A stupid confession and an epic win!

First, I have to tell you all something completely ridiculous and shameful: I have owned my new sewing machine for almost a year and I ONLY JUST worked out how to use the backstitch function properly. No, really. I am just that much of an idiot. /o\ How did I discover how to do it? In one of my breaks from work today I suddenly thought to myself: It is NOT POSSIBLE that my mid-priced Janome does not backstitch correctly. I should spend five minutes and look it up in the instruction manual, because it's much more likely that I am doing it wrong. The only thing wrong with this statement is that it took 30 seconds, not five minutes. /o\  I have been backstitching everything with glee this evening. It is all really rather sad.

Second, I have had a BREAKTHROUGH of epic proportions, I think. Well, I've had some kind of breakthrough anyway, and I am hoping it is going to help me sew some of my most urgently required garments.

When I started sewing clothes, one of my most pressing concerns was that I am rarely able to RTW woven tops that fit, because boobs. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that fitting woven tops when you're sewing is no less Herculean a task than finding RTW tops that fit in the shops, also because boobs. The gargantuan FBA that I require has taken me many MANY attempts to begin to feel like I know what I am doing, and I still need Fit for Real People open in front of me every time.

I've been working on and off on a close-fitting princess bodice block for summer dress purposes, because I feel like princess seams are the best friend of anyone with uber boobs, but every time I work on it I ask myself why I am doing that rather than addressing my most urgent need, which is a block that will help me make moderately loose-fitting shirts and blouses.

Connie Crawford F/G sloper. Doesn't this illustration make you want to work on it? :|

It's not like I haven't tried before. About eighteen months ago, I bought the Connie Crawford F/G-cup sloper blouse block, hoping that having the huge dart pre-done would help. I spent ages and ages on it, trying to develop a close fitting block. Then I tried using the block I'd developed with a blouse pattern from Burda but didn't get past the muslin stage. After that I kind of abandoned the whole project when I began to lose weight, on the rather specious grounds that fitting a moving target was no fun. I say specious because what I overlooked was that actually, I lose weight very consistently for the most part. Although it's a moving target, my actual proportions and fitting issues don't vary much: I am a different size of the same shape, if that makes any sense.

Ottobre 02-2014-05

The last time I played with my much-adjusted blouse block, I was trying to make a very close-fitting top, which, it turns out, translates at my present weight to a size and shape of top that actually really works for me in terms of ease. I figured this out by comparing the block without seam allowances to a pattern I had been thinking of making in my approximately my size. In this case: Ottobre 02-2014-05, a woven t-shirt with darts, in a size 42 for my shoulders (it is a toss-up whether I need a 40 or a 42 at the shoulder, I went with the larger size on this occasion). They were basically the same, except my block has the hugenormous dart already in the right place. So this evening I sewed up the block exactly as I left it a year ago, in random pieces from my muslin stash with 1.5cm seam allowances, and HURRAY, I have a t-shirt. The bust fit looks great, even if the dart execution is a bit dubious. I am kind of impressed with Past!Me for the job I did on my fitting, even if I didn't really know what I was doing. Way to go, Past!Me!

It's not perfect however: I messed up when I was cutting out and accidentally decreased the hip circumference by about 6cm, which it turns out is a fairly fatal error for my hips. From memory, and based on the photos of that Burda blouse muslin, I think I also did a bad job with my hip fitting way back when as well, because, as I said at the time, it just didn't go over my butt. I also struggled sewing that hugenormous dart nicely. The dart take-up is massive and I ended up with a large puff of fabric near the end of the dart. I think I'm going to try splitting the dart into two side seam darts tomorrow to see if I can tame that. And then I am going to try making some kind of very very simple darted top using my basic block. \o/ If I manage this, it will be an ENORMOUS step forward in my garment sewing goals.