Saturday, May 3, 2014

Jalie 2794 - no exciting title!

Yeah, I'm not good with titles.
Anyway, I have just finished Jalie 2794.
The fabric is a grey and black floral modal cotton knit, with 2% spandex, from Girl Charlee. It is the 9 oz weight, which I consider just about ideal.


I did a FBA, adding one inch to each side, which is about 1/2" less than I would usually add, but so many reviews of this claim no FBA is needed.


Well, I muslined that up in a cheap, very stretchy knit, and it seemed about right. I'm calling this a wearable muslin, even though because of the issue with the front gathering I might not wear it out of the house. (very stretchy = front gathering didn't work as intended) Sorry it's so wrinkled - I wore it for the day before I took this.

In my stiffer, yet adequately stretchy (according to the pattern) fashion fabric, I realized I probably should have gone with a larger FBA. It fits without much in the way of drag lines, but it is snug through there.

I made a size S, based on my high bust measurement and wanting a little more room for seam allowances. Jalie's 1/4" seam allowances scare me a little. Based on the muslin, I took a little bit out of the back neck by rotating the back pattern piece just slightly - which also gave me more room in the hip, which I certainly could use at that size.

I remain somewhat unhappy with steam a seam lite. I used it in the sleeve hems and the hem, and while I like how easy it makes hemming knits, I still don't like the feel of the result. It's just too stiff for my liking, and removes too much of the stretch.

In other news, I considered doing Me Made May, but don't think I really have enough every day sort of self-made clothing to make that very practical (read = not stressful). Instead, I'm trying to think through what I do wear on a regular basis, and am giving some more thought to how I ought to tweak my sewing habits to coincide with that. (Let's be honest - my knitting habits actually coincide quite nicely with the concept of everyday wear. Most of what I've made so far is not weather appropriate for May, however.)