Well the 2 week resolutions didn't last too long, but I have made some progress on other projects. After a wonderful PR weekend I was inspired to start sewing a bit more and picked up this Jalie pattern (2921). The demo that Jalie did at the weekend was great! I had some fabric in my stash that I picked up in New York last year, and thought it had marinated long enough in the cupboard and it was time to give sewing knits again.

I noticed that Deepika had used this same fabric sometime last year to make up a top and had mentioned the problem of bullseyes due to the circles. I kept this in mind when selecting the top and fabric choice and thought well I won't make that same mistake and carried on. I only had 1 yard of fabric so I just made sure that no circles were in the bust area and started cutting hoping for the best. It was only when I finished the shirt and went looking though old blog posts did I realized that I had also picked the same pattern. If I had realized that in advance I might have been saved the trouble.

Let me just say I would trade for circles on the boobs versus what I ended up with. I really should have cut everything single layer and perhaps I would have avoided this problem. The shortage of fabric prevented any pattern matching, but I thought random squigly lines would be fine... If only!

Here's a pic...



Why wearing the shirt with the bow model is not an option : Though I'm not happy with the owl's eyes above the bust, it might be possible to wear it with the buckle. Must go and pick one up. (Excuse the bad photo, it's a bit hot in the house at the moment) On the positive side, I'm really happy with the fit and shape of the pattern. It went together really well. I love Jalie! I just wish I would pay more attention to things like this. Next time I do this pattern it'll definitly be with a solid and not a print. I've learnt me lesson on shirts with a centre front seam! I've also developed a bit more confidence for sewing with knits and rayon jersey in particular. I just love this fabric. It is so soft and confortable. I need to finally make up the hotpatterns wrap dress I bought ages ago! I just hope that I'll have better luck with pattern choice! I'm learning slowly I swear!

I have quite a few other finished projects or ones that are nearly done that I really must write about, if nothing else it keeps a nice log for me.

Two-Week Resolutions 1 week 1 (2WR1-1) - progress

Well so far things are going well...

To recap the goals for this fortnight are :

• Toe-up socks
• Fit my blouse
• only take the stairs

I have made good progress on my first toe-up sock. This is actually my third attempt, but first working with a real pattern. I bought Socks from the Toe-Up by Wendy K and things finally fell into place.

The yarn is by Lorna Laces that I bought in Toronto almost 3 years ago. Now I'll be able to use up all the wool and not have any leftovers.

I tried working on fitting my blouse pattern (jalie 2322 - hmm, can't find a link on Jalie's site - is it out of print?) today and got as far as taking out all but 1cm of the broad back increase that I had done and basically stalled when it came to making a 1 inch sway back adjustment, on top of the 3/4 inch adjustment that I had already done on the pattern. I was a little concerened that this was changing the sides of my pattern and that it just wouldn't work.

Back to the drawing board. I have succeeded in gaining about 10 pounds since September and it is probaby time to simply go up a size. I took my measurements and I am now a Size S (according to Jalie). Also thanks to a post on patternreview.com to check the postion of the waist. It appears that my waist is 1/2 inch higher than the pattern. I'll probably still have to do a small swayback adjustment (as this was required on a skirt I did in my sewing class) this may make the pattern a little bit better, that and lower the bust dart 1/2 inch

Honestly, I'm a little discouraged to start all over again from scratch, but thankfully I stumbed across Sew-4-fun's blog and one of her posts where she mentioned that it is nearly impossible to get something perfect on the first go (especially for newish sewers), so I'm going to start with that, sew up the blouse and work on perfecting the blouse in the future incarnations. I will succeed in having a well-fitting blouse by the end of this year!

As I've already cut out the top, I think I'll just try cutting out a new and larger back and fit it to the front that seems to fit ok as it. That and I don't have enough fabric to recut everything.

New Years Resolutions Two Weeks at a Time

I heard a neat idea on the radio this morning of making resolutions for two week periods only. Most of what I want to accomplish this year is project based and therefore working in two week sprints I might actually finish some of my projects.

Here is v1.0 of the things I hope to accomplish by picking one or two to work on during the fortnight. Obviously some are much longer than others, but as long as have accomplished a few tasks of the project I will consider it a success.

Sewing

• Make a proper fitting blouse
• PJs for me
• PJ bottoms for a friend
• Draft adult one-piece PJs for my brother
• Draft and make dress shirt for hubby
• Use one of my hotpatterns and fabric from New York
• Jalie Suit Jacket
• Finish pants
• Use one of my BurdaStyle patterns
• Use some stash fabric

Knitting

• Knit toe-up socks
• Finish Juno (and frog what is done)
• Fix toe on plain socks
• Finish waving lace socks
• Use some stash wool
• Fix hats

General wellbeing and personal improvement

• EA active every two days
• Only take the stairs
• More walks for the dog
• Read a French book
• Do some French homework
• No buy week (except for food)
• Keep the house spotless
• No jeans at work (except for Fridays)

House

• Finish decorating the bathroom
• Plan kitchen modifications/renovations
• Start planning basement decorating
• Plant a garden
• Do some yard work

Misc. projects

• Go to Thailand
• Learn a few key phrases in Thai
• Finish photo books

First up:

• Toe up socks
• Fit my blouse pattern
• Only take the stairs

Hmm, is that too much, time will tell come Monday February 1, 2010! Oh yah, and I must update the blog a little more often for it to keep me motivated.