I didn't get any sewing done because we had a SF Bay Area Pattern Review get-together. What a fun time. I don't know many garment sewers in my town, so it was really cool to meet with other garment sewers. We swapped fabric, patterns, and books. I unloaded 14 yards, but I think I went home with just as many.

KS 2788: Gads! Sewing when I'm tired is hazardous. Fortunately, I was very cautious while taking in the skirt. I had measured my hips, sitting 51", and was using that dimension to determine the total ease (standing) in the skirt. I basted the skirt making the maximum dimension 52". I tried on the skirt again. It's way too big in the high hip and waist. I'm having trouble pin fitting because I have all this excess fabric in the seams, like 6 inches at the waist. Since it's too big everywhere, I decide to serge off the excess seam allowance. Well, instead of running the skirt thru the serger with the needle in the basted seam line, I cut off the seam allowance at the basted seam line. PRIMAL SCREAM!!! Since everyone else in the house was asleep, it was a quiet primal scream. Fortunately, I had an extra inch in the seam allowance, and I know the skirt won't be too small standing up, but I really wanted to avoid horizontal wrinkles from sitting.

KS 2788 I finished the zipper, decided to use the grey zipper, the center front seam, the center back seam, and the back vent. I sewed the sides together. It was enormous. To determine the width, I measured my widest dimension sitting, 51", which means that the half measures should be 25.5 inches. The skirt is currently 29, so I took in each side 1.5 inches. I want to fit the waist before I decide to get rid of that last 0.5 inches in the sides. The waist is about 12 inches too big. I'm having trouble pinning in the hips. I'm terrified of making the skirt too small.

I purchased 6 yards total of cotton interlock, 1/2 oatmeal and 1/2 lipstick pink, from Fabrics & Notions Co-op and ordered 6 yards of silk jersey, 1/2 eggplant and 1/2 natural.

KS 2788I managed to use up 3 yards of fabric so far in cutting. Adding the 5.75 inches to the waistband made a big difference. The waist band was too wide to cut on the fold. I omitted the pockets on this skirt. It's easier to fit without pockets. I serge finished the center front edges and centerback edges before sewing the fronts and back together. I don't have a brown 9 inch zipper in my zipper stash. Which reminds me, only buy a zipper grab-bag if you have need of a lot of really short zippers in odd colors, like orange. I decided to work on the back vent, since I couldn't finish the front. The instructions told you to do the darts after sewing the 2 backs together. That doesn't make any sense to me. The smaller the piece of fabric, the easier it is to handle. I sewed my darts in before sewing the backs together.

I reviewed KS2565 at PatternReview

KS 2788: I drew the seam lines on the pattern pin and fit the skirt using safety pins. Safetypins work so much better than straight pins. It's really hard to fit a straight skirt by yourself. I tried to fit the back in the mirror. I tried to fit the back by finding the center of my back and buttocks with touch. I tried to shift the pattern pieces so that the centerback was in the centerback, then measure the offset in front. It was really hard. I had less trouble with my Thalia Pants. Of course, the pants are very full, so it was only the crotch that I was fitting. In the end, I decided to add 3 inches to the stitching line and use a 1 inch seam allowance, followed by basting and pinfitting the garment.

SD 294: Finished the crop top. DD thinks it is too short to wear without a shirt underneath.

KS 2788: Traced an XL view A.

I took DD with me to Joann's. I needed some more sewing machine needles. We ended up buying 2.25 yards of fabric. 1 yard in turquoise swimsuit fabric to make dance clothes for DD, and 1.25 yards of a grey tiedye burnout panne to make another KS2565 for me. So far this year, I've bought 15.875 yards and consumed 10.367 yards. I had been debating whether or not to prewash some silk tweeds that I have. I did, and I'm not sure I'll do it again. The prewash was kinda rough on the tweeds; one ran.

	SD 294: Pants seem to fit DD. She complained that there wasn't enough stretch in the crotch, but that is due to the fabric, not the pattern.
	KS 2565:The sleeves are too small. It's snug, and it's a bit short. See my review. I had to serge the neckband bottom before applying to the body of the shirt. The panne rolled too much when stretched, and I couldn't control it.

After giving it much thought, I decided to order 3 yards of the green silk tussah from Sawyer Brook. I was thinking of using it for a jeans style jacket, but I might make a straight skirt out of it.

Ordered Jalie Patterns 965, 966, 970, 971, 2318, 8909

	KS 2565: Put in second sleeve and serged second side of body. Misread the instructions, and I couldn't get the neckband in. I decided to try it on. The fit in the shoulders is perfect. The sleeves are a little tight on me. I reread the instructions for the neckline.
	SD 294: The pants fit DD snugly.

	KS 2565D: Put in 1 sleeve and serged one side.
	SD 294: Pants - serged legs & crotch. Tanktop - serged side & shoulder.

I decided to order some Kwik Sew patterns: Grey 2874, 3120, 3222, Green 3232, 2702

---

---

	NL 2565: sewed darts and serged one side of bodice. Coverstitched bottom of bodice and sleeves. What was I thinking? I had to undo some of my serging to put the sleeve in flat.
	SD294: Coverstitched the neckline and one armhole on the tanktop. Coverstitched the hems of the capri pants.

---

SD 294: Sunrise Designs Playtime 294 - traced cropped exercise pants and tanktop in 4T, cut, and serged 1 shoulder, using clear elastic as a stablizer. The instructions said to stretch the seams 40% as you sew or the seam will pop during wear. I didn't do this. I don't do it on a swimsuit, and I don't see why I should on these items. Perhaps, I'll have DD wear this around the house before having her wear it at dance class.

---

	New Look 6143: I decided I didn't like the 3/4" top stitching around the neckline, so I picked it out and edgestitched 1/8" around neckline. I also stitched in the ditch where the sleeves were sewn to keep the facing from flipping up. I'm not going to take the waist in. The top is okay, but I will try the Kwik Sew raglan sleeve top instead of making another one of these.
	Butterick 3391 After altering, I decided that the armhole was too small, and I wanted to try Kwik Sew 2565.
	Kwik Sew 2565: Traced, altered for full bust (added 3 inches!!! in front), and cut out of blue tie-dye burnout panne from Joanne's.

---

Tony threw up last night, so I stayed home with him this morning. New Look 6143: serged shoulders to body, cut and shrank interfacing, fused interfacing to facings, sewed facings to top, topstitched top 3/4" from neckline. Problem: had a small tuck in the backneckline, untucking. I may take top in at waist. SWAP: I evaluated my stash. Since I'd made the black raschel knit sweater and I wear a lot of black, it seemed logical to make black on of my primary SWAP colors. However, my stash is weak on black; I have the completed raschel knit sweater, a silk jersey, and what turned out to be grey silk (lightweight with a pebbly texture). However, I have a lot of indigo both solids and monochromatic prints, and I have lots of greyblue denim. So the primary colors will be indigo and grey, and the secondary color will be pink because I like pink.

---

Swim: 900m in 31 minutes. 100 free, 50m breast/butterfly, 50m back, 100m kick, 50m dolphin kick, 50m back kick, repeat, 50 free, 25 breast, 25 back kick Traced Butterick 3391 View E

---

Swimming: 1000m in 32 minutes. Mixed workout: 100m freestyle, 100m kick w/fins, 50m breast/butterfly, 50m back, repeat 2 more times, finish with 100m freestyle. NL6143:

1. used the coverstitch to hem the bottom and sleeves, flat.
2. serged front to back and sleeves into tubes
3. one sleeve is pinned to front/back and ready to be serged.

---

KS2946 too big in the waist. I removed 4 inches of elastic.

---

---

NL6898: hemmed fronts & bottom. decided against a permanent closure; will use a decorative pin. NL6143D: The pattern give instructions for ease at bust for unaltered top. After sewing in altered dart, I found there was no extra ease in the front piece.

---

NL 6898: sewed lace seam tape into and finished neckline. NL6143D: altered front, cut front & sleeve front

---

Day Off NL 6898: Sewed in sleeves - flat. Tested edge finishes on serger; nothing worked. Tried turning and stitching, but it wasn't neat enough. Lycra binding is the next option. Went to the local Joann's. Did they have black lycra seam binding? NO!!! I decided to try lace seam tape. It's almost invisible, and it has produced a much nicer finish than the lycra binding. While I was there I bought 2.875 yards of embroidered denim $9.33 5 yards of navy cotton lycra twill $9.89 12 yards of 3/4" no roll elastic $11.56 1/2 yard of black bear "fur" $1.71 3 Vogue patterns $14.80 3 packages of flexilace seam tape $4.51 3 yards of navy cotton thermal knit $ 9.74 NL6898: hemmed sleeves, sewed sides, sewed tape to bottom, front and neck. NL6143D: I'm a size L; traced front and back pattern pieces. KS2946: finished snaps.

---

Entered Sewing With a Plan contest. Chose colors 1- black, 2 - indigo.

---

Finished the darts, stabilized the neckline on fronts and backs, sewed backs together, and sewed shoulders. I used clear elastic to stabilize the shoulders. It shows a little; I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything about that or not.

---

Back to work, oh boy! Sewed test dart in raschel knit and serged off excess material. It looks good, so I sewed the darts in the fronts.

---

---

I decided not to use the collar or facings with my raschel sweater knit.

---

We went to the snow. Isabel had a blast. Tony didn't like it too much. I think next time Robert and Isabel go, Tony and I will stay home. I need to make some snow pants. It was cold (22F/-5C) with no wind. My jeans with a pair of leggings underneath worked okay, but I had to change before going home because I was wet. I finished cutting NL6898.

---

Hemmed KS2946, still need to do snaps. Started New Look 6898. It's out of print already. That's too bad. I think this is a really excellent pattern for light jackets out of sweaterknits. NL 6898 line drawing. I made this pattern before in a size 22 without a full bust alteration. It was too big in the shoulders. This time, I traced a size 18, based on my high bust measurement, and made a full bust alteration according to the directions in Fit For Real People. I didn't lower the dart before the first alteration attempt, and I ended up with a side seam bust dart pointing down. I lowered the original dart 2 inches, then read in FFRP to be careful not to lower the dart too much because it will drop in clothing. Oh, well, we'll see what happens. This time the dart came out slanting slightly upwards. I was able to cut the fronts.

---

Cut out KS 2946 from a blue tie-dye polyester (moleskin? microsuede?). The fabric is fuzzy on one side and smooth on the other. It's very easy to cut and sew. Precut and shrank touch 'o gold interfacing. I've always struggled with how to preshrink fusible interfacing yardage. This time, I rough cut the pattern pieces and preshrank those. It's much more manageable than trying to preshink 6 yards of interfacing. KS2946 has excellent instructions. I particularly like the fact that they tell you when to finish the edges. I finished the skirt except for the hem and snaps. The front waist is too high, as usual. Blinding Flash of the Obvious!!! It's much easier to alter the back waist by raising it 2 inches than try to lower the front waist.

---