I told JB these pictures were important and he need to make me look like a super model. Not sure he did his job - but here you go, non-the-less.
These two pieces are the
Betsy pencil skirt and
Ava jacket both by
Blue Ginger Doll patterns.
I will be honest and tell you that I basically begged Abby to let me test. And she agreed as she was just expanding her pattern line into bigger sizing. Blue Ginger Doll patterns now go to size 24.
I will also tell you that any issues I had with the pattern were of my own causing and I stupidly didn't sign up for the blog tour.
I made view A of the pencil skirt and started with a size 24. My waist measurement is a size 20 and my hips come in right at the 24. My first mistake is that I muslined this puppy in true muslin. This skirt is designed with negative ease and
needs a fabric with some stretch. The 24 muslin fit - but had wrinkles across the thighs and pulls from the hips.
So I added some more to the skirt and made muslin #2. At this point - I had a complete meltdown - over everything. My size and shape, my complete inability to alter a pattern. I was ready to list my machines on craigslist and put the fabric on the curb for the first taker. I emailed Abby - who patiently put up with me and said basically, hang in there, this will work. On May 17th, I had a sewing day with a friend where we worked on her Mother of the Groom dress and she made some slight tweaks to my 2nd muslin - she's Abby and sewing friend were right - it wasn't too bad.
So - I dug around in the fabric cupboards looking for something with stretch. This brown is a stretch suiting of questionable fibers. I took some of the extra width out of the final version (ending up with about a size 24.5 [1/2 of the way to a 26]). I will say - the waist is still too big.
I then grabbed this lovely wool blend plaid from the fabric cupboard to make Ava. I have never made a true lined jacket before. I will again. Based on the finished garment measurements I made a straight size 14 with no alterations. I cut the cuffs and the lapel facing on the bias and added an extra layer of interfacing.
I think this jacket is cute and wearable. It was easy to wear and the construction was easy to. I did not apply the lapels following Abby's instructions - and I'm not sure why I went my own way. I have a piece of black and white houndstooth and some faux black piping to make another and will do it properly next time. I think I'll also cut the back to a longer length - but not much longer - I think it's pretty close to working quite well for me at the length it is.
All in all - I'm very happy with these two makes. I really want to thank Abby for letting me test and putting up with my pity party. I'm still not over it - but I'm doing better.
Even though I didn't play along - please check out the others on the blog tour, they can be found here:
29th May – Tanya at MrsHughes - ( Betsy)
1st June – Liz at Sewn by Elizabeth - ( Betsy & Ava as well as a little interview with me.)
2nd June – T at uandmii ( Betsy)
3rd June – Mary at YoungBroke&Fabulous
4th June – Mary at Idle Fancy
5th June – Andrea at foursquarewalls
6th June– Tanya at MrsHughes - (Ava) 7th June - Melissa at Scavenger hunt 8th June - T at uandmii ( Ava)