SPAM!

What is it with all these spammers?  I have been spending good time deleting obnoxious, and outright lewd comments from anonymous posters lately and I've had enough. If you are a legitimate reader and post anonymously, I am sorry but to post from now on you'll have to register.  
What's the point of all this spamming?  They always end with visit my blog or website and really, who would  really visit after reading absolutely irrelevant and off topic, obnoxious comments?

Do You Pipe?

Burda style 135

Piping has been on my learn to sew list for quite awhile now and I am finally going to use some in a blouse.  Pattern Review is hosting a fitted blouse contest and since that's also been on my list of things to sew, I am making a white blouse with black piping.  I don't like collar stands with my short neck but I found this blouse BS135 from 5/12 with a convertible collar.  Perfect. Well except that I wanted long sleeves that don't button, and it needed to fit my bust so in the process it became more fitted with vertical darts added to the existing side bust dart.  I thought about making them into two vertical darts but I didn't want it that formfitting below my bust. I did balance the darts since the side dart became very large. I rotated a portion of it into the vertical dart. Much better.  I added a cb seam so that I could make my usual flat back alteration, and a pair of back darts.  I thought I needed them to meet the fitted blouse definition but since a pattern that only had bust darts met the criteria I may leave them off.  Or not.   The blouse will be in a white cotton poplin; expensive, gorgeous, silky white cotton shirting that I bought at B & J when I met Claire Kennedy in NYC a couple of years ago. I would never have spent that much on cotton shirting on my own, but Claire was buying some and I couldn't resist. The piping, which I made today, is black silk and linen from a very good sale at Michael's Fabrics.  I have lots of it, it's gorgeous and I have never made anything from it.  I was really thinking about a pair of pants and a matching top, but I'll get to it. 

The pattern is ready to cut out first thing tomorrow and my cutting table is actually clean and ready to go. I made a full pattern to accommodate the difference in my shoulder so my 5' wide cutting table will come in handy.  When I took the pattern drafting class with Kenneth King  I learned that my right shoulder is quite a bit forward of the left. Not only does the shoulder seam need to come forward at the shoulder tip, but the sleeve cap has to have quite a bit more in the front of the sleeve as well as flattening the curve out in back.  The muslin was good without the binding I always get at the front sleeve cap.  I also had to move the match point on the right sleeve quite a bit to the front, while the left sleeve was fine.  KK had us sew the under sleeve for about 3" on either side of the underarm seam so that he could adjust the sleeve forward or back until it hung correctly.  I did the same thing here and it worked. Of course it is a bit harder doing it on yourself!

I am really hoping that this blouse will become a tnt pattern since I have quite a bit of shirting material in my stash.  After all a blouse has been on my to sew list for a number of years now and a girl needs more than one blouse, doesn't she?

What's Wrong with This Jacket?

This jacket is by Vanessa Bruno and  retails for $770.  Did no one look at this and say, hey the sleeve is inserted incorrectly?  If it fits the model this badly who does it fit?  Maybe the sleeve is even in backwards?  I imagine it could happen in the factory, just like it's happened to all of us a time or two.  But, we don't  leave it like that. 
This jacket was featured in an email I received from Mode Walk today.  Did  they not notice how bad this is?  
I don't shop retail unless I am snoop shopping or, looking at websites.  I was in Neiman Marcus in Austin in January and I thought that the clothing I was looking at was beautifully made.  Of course I was on the designer floor and all of it was expensive.  This is probably well made too, but quality control was certainly sleeping when this one went by.

I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging soon; I needed a break but sewing has been going on.
Have a good weekend