Sew Distracted

muslin progress

 Well, I did manage to get the skirt muslin sewn together and the initial alterations done.  The pattern was no where near my current size (although it was the smallest iteration I still had of this pattern.  It must have been from the end of 2005, not the beginning as the skirts that only needed an inch or two taken out of them are from early 2005.

I ended up taking 2 inches out at each side seam, or 8 inches total from the girth of the skirt, all the way down from waist to hem.  That certainly makes me feel better about my efforts now, although somewhat appalled about my history as well.

Here's a quick photo of me in the substantially narrowed skirt.  The hem will be a little shorter than is marked here (olive line), just at the bottom of the knee, which will be a much more flattering length.

I haven't finished fitting the skirt at the waist yet.  It looks like the skirt pattern extends up about 2 to 3 inches above my natural waist.  I probably just chopped it off as I made each skirt, although several of my older skirts are too high at the waist.  

I am putting it aside for now because I had a gluten encounter over the weekend.   I am still a bit bloated from the GI symptoms and also from taking prednisone which I need to control the rampant hives which are also brought on by the smallest bit of gluten.  

 This is my favorite belt this spring.  I usually wear it on the third (middle) buckle with my jeans, at about 1" below my waist.  I last wore this belt on Friday and can't buckle it at all now, the closest I can get is to about an inch from the largest hole, which is what, 3 inches over normal? I am wearing an old belt that I hadn't given away yet, a belt that I stopped wearing because it was too large.  This amount of bloating will make a difference in the final fit of the skirt.  It behooves me to wait.

Since I have the basic dimensions of the skirt, I could probably start cutting the lining at least.  But things should be back to normal by the weekend.  Once I pass the belt test, it is full steam ahead.

It was the Shoes

Remember this skirt??

I made it in 2006 and it has been one of my favorite summer skirts ever since.  I made the sweater too so together they make one of my favorite outfits.  No comments on sweater fit allowed, this sweater has seen many years of expansion and reduction and it is till in my closet.  That is enough.

But it is the skirt I am writing about today.

Since I made that skirt I have lost some weight, mostly through the rib cage and waist with the result that the skirt is currently about 3 1/2 inches too big in the waist and it falls down on my hips.

This means that the length also falls to about mid calf, not the most flattering place.  It has been like this for about a month, but lazy me, I figured with heels I could get away with it, and I just didn't want to be bothered.

But if the skirt falls low on the hip, the sweater shown in this photo becomes too short.  As I approach my 50th birthday it seems that having a bit of tummy peeking out between my skirt and my top is not a desirable look. 

And the extra length on my legs makes my already short legs look shorter and the long torso look even longer.  Not a particularly flattering look.  What is the point of being tall if you still look like you have short dumpy legs?

This particular image was brought home to me on Monday, when I decided to wear this skirt with a new pair of shoes I had just picked up on sale for a really, really good price.

I love, love, love these wine patent flats. Yes, I said flats.  Loaboutin flats.  They look really cute with the above skirt, if I hike the skirt up to just below my bra so that it actually hangs at the right length.

I wore the skirt anyway on Monday, and when I got home, I resolved to fix it.  After a skirt that is a flattering length will good look with flats and heels.  So I took the waistband off, resolving to alter the skirt.  I don't want to take it in at the side seams because I don't want to redo the zipper.  There are twelve pleats in this skirt so it will be easy just to make each pleat just a tad deeper, thereby shrinking the skirt through the waist and high hip, but maintaining that nice billowy fullness through the body, which looks good still. 

It took me over an hour to get the waistband taken apart without ripping the lining though.   It has been sitting at my sewing table ever since.  Tuesday there was no time.  Wednesday I hoped to get to it but I needed to work on something that was easily interrupted and not in my sewing room, so knitting won the project war.

Today, it is not likely.  I will be out from around 1PM until after 10, and I am already stealing time from my to-do list to post this.

Perhaps this weekend.  Although I also have to take down the current computer and set up a new one, transfer all the data, and convert a few things to run on new programs.  It ***should not*** take all that long.  But you never know.

And by the way, it strikes me as really, really funny, that right after I write a comment on Gigi's Blog stating that I don't like wearing peep-toe shoes because I won't wear hose with them and I don't like the feeling of all that leather around my feet without hose (sandals and canvas shoes are no problem), I go out and buy a pair of peep-toe patent leather shoes and wear them all day for a couple of days without hose and love them.  I guess even I can be knocked out of my fuddy-duddy ideas.

Go figure.  Never say never.

Corrections

I went back and made some corrections to my post on broad shoulder alterations.  I had not been careful enough and it had been plaguing me, not that the techniques were wrong, but that I was not meticulous in my measurements.  The three new patterns, using three diffferent techniques, should have yielded the same results. 

This error has been corrected and you can go directly to that post here.