My Little Bit of Un-Progress for the Day

Thanks to Dawn's comments, I decided to start ripping out the seams of the tunic a little bit at a time. Unfortunately I "upgraded" ha to haloscan for comments, which lost all of my comments that I had. Blogger doesn't really do it for me, sometimes I would get am email, other times I wouldn't. Sorry for getting off track, back to sewing. I ripped out the seam under the bust that went all the way around. I plan to take maybe an inch off there and hand baste it back together, after I retrace the front bust curves, per Dawn's suggestion. Hopefully this will work out and then I can start with the side seams when I get it the way I want. I guess that is all I have accomplished on the tunic since the last post.

Tunic on the edge of BIG!

No that I have almost finished the tunic I think I probably should have made the Tunic a couple of sizes smaller!

The fit I think could be fixed though. I was hoping that I could get some expert suggestions on what I should do. (or what I shouldn't do)

Front Untied Front Tied

Back Untied Back tied

Side Untied Side Tied

I would like the gathered front seam to be under the bust. I was thinking that I could get out my pattern piece and trace the bust curve up an 1/2" to 1". I would also like to raise the back seam even with the bottom of my bra. I think I would also like to take in the side seams around a 1/2". I haven't pressed the side seams or the gathered seams around the bust as I knew I wanted to make some changes. I know that I also want to take the hem up by probably an 1" or 1 1/2".

I really want this to fit correctly, so I hope that you experts out there may be able to point out what I should try to do!

Happy Sewing!

Beginning of Summer and an Update on the Prairie Girl Tunic

Ah... Summertime! This year we decided to have a little barbecue. It's been kinda rainy here the last couple of days, luckily the sky cleared tonight and became nice enough for our barbecue.

My Mom also made a Peanut Butter Crisp Dessert and yesterday we went to one of my favorite Antique shops. They were forced to move so they were having a moving sale and I got this gorgeous cake display (with the dessert inside)!

Update on the tunic - I got the sleeves set in. I messed up a bit on the first sleeve, but the second went in perfectly! I also completed the ties last night. Of course I forgot that I would have to turn it and couldn't figure out how to do it. I was finally able to turn it using a hanger. I was going to go to Joann's and get one of those tube turner thingys, but I forgot while I was there. So today I got the front skirt sewn to the back skirt. I decided to try it on and realized it was a bit big. So I think I am going to sew it all together and not hem it yet. Then pinch out the extra.

Prairie Girl Progress

I'm slowly making progress on the tunic top. Not because the pattern is difficult, just because other things. I did want to post a picture of my progress though. So here it is~~

So far I have the back neck facing in and the shoulder and side seams finished. Next is the sleeves, which I am a little nervous about since I have never done sleeves. Now that I think about it this will be my first top! I've read about how the arm holes and sleeves sometimes stretch out and that is what is making me nervous.

Anyway my plans for today is to start working on the sleeves.

There is one thing that confused me when cutting out this pattern that I wanted to mention but forgot in my last post. In the directions it tells you to cut 2 ties, cut 2 sleeves, cut 2 bodice fronts. The directions didn't come with a layout guide, which was fine (I'm a big girl I can figure it out). First I should say that I had folded the fabric in half, like the patterns I had worked with before. This works good with all the pieces on the fold. This was fine and dandy until I got to those pieces that said cut 2. Probably to someone other than a newbie would have gotten this but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why I need 4 arm pieces and 4 bodice pieces, the tie sounded fine with four pieces. I finally decided that they must make the directions in case you were cutting each piece separately. I guess this goes with the saying "You learn something new everyday" or in my case on every project!

The beginning of a tunic..

I finally got all the pieces of the prairie girl tunic traced and cut out. I had been reading about rotary cutters and mats and that they were easier and faster. So last night I went out and bought a rotary cutter and mat. It seems to be working ok, but it seems that I have to press really hard to cut and sometimes it don't even cut through both, a whole 2, layers of fabric. Is this something that always happens or am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions? Anyway I plan to work on constructing the tunic tomorrow. For this I decided not to make a muslin, hopefully this was not a bad choice.

Zip Zip Zippers

I am a beginner sewer and I am doing really so far on my Burda 8176 skirt, but the darn zipper is giving me fits!! I was working on it this afternoon and just got soo frustrated. I think my zipper foot is kind of getting stuck on the pull of the zipper. The seam on the zipper is not straight at all. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I should also mention that right now I am just trying to make a zipper look good on some scrap muslin. So it's not like I am ruining my skirt.

I was hoping to get this skirt done before the end of Spring Break, but I don't think this is going to happen. I have to get this project done before April 12th. I have a scholarship luncheon to go to and I want to wear this skirt!! I will post pictures when I finish the skirt.

So after being frustrated with the zipper I started to work on the Favorite Things Prairie Girl Tunic. I was originally going to trace the pattern so I wouldn't ruin the pattern if I made the right size. Well I learned I don't really have the patient to trace the pattern. I bought this pattern about a week ago when we went to Lawrence for my Birthday, we stopped in Sarah's Fabrics along with an Amy Butler fabric for this Tunic.