Liberty book bargain

Wandering around the shops the other day and I find myself in The Works, and what do I find in there?  The Liberty Book of Home Sewing for £6.99. Superbargain!

I think my first project from the book will be something easy after all the cray adapting of patterns I have been doing of late.  The Eco Shopper seems like a good easy project and who doesn't need a gizillion bags?

My other amazing find was this Jersey, makes me think of the old Batman TV series don't you think?  Thud! Thwack!  Kapow! Shame it only says Wham! but awesome all the same.  I think this is destined for Renfrew once I get the adjustments right.

Renfrew adjusted

This adaptation lark is trickier than I first thought, I've scoured the tinterweb for adaptation techniques for an increasing growth at the front maternity wear and so far there really isn't much out there but I stumbled upon this post and decided to give it a go with the Renfrew pattern.

After tracing the pattern I read the instructions and decided to add 5 inches to the front pattern piece and 1 inch to the back

The next step is to figure out the point under your bust and also where your "waist".  Draw a 2 inch line from the waist marking and then a steep curve from the bust to the new waist point. Re-draw the side line.

Pattern adapted, i cut out some thin jersey as a test run - It's not bad, the gathers and extra width at the sides help

But I don't like how it hangs like a dead weight at the bottom of my belly.  I think I need to adapt further to curve back into the original hem line, which might make it a bit tighter around the hips and more to my liking.

Back to the drawing board on this one me thinks.

If at first you don't succeed

Throw a strop, cry, think, and start again.  I should have given up on this dress way before I actually did.

Lets go in stages as to what went wrong...

1. The shoulder seams and the neck band seams just did not match up, no matter how hard I tried.

Not even the extra special effort to cut and match the notches helped.  So I took apart the neck band and added them separately only to discover that one of the front pieces was then too short.  Oh well I thought I'll just lap that bit at the back, no big deal...

2. I burnt the back of the bodice

See I did say I should have given up way before I did, but this burn was on the inside and not that noticeable on the outside and since I had spent so much time on the damned neck band I decided to solider on regardless.  And yes the inside of the neck band does look amazingly shoddy but I'd already spent 2 evenings trying to sort it out at that point.

3. The issue with one of the front piece being too short took a lot of sussing out to try and fix, in hindsight an extra piece of fabric to make them both the right length would have worked but that's hindsight for you

4. The return of the Frump-Zilla!!

 

Oh. My. God! I know part of being pregnant is that you get fat round the middle and you can get away with those clothes where you think "Eeek I look pregnant in this" but Jesh Louise! I felt like the master of the Frump Clan from Frump Land. Hence why there isn't a picture of me wearing this atrocity.

Totally dejected I felt tearful (I blame the hormones) and angry to the point where I chucked the dress across the room on various occasions after trying to look for a saving grace. If I could have had a bottle of wine at this point I sure as damnit would have done, despite it being the middle of the day.

Eventually after staring at it for an eternity I figured out what was wrong.  The bodice just wasn't right however the skirt was, BUT those gathers needed to be distributed evenly across the front. That in mind I went to the hairdressers thinking of what I could do with it.  Luckily a light bulb struck! I could use the same bodice idea used in my maxi dress from new look 6699 and keep the skirt portion of the current dress.

Returning home from the hairdresser with a new lease of life (I think new hair does that to a gal) I cracked on with the dress, ripping out the skirt and dismantling the sleeves for a new bodice.  I did nearly hit another concrete post though because I wasn't sure I had enough shirring elastic to finish the back, but the sewing gods were in my favour and had left me with just the right amount, pretty lucky since the Wedding was the next day... But it all worked out in the end, even the weather was glorious!

Attempting to adapt

After a lot of staring at my patterns in to try and figure out what I could make to wear to a wedding I finally decided on New Look 6829

The same pattern used to make my Lily top (view D).  I've chosen this pattern because of the empire line waist and have started to adjust it to accommodate the Monklet. I'll be making view A this time in a gorgeous burgundy heavy crepe to go with my fabulous shoes.  But the wedding is on Saturday and all I've done so far is botchineer the pattern, but in my defense we have spent nearly 2 weeks sorting the house out to get it on the market and now that is done I can get back to this. 

So far for the pattern adaptation I have slashed between the notches for the bust gathers and spread to allow some gathers on the skirt for some more room around the belly

 

 Then I re-drew the hem line and filled in the gaps.

 

Now to attempt a trial run to see if my random adaptation actually works.  I did try to research this online but couldn't find anywhere to show me how to do this so botchineered it had to be.

I think it worked

One Maternity skirt made from Simplicity 2451 - Done

Although I'm not entirely sure it will see me through at least for the time being I can wear something other than bloody trousers.  The skirt is definitely not the best thing I've made but I am still rather chuffed with myself for kind of pulling it off.

I utterly failed to take any notes or make any sort of pattern piece for my adjustments as I kind of botchineered* it. 
(*Totally made up word meaning I did something random but it worked, sort of like engineered but with no knowledge of what the heck you are doing)

But here goes an effort to try and describe what I did...

1. Pinned the waistband pieces together at the seam allowance
2. Pinned to the jersey on the fold
3. Measured how much length I would need (I totally messed this measurement up as you can see below, oopsies)
4. Marked that measurement on the jersey and drew a straight line (A)
5. Attempted to join the pattern to the straight line (A), then decided it would never fit round my waist and angled the back seam line a little
6. Folded the jersey at the straight line (A) and cut.
7. Tried this around me and realised I had failed as it didn't even meet at the back
8. Attempted steps 1-7 again but angled the pattern piece at stage 2 so the center front was not on the fold

That seemed to work however as previously mentioned I botched the measurement for the length I would need and it is far too long... Ah well growing room I suppose

And for a bit of a sneaky dose of leopard print, I used a ribbon as hem tape, ooh this bit makes me smile :)

Boring!

I have become so fed up of wearing the same outfits day in-day out.  It is BORING!  So in a desperate attempt to try and get myself sorted out (and back to the sewing machine) I have been racking my brain for patterns and styles I can adapt to accommodate the current expansion.  I'd not been having much luck but then an epiphany came to me whilst I was sleeping.

I might be able to use this pattern

Source

 Which is the same pattern I used to make my Birds Skirt

I've decided that I can somehow magically make the waist panel out of jersey fabric and the rest of the skirt as normal (omitting the zip of course).  I think that the fact that the skirt already has a curved seam to go under the belly means it may work quite well, or it may just turn into a disaster, who knows at this point. Well I know I have to try something because I'm just wearing trousers trousers trousers...

Now I just need to get cracking and to also figure out what I'm going to be wearing for a wedding in less than four weeks time. One thing I have decided to wear for the wedding are these shoes, which B got for me for Christmas, aren't they lush!

College

What a complete and utter farce! Sorry this is more of a rant post than anything else...

I signed up for a college course to learn how to adapt patterns back in November, and despite paying £180 for the privilege I have been utterly let down with this.  It didn't start very well as when I went for an open day the tutor spent all her time with a gentleman who was not there to learn how to do what the course was there for but to learn how to teach sewing... I should have really taken that as a hint to run away screaming but I was determined to at least have a professional teach me something.

The next let down was the total lack of communication I received from the college, no confirmation to say I had been accepted onto the course even though they saw fit to take my money.  When the start date of the course grew close and I had still received nothing from them I e-mailed for some information, what did I get back - NOTHING! So I decided to call them to be sure the course was still running only for the person at the other end to be utterly unsure with anything and just told me to go to reception before it was due to start and they would tell me what room it was in. Not terribly happy with this I went anyway, after all they had my money I was getting something out of this, I got to reception only to be told that the course might not run as there is not enough people enrolled and was also being held at the other campus 4 miles away!! (Ok so this campus is closer to my house but that is not the point). I went home...

I went back the next week as the tutor called and apologised, not enough really but it was a start, only to find out that she had no course structure in place and was basically winging it by letting us make what we want and she would guide us along the way... Errr WTF! Why have a course description if you are not going to stick with it!  Anyway I went home with my homework, sew lines onto fabric, which I dutifully did despite feeling sick whilst bending to use the sewing machine

Only for the tutor to call me and tell me the course has been cancelled and I would get my money back.  I can't really say I'm not pleased about it because I have been utterly disappointed with the whole process, and the money I paid towards this will now go into Monklett's fund (When I finally get it back!!), minus a few pounds because I treated myself to the new Sewaholic pattern Renfrew and also a Pendrell I'm also thinking that as I'm pregnant I do need the skills that this stupid course was going to teach me so that I can adjust patterns for my growing belly, I may invest in a book about adapting patterns.  If anybody has any recommendations let me know :)