Drafting the Raglan

So over the weekend I messed around with the Olivia pattern I'd mentioned earlier. My first try I semi-followed my patternmaking book's directions...so many of these things aren't made clear and you're left to your own devices for finishing. Which would be ok I suppose if one had any background in this sort of thing! I did it after E went to bed- my first mistake :P Should have at least measured her neck and I would have figured out that drafting only 3/4" in on the neck would be too narrow. It was good practice though- here's my first attempt (at least I'm not wasting fabric...all the fabrics are from tees that were stained or never worn...and I plan on making a bleached floral design on the turq/blue on (a quick project if I had an inverse of all my stencils lying around...which I do not. Someday E will be able to help me with the putzy finishings, and a Twins emblem on the other for a cute baseball tee). Ok, pic!:

See how narrow that is? The sleeve? I put my finger there to show about where I want the line to come on the next draft (I took some measurements along the neck and about 3" down from there to figure out how much I'd need to take the bodice seam in). Instead of redrafting from the original pattern I ended up slicing the needed amounts off the 1st draft and making the 2nd from that. It worked out fairly well...after tracing the shapes onto a new piece I trued the lines with my french curve.

Back view...not as bad, but still needed to widen the sleeve/draft the bodice in more.

Second tee:

Both together for reference (side note: my bindings are getting better each garment I make!):

Although I'm much happier with the 2nd draft, the rippling on the seam is bothering me. I'm not entirely sure if it's the fabrics (both tees have heavier fabrics for the body of the shirt and lighter weight sleeves) or the pattern...but I'm going to try and pinch out a little- that seemed to resolve the extra fabric problem there. Not entirely sure yet how I'll accomplish this...I might curve the seam a little bit less on the bodice...and make a dart to pinch out the fabric...but retrace so there won't actually be a dart in the finished shirt. Redraft the sleeve to match and then churn out one last (hopefully!!) shirt to test. I'd hate to think it's ok and do the nice project and end up with a dud! Oh well-it's all good practice for me. And really, I don't feel bad about this draft as I've searched the internet for raglans and MANY of the children's patterns have this same rippling...so I'm either as good as a pattern on my second try (not bad!) or hopefully the 3rd try will be better than a pattern I could buy. That would be nice :)

Here's my pattern after the 2nd draft:

After I perfect the pattern I'll be laying it aside in favor of a few quickie projects until my fall fabrics arrive from the coop...I'll be trying out some of the new french terry they have floating around...it's supposed to handle like a nice thick interlock- good for sweats, thicker tees, yoga pants, etc etc. It has a bit of lycra in it, which is important for the pants for recovery. I know many people out there like 100% cotton, but I find the tees and pants especially tend to distort without the bit of lycra for recovery. I got a bit of velour as well- I have a pair of velour yoga-type pants that have been well loved and show that :P So I'll make myself a pair or two...possibly a hoodie with it. Same with E...I'll probably salvadge my pants and make a pair for her out of them- love re-using! It's either that or the garbage...there's a lot of useable fabric left!

Ok...off to search the books for any info. on the alterations...hope to finish this tee tonight! I think I have one last grey tee I could use of mine that I never wear...then I'll be getting low on practice shirts lol! Although J bought me 4yds of this awful red ribknit from JA's for $1/yd so I can pillage that if need be :)

On the table

Thought I'd have a little fun in sharing my planning :)

I loved this little outfit for fall for Em and figured I would try my hand at pattern manipulation. I have the Olivia pattern by Farbenmix (found on this page) and will attempt an alteration for a raglan sleeve...I've read in my patternmaking book a little bit about it, but it seems as if they give you direction on how to draft for a 2pc sleeve...not a 1. I did find a 1pc, but it still has a shoulder seam... So we'll see how it goes :) I'll be cutting the bodice of the dress just below her waistline for a dropped waist. The Olivia pattern has the kangaroo pocket so I'll be using that as well. I'm not sure if I'll be doing a placket, a zip...or neither and just leave the neckline as is.

For the fabrics I have scrap denim to use up from jeans that have died, hems that have been taken up nearly a foot (ok fine...but maybe 4"-6"!). I'm not sure yet on the top part but I've plenty of fabrics to choose from!!! They're all in bags right now unfortunately as I'm hoping to get started on the shelf for my birthday in the 2nd room (which will eventually be home to all my fabrics-yay!). Off note: I drew up a rough plan/diagram of what I wanted for this shelf unit and my dad plotted it out on his computer program...being the engineer that he is :) My family gave me some $$ for my birthday to go towards the materials, so now it's a few final decisions...like how we'll be doing the doors and whatnot, and then we'll be able to get going! Buy the materials and go to work! I don't know if I'll be able to keep my fabric stored for that long though :/

I will also be whipping up another plain tee or two, like my black and white one. Those should take just an hour or two though as all the puttering around with the pattern is done with now. I have another rib knit, a leaf print for one, and I might do the asian floral, but just that for the other. I live in the rib tees for summer and love that I can get just the right fit for me :)

After that it's more fall sewing...I have yoga pants planned for Em and tees and a few dresses/skirts. Aaaaand she'll need a new holiday dress this year! Sorry, no 4th year for her last one...cannot believe she got 3 years out of that! Those projects are always fun :) I also am thinking ahead to the few upcoming birthdays and what not...nothing's decided (and I wouldn't put it here either!) but it's nice to keep in the back of my mind.

One last thing...can anyone guess what tomorrow is??

Any guesses?

It's J and my anniversary...guess how many years??

Give up?













6 YEARS!!!

Can you believe it?? Part of me isn't suprised...seems like we've been together forever, you know? Probably because we've now known each other for almost 1/2 of our lives really. But still-time flies! Emily is 5, we've been married for over 1/2 a decade...this year J will be 27 *gasp!* Crazy, crazy.

Alright, fun is over. Now to drafting :P

Ahh...finally finished!

Happy Birthday Cassie! I knew I'd be late with your present...but I didn't think summer would be half over before getting your tops done! Lucky another two were done as a bonus, so hopefully that makes up for it :)

I'd done a grey jersey ruched top back in Feb. (ack!) for the first top (my blog doesn't go back that far, but you can search craftster or sewingmamas for a post on it) and was creating a pattern for the lace shirt last I left off. The shirt is inspired by a Carlos Miele top from the Spring/Summer 2008 RTW line.

The first muslin finished was on the small order (I'd started out with a knit template for a woven top so I knew I'd run into some problems there...just wanted to know how far off it'd be before resizing). After making the alterations I made a 2nd muslin which turned out great. It was made for a woven lace with very little stretch...I drafted it so there would be buttons at the hem band for ease in getting it on and off.

Then for the fun part...hunting down fabric! We quickly ran into trouble there as it seems most of the lace you'll find in the reg. shops were created for tablecloths- ugh. I really don't want to waste all my time I've put into a garment for it to turn out looking like a doily. After some searching around online (oh yeah! I found some I liked too...only they were like, $50/yd!). Ebay came to the rescue with a pretty crocheted lace (5yds for just about $15...could you do better??) Enough for another project...or two :) At any rate, once the fabric was in my hands I realized that I'd have a bit more trouble with the pattern due to the fabric being quite stretchy.

So I put it away for awhile :)

Until I realized it would sew itself together. I have a running joke with my sister that she can have all the clothes she wants from me...but assembly is required ;)

So the dirty work began. I eliminated the buttons as the stretch of the fabric would allow her to get in and out of it with no trouble. Other than assembly not much was changed until I got to the bands. I attached the first arm band and tried it on...it weighed the entire sleeve down and was probably twice as big after being stretched to fit the sleeve...it wouldn't recover. Should have known! Trimmed that off and decided to go ahead with the hem band, using clear elastic in the seam allowance (btw-all seams are french, so the elastic is completely enclosed and hidden). That worked out rather well and I decided to do the same with the arms bands...after fitting it once more before this though we decided to hack of a whole 6.5" from the sleeves! They just looked rather sad and droopy in this fabric...not at all like the sleeves we'd imagined in a stiff lace (this is definitely not a stiff fabric). But it worked out rather well in this length and the elastic gives some support to the top and keeps it in place.

My biggest disappointment in finishing this is the neckline...again due to the stretch of this fabric. The last muslin fell right at the tips of her shoulder, but still 'just' on top of her shoulders...it was custom fit after all! Well this knit version as you will see fits right around her shoulders. The Carlos Miele top is worn off the shoulder as well, but I still would have liked this top to hit above so that if she wanted to wear it up she could without it falling down now and again. If I were to do it over for this sort of fabric I would redraft the collar piece in at least an inch on both sides and possibly up a half inch. But really, it works out well enough and I'm quite proud of my drafting skills I've gained in this project! Not bad for starting out :)

Oh and if you've looked up the orig. top and saw the beading...we decided on no trim for this collar as the crocheted lace really stands out on it's own. I think beading would look silly on this sort of fabric...which turned out good for me :D

Sorry to bore all of you not interested in the mundane details of construction but I like to give tips and hints to those who are as well as a record for myself :)

Next is quickie top I did from the first muslin of the lace shirt in a thin jersey knit...kinda funny how sometimes those quick projects turn out to be favorites! Really love the look of this top and the fabric feels so soft! I planned on this for myself...but I really hate pastels on me...dunno why I bothered! I have another fabric though for me which will work better and will make it soon, now that I'm done with these projects! The neck turned out HUGE (knew that!) but I decided to gather it up with elastic and it turned out really well. I left the sleeves unhemmed as it's a casual shirt and won't ravel anyway...and gathered the hem into a band to reign in the fullness at the hips. (Like my new photoshop skillz?)

Last is a top I made playing around with a tshirt pattern and slinky-knit (I made undies for myself out of the same fabric and love them! sorry- no pics :P). It's alright, but not totally what I'd envisioned...I may have another go at it someday but I would like to get on with some other projects first. I gave it to Cassie as I knew I'd never really wear it. She likes it and it goes with a cardigan well enough with the tie pulled in closer to the neck. I feel bad posting these pics of her as they're not that flattering...but this dumb slinky knit is CRAP to photograph! You may scroll back to the green top to remind yourself what she really looks like, lol :)

I still have a few more projects I haven't posted and will put those up soon. For now I'm off...going to try and figure out from my pattern book how to draft a raglan sleeve from a reg. shirt pattern...until then!

Some 4th of July Pics

Sorry I'm late! Had a lot of fun that weekend, especially with Lyzzy and Wilber (and Romi!!) up for the week! Romi is such a sweetheart-happy and smiley! Quite the change from a few months back! I just deleted my post somehow so I'll keep it short and sweet with the slideshow (providing the thing works) :)

Ok, nevermind...here's a link to the slideshow

I'll have to get some pictures of the last few projects I've done so I can post them here...until then!