Spotty Dots

Finally some progress on my 1930's blouse set. I finished the muslin mockup (after making about a dozen silly mistakes including sewing darts and tucks on the wrong sides, sewing the neck fabric to the wrong sides, forgetting the collar after cutting it wrong, puckering on the shoulder, etc, etc.) and it looks good. The sleeves are currently three quarter length and I intend to make them in the short sleeve length. The shoulders are very puffy (which is the style, despite the blouse being a button down shirt), which are helped out by a cut of silky taffeta sewn into the armband (I think). Like most mockups I've done, I've yet to figure every detail out before starting the final project, so that will be one thing I'll do when I make the final blouse.

I also cut out all my pieces for the final blouse. I still need to cut out the skirt pieces and mark the blouse front, but after that I can start working. I'm making a blouse and a skirt in the blue and green dot cotton I posted a while ago, hopefully whipping out a skirt in the green cotton sateen too. While attempting to cut out skirt pieces out of the green, I discovered I'm a couple inches short from having the pattern fit on the fabric. Grr. And it is all due to the way it was cut! One side dips in about an inch, making it impossible to use the extra that extends beyond the dip. So it looks like this skirt will be a little slimmer than the dotted one and I'll have to make the blouse separate from the skirts to mix and match more easily. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of my work - haven't gotten photos of me wearing the muslin yet, but I'll wait until I have a pretty spotty blouse to show you all!

My workspace (with fabric laid out on the left, surrounded by various tools - shears, tracing paper, and tracing wheel). At some point I may get my own craft space if we get a new dining room table, because the current table would be moved to another room and would double as a craft and study space for my brothers and I.

 Just ironing out the pattern so it will lie better for cutting (if you ever choose to do this, only use low heat or you'll scorch the tissue)

Laying out the bodice front pieces (with my makeshift pattern weights rubber band ball, box of pins, shears  and measuring gauge)

On a final note, I made a JoAnn's run on Friday and managed to pick up the remainder of my notions for half off! I bought some green and white buttons for the blouse as well as crinoline braid to go on the skirt hems. The braid is supposed to keep the bottoms of skirts sticking out and maintain flare at the edge (I had to tell the woman at the cutting counter what its use was because she didn't know what it was - just another reason why I would be a good candidate for working at a fabric store). Hopefully I can make progress today or tomorrow.