Forging ahead

I've been slacking in both the sewing and knitting departments, as mentioned yesterday, but I'm slacking no more! Again, I decided to bite the bullet, and forge ahead with my sewing project, namely the "Tunic or not Tunic" pattern from the S.E.W. book. My biggest fear from that one was making the adaptions to make it my size. I decided the only thing that really needed to be altered was the width of the main body, since I am rather "fluffy". But, you can't learn or do by just sitting, and this is a lot less scary than a lot of things in life, so I figured that I might as well go ahead and try.

The material I have is actually remnant stuff. I was able to find two rolls of the same material (or at least upon my inspection, it looked like the same material to me) in different cuts. Since they were remnants, they were half price, so easy on the pocketbook. I ironed out the first piece, and started on the back piece. I measured like the book said and made adjustments. I think I made the proper adjustments, at least. I guess we'll see. So, I pressed the first one, and since I didn't want to cut out the pattern from the tracing paper, I had invested in some dressmaker's paper and a tracing wheel, so that way I could make the marks on the fabric and not shred the pattern to bits, since my size didn't exactly work with what's there anyway. And besides, what if I want to make this for someone else down the road, and I've already cut it up? Then it's no good. So there I was, making marks on the fabric, and once the pattern and dressmaker's paper was lifted, there it was-- a tracing to be cut. So I pinned, and cut. Once it's cut, it's cut. I took a break to do other things, but to cut to the chase, the only parts of the pattern that are left to do are cutting out the front (the lighting after dark in my dining room--which has the largest table-- is too dark), and then doing the collar and arm parts on the interfacing. But otherwise, most of the tracing and cutting is done! I'm rather proud of myself.

Of course, the next part is actually attaching all these pieces together. I understand the logistics of how all the parts go together, but actually executing it will be the challenge. In the end, I'm hoping to get something that's almost blouse-like, since it's made from oxford shirt-like material.

I don't think I'll get much done tomorrow, since tomorrow is the busy afternoon of the week, but perhaps I'll get a little done before Drew gets home from school, at least getting that front of the tunic done, if not the interfacing part. I probably won't get much done on Wednesday as well, since I'll be returning to TKD classes that night, but we'll see. I would like to get it done soon.