I’ve been following my heart this week. By which I mean I’ve changed my mind a LOT and flip-flopped between 4(!) different sewing projects. Remember last week I was saying I only work on one project at once? Ha.
My goal at the start of the week was to finish with the fitting the bodice of my Etta dress, and then I could switch onto another project. I’ve been working on this fitting project for weeks and frankly I’m bored out of my mind with it – and frustrated too. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for ages, as I was hoping to turn it into a bodice block for drafting my own tops and dresses. But it’s very challenging for me.
I’ve got scoliosis, which means if you look at my back from behind it looks like a reverse “S” shape, rather than a typical spine which looks like an “I”. Fortunately it causes me no physical discomfort at all, despite what I used to tell my PE teachers to get out of netball lessons. It does have a cosmetic impact though, which generally doesn’t bother me. I never wanted to be a ballerina anyway. But if I want a well-fitting bodice, I have to be a bit clever about it, because if it fits nicely on the right it doesn’t fit nicely on the left.
Turns out I’m not clever enough yet to figure this out. Perhaps a V back bodice with a neckline dart was a bad place to start. After about 6,000,000 toiles with a mirrored back bodice, I finally had one attempt at modifying the left independently of the right and immediately lost all motivation when I realised that taking a wedge out of one side was going to have implications on the angle of the neckline and the overall pattern placement of the Ankara fabric I wanted to make this dress out of. Utter disillusionment. After 4 weeks of faffing with this pattern, I’ve said sod it. I’ll try again when I have more fitting and drafting skills.
So, in comes project number 2 for a bit of ~excitement~. It’s this combo again:
Because I don’t learn, I made a toile again. This time it went really well, actually. Too well. Look how nice these old bedsheets actually are.
There are a few modifications I needed to make after the first toile, but I liked the fabric so much I actually decided to make the second toile a wearable toile. That is, make it up like a real top. Which essentially makes it project number 3.
Because the fabric is a little bit formal-shirt looking, I’ve decided to spice it up with a little contrast top stitching. I’m thinking a bit of pink and teal (classic) and maybe use some of the weird stitch patterns on my machine to create a design element out of it.
But I mentioned 4 sewing projects, didn’t I? I was falling asleep on Wednesday night when I remembered my work Christmas party is next week. Yes I know it’s March, but it was also Omicron in December, so we’re doing it now. Am I actually mental, deciding at the last minute to make myself a dress? Probably yes. Especially when it’s a dress of a style I’ve never even tried on before, so I don’t know if I’ll like it on me. But apparently I am hyper-motivated to sew this week, so I crack on.
Knitting Update
The knitting project seems to be taking forever. I’m not sure if these weekly photos are helping or hindering. They’re encouraging me to push at it so I can see progress, but then I take the photo and I can hardly see any progress. It is feeling super squishy though!
Cat Update
And to close off, as ever, some cat photos from the week:
Thanks for reading, see you next week!