and graded out to zero at the side seams for my tilted waist.  This is a pretty regular alteration for me, but I talked myself out of it on the first pair.  Probably cause I don't notice pants cutting into my waist until actually sitting in them for any amount of time.

4. Extending front of waistband to match the full tummy adjustment.  I put 1/2" extra on the end of the waistband.

5. Moved pocket placement 1" lower than previous pair.....scouts honor. My pockets are hiding like leopards in the the veld.

I didn't think of any new changes to make to the back view until this pair was almost done. So you'll just have to avert your gaze at my drag lines again. Or we can all agree on the lie that the leopard print totally obscures them. Let's Sgt Schultz this affair up, "I saw nothinz, Nothinz!"

Side note - How weird is the premise of Hogan's Hero's now that you're an adult? "Let's make a show about American POWS in a concentration camp and make it a zany comedy.  Haa Haa Haa Nazis!" Ten year old Heather thought it was great. Fooled you again Colonel Klink, when will you ever learn.

Back to jeans....on this pair I broke out the rivets and then spent about 2 hours hammering on my cast iron frying pan and while cursing rivets and people who make rivets. AHHHHH, my inability to hammer a nail/anything nail like in straight strikes again. My kingdom for more upper body strength or maybe a berserker rage state. That would show those rivets who's boss.

So if you're like me and this is your first time battling rivets I'd recommend buying some extra packs. That way when you stupidly try to hammer them in from the front and the rivet bends sideways you can throw it away.  Then google installing rivets and find out you're supposed to hammer then in from the back. Oops. (Mine still bent side wise 75% of the time. I curse you rivet!)

So that's the skinny on this pair of Ginger jeans. Here are some of the fitting plans I have in mind for the next pair.
1. Take out some of that hip ease that I added to the original pattern. I tend to forget that denim relaxes as you wear it and end up with baggier pants than expected.

2. Try that trick up making the back inseam 1/2" shorter than the front. I never remember this one when making pants until it's too late.

3. Reduce my full tummy adjustment by half.

4. I may need to dart the yoke out just a bit. Again it's loosing up back in the area during wear.

5. Barter an unholy deal with the devil were in all my rear fittings issues magically disappear but I have to contend with a Rosemary's Baby situation.  LOL, Nope.  Never gestating again until it can be done in a remote location. Oh dear I've horrified Past Heather. Tell her to stop trying to hide against that wall to escape devil babies. We'll just eat some more cookies to fill out those wrinkles. Problem solved.

Voom, Voom, Violet

Hey folks, I'm standing out on this patio in my sheath dress wondering when the cocktails will arrive. What? This is a state park and open bottles are frowned upon.  Well I never! I'll have you know that Smoky the Bear invited me personally and he mixes a mean chocolate martini. Only you can prevent forest fires and sobriety.

While I'm waiting for Smoky to bail me out of the drunk tank, let's talk about the dress. I'm wearing the newest pattern from Bluegingerdoll, the Violet dress.  This was actually the first ponte dress that was sewn during the Fall. The one that got me thinking about adding a few ponte pieces to my cold weather wardrobe.

Like the Bonnie pattern, you get a few mix and match elements with Violet. Choice of short straight skirt, long straight skirt, or flared circle skirt and 3 sleeve lengths.  You can see them all over on the Bluegingerdoll blog if you've got the itch. I've sewn a straight View A, long straight skirt with 3/4 length sleeves out of some rayon ponte. Queue the technical sketch!

Boom! You know I have a torrid love affair with technical sketches. That way you can see the yoke detail without squinting.  The separate yoke gives you a color blocking option or added visual interest in a solid colored fabric.  A little extra pizazz if you will.

Fitting changes I made to the pattern were...
- Standard Forward shoulder adjustment of 1/2".
- Sway back adjustment of about a 1/2". I could go back and take a bit more out there.
On a second version I'd probably narrow the back waist a bit or put some darts in since some fabric is pooling over my sway back.

Quick side bar discussion about ponte - After making a few things out of ponte fabrics of various fiber contents, I'm going to stick to rayon based ponte.  For one they feel really nice next to the skin. I can't say that about the polyester ponte used in the Nettie hack here.  Rayon ponte also is more forgiving on the lower half of my body.  The skirt widths are exactly the same size between Violet and the Nettie hacks, but I consider the Nettie to be too tight.  I'm happy with the fit on the Violet skirt in a rayon ponte. It shows some curves, but not more than I'm comfortable with. Side bar discussion closed. 

Getting back to the pattern, I would recommend ponte or another stable knit for the straight skirt versions.  For the flared skirt version, there's no reason you can't pull out some regular jersey and make yourself a swishy skirt. The only other notion you need for this is some clear elastic to sew over the bust gather. All in all it's a 2 hour sewing project once the fitting is worked out.

Violet is now available over in the shop as a PDF, with the paper version to arrive soon. If you're interested the code "Violet" will give you 10% off until 11/26. Until then I'll be staring at the horizon for Smoky the Bear.

P.S. Somehow Abby and I shared a hive mind and made this view in almost the exactly same color blue. Quite a feat considering this ponte has been in my stash 2+ years.

Last Bit of Fall Sewing

There are 2 more sewing weeks left before the Fall Essentials Sew-a-long is over, but boy is my schedule packed. This week is going to be all tutorial writing, pattern testing, blogging already finished makes and maybe a little Christmas sewing. The following week is going to be spent baking and then visiting relatives far away from the mini sweat shop. How's a girl supposed to plaid match a shirt dress with all that going on?   Gotta get myself a gaggle of sewing elves to continue garment production in my absence.

Before we get into reviewing my FES report card, I do have one more item to show you. One gray pleated "school girlish" skirt.

This pattern is from Burda Sewing magazine - issue 11/2009, pattern number 116. I liked the cluster of side pleats and thought it might be less bulky looking than an all over pleated skirt.  Burda 116 is a "front is the same as the back" affair with an invisible zipper on the side seam. No lining, no pockets, no darts, pretty much a beginner type of skirt.

If this fabric looks familiar it's because it's the "gray denimy stuff that must have wool" fabric that was originally earmarked for a shirt dress.  I had second thoughts about wearing this next to my skin and decided it would work better in a lined skirt.

Since this design was free through out the hips, I skipped the usual muslin stage and fit it on the fly. Started with the size 44, basted down all the pleats, basted one side seam and then tried it on.  The skirt needed around 1/2" removed for each side seam. Then it was easy to cut down the waist seam allowance a bit and apply the same change to the waistband.  Excellent! Froggie was pretty sure not making that muslin was going to haunt me.

I also made a few personal design choices on this skirt.
1. Burda tells you to draft a rectangular waistband for this. No thank you, I'll pull out my trusty self drafted curved waistband instead.
2. As drafted the finished length of the skirt is 31.5", which would be around mid calf on me.  I was pretty sure this would be really dowdy looking and reduced the skirt length to 24".
3. Added a lining to the skirt by cutting the Front/Back piece in lining and shortening the length by 1.5".

If I could tell past Heather to make one change, than it would be to remove the pleats from the lining to reduce weight. Both the self and lining fabric are light weight, but it adds up to one heavy skirt. Yikes! Every time I take it off the skirt hanger I'm slightly concerned for the health of the invisible zipper. Hang in there buddy. You've got your friend hook and eye to help you out.

Overall this skirt is comfortable and kind of fun to wear when you swirl it about.  However does add more bulk to the waistline area than I'd prefer. I'm not unhappy about making the pattern, but it's not going to be one that gets a remake.

OK. Now that I've squeaked the last garment in there, let's see how well this easily distracted sewcialist stuck to the Fall sewing list.
Fashionable Foundations
1.  Black denim pencil skirt - Completed. Already a little faded due to a poor washing decision. Probably should re-dye it black.

2. Wool circle or pleated skirt - Completed. As if you didn't know. ;)

Chic Chemises
1.  Ysolda's Chickadee out of stashed yarn - Completed.  It's been worn weekly so excellent wardrobe planning there.

2. One or two long sleeve Netties - Completed.  I sewed a solid green, solid black and a leopard print Nettie. You'll just have to take my word about the unblogged ones.

3. Vogue 8747 - Completed. Though I should take in the side seams a bit because it's yet to be worn.

Fabulous Frocks
1. McCall's 6696 - Not Sewn.  When I decided that the gray denimy wool was too itchy for a dress this got put on the back burner.  I've since bought some plaid shirting that would be an excellent shirt dress......if there is enough. I got the bolt in so instead of a full 3 yards there is only 2.5 which might not work with plaid matching.

Tender toesies
1. Hand knit socks - Completed. Finished the "on the needles" sock project in plenty of time. Hooray!

Those Cozy Nights
1. Laura Lounge pants - Not Sewn. Never bought fabric to make another pair of Laura Lounge pants. With my fabric buying track record that's not the worst thing.

Baby it's cold outside
1. Ottobre coat - Not Sewn. Couldn't get around to starting this before it go really cold, which was this weekend. Right now the plan is to make this a first of the year sort of project.

2. Hand knit berets - Had to frog.  I did knit a red beret using Ysoda's rose red pattern. I'm not into swatching for hats and sometimes that does bite me in the ass. In this case the finished beret is much to too and needs to be be reknit on smaller needles. No black beret was started so I only get half points for effort.

There was also the Fall Essentials addendum list which included:
1. Snow leopard top
2. Cobalt skirt or pants
3. Magenta top or skirt
4. Anything hot pink
5. Black and white striped raglan
I sewed everything on this list with the exception of the cobalt skirt/pants. Can't bring myself into cutting into the 2 yards of cobalt sateen in the stash. Maybe in the new year.

Out of 15 planned projects, 10 were completed. This might be a personal record for this girl who thinks sewing lists are just bossy pieces of paper. :). For that I'm forever grateful to Sarah who did the hosting work for this sew-a-long this year. Thank for giving me the "push" to finally make some of those basic pieces I really needed.