March results

Projects:

• Schnittquelle Trondheim hoodie finished mid-March
• Neue Mode 22957 blouse finished a bit later in March
• Schnittquelle Malmedy jacket in progress
• Simplicity 1540 just cut

Out:

• 5.83 yards of fabric stash (I do count it as out as soon as I cut)
• Lots of clothing; certainly more than the 4 pieces I'd set as a minimum. Off the top of my head, among other things, I think this included: 
• RTW jeans, sort of a desperation purchase, never fit quite right (like most RTW) and had become much worse. Came with a belt that literally fell apart. They were bootcut and too long which I think is one of the worst combinations. What can I say, I was desperate, new to the area, and didn't know which stores had the best least worst fit.
• RTW gray jeans, also a desperation purchase, terrible fit, but such a useful color that I wore them a lot anyway, until I found a new pair that fit better.
• Likewise, taupe cords.
• Dark teal stockings (why? Some sort of costume I've forgotten about?) 

In: nothing.

Final pre-move pattern cull

Barring any wadders in the next couple months (that would prompt me to throw out the patterns involved), I've finished picking out all the patterns I definitely don't intend to sew and that I don't want to try selling later on. If I counted right, there were 226. Of course, having acquired so many patterns was a mistake. So these are my tips:

• Make a croquis of yourself, with front, side, and back views. I do this by tracing photos in Illustrator, but they can just as well be traced by hand. Sketch all patterns you have or are considering buying on this. It might be depressing at first, because a lot of us have body image issues, but eventually you figure out what general proportions tend to work best. If it's a pattern for separates, just make something up for the croquis to wear on the top or bottom; if nothing comes to mind, that's a bad sign in itself. Lots of my culled patterns were acquired before I'd done this — better to find out before spending the time sewing them, right?
• If you're getting rid of patterns, consider what's worth your time. Some might command a high enough price to be worth selling (what should you charge for your time?); some might not, but would be worth donating; and others might belong in the recycling. I think it'd be great if there were pattern museums that would just keep everything, but that's not my job.
• Especially in the U.S., with patterns being so cheap on sale, it can be tempting to just keep buying. The flip side of that is it doesn't look like such a huge loss to get rid of them. If they're unflattering/dated to the point they'd be embarrassing to wear, or distracting you from things you really want to sew, are they earning the right to take up your space?
• How much can you have before it gets distracting? For better and worse, I've drastically increased my limit by having a searchable database, so I don't have to look at all of my patterns whenever I'm trying to choose something for a given fabric/purpose. Of course, that takes time to maintain. Decide what tradeoff between organization and quantity works for you.

Back to the jacket

I've decided Neue Mode 22957 is finished, so it's back to the Schnittquelle Malmedy jacket.

The fit seems OK in front now. I might do just a bit of an FBA if I were to cut this pattern again.

I decided to drop the top of the back 1.25" by laying the pattern piece on again, shifted down by that much, blending the difference near the armhole notch (remember this is a raglan sleeve). I decided I needed to do this because I pinned that amount out as a big horizontal tuck. It's made a huge difference. The balance is much better, and the hip area is big enough now that it's in the right place. Of course, this means the back has to be eased onto the sleeves, but in a boiled wool like what I'm using, it's hardly even noticeable.

After doing this, my original alterations to the back waist darts were all wrong; I pretty much took them out and I'll check for the last remaining bits tomorrow. They may still need some more adjustment after that. The back armholes are still not quite right, just at the underarm; they may need to be raised, but all I can really do at this point is let out those seams a little.

Finally, I'm working on establishing a roll line. I might tack on a fusible tape for this (normally I'd use twill tape, but I'd want a dark color on this fabric, and I'm all out of black) at least for the upper parts; I might have to leave it off down toward the waist, where it could show. So far, it seems like the collar has to be rearranged carefully every time I put on the jacket; taping a roll line would help make it more permanent, I hope. I marked one with pins on the form and now I've got it chalked on the underside.

Outlook for April

Next month I'll probably be distracted by moving stuff a lot of the time, so the amount of sewing I'll do remains to be seen. Thoughts:

• Finish my scheduled late March-early April project (the Malmedy jacket); that may actually happen this month, though.
• Focus on quick projects that will use up fabrics that don't currently have a good home in a sturdy box, namely some of my boiled wools. Jackets will be useful indoors if it's cold, outdoors if it's warmer.
• Pick something for my April project. (I have no interest in Patternreview's RTW knockoff contest, so it won't be that.)
• I might do the Patternreview late-April challenge; if so, I'd count that for my late April-early May project, although it'd have to be done by the end of April. Or...
• I may swear off contests altogether for the next two months, maybe three. That way I won't have to take photos, sort through and post them, and write reviews by a certain date or at all. Given everything else that needs to happen, that could be a huge relief.

The blouse is essentially done.

However, I've also made a huge mess going through various junk supplies in the past couple days, so I'm not going to photograph anything until I go back to having a nice big junk-free area.

I donated two coats and two shirts today, and over the past few days I picked out around 180 patterns to get rid of. I don't even want to talk about what a small proportion of my stash that is.

Be that as it may, here's what I think I've learned from the Neue Mode blouse:

• With a non-dropped shoulder, I probably need a traditional FBA to get enough space across the upper chest. This may have more to do with posture than measurements per se.
• I need some real back shoulder blade shaping, probably more of it than can be had from easing alone, unless the fabric is a shrinkable wool or the like.
• I do indeed have square shoulders.

I have some other nebulous potential conclusions, but I won't go into them until I have some confirmation.

Being boring

I haven't done any more sewing; instead I'm sorting through all of my patterns to get rid of ones I don't want to move. I might get around to setting the sleeves on the blouse tomorrow.

Back to the blouse

On the Neue Mode blouse, I decided to let out the tips of the shoulder seams, straighten the front waist darts, and lengthen the front underarm darts. I think the resulting fit might be acceptable if not perfect. If I were recutting this, I might put in more shaping for the shoulder blade, do a real (if slight) FBA, possibly fill in the front armhole a little, and square the shoulders more.

The thing I find annoying about the way I generally do an FBA is that it makes the underarm dart angle further downward, when on almost any pattern it's already starting off too low in the first place. I don't know of a length- and width-adding, dart-intake-increasing method that doesn't do this; I'd love to know of one that did the opposite, if such a thing can exist.

I also took a separating zipper off a muslin I'd made, so I could throw out the muslin and keep the zipper. On second thought, maybe that was a waste of time. I might throw out the zipper too, as it seems to be extraordinarily temperamental about having everything lined up just right for it to start.