Bits and pieces

New Look 6407

• I have been kind of quiet lately because I am working on a short-sleeved blouse using New Look 6407 (view E, the one in yellow above) and it's not going at all well. I made a muslin because it's a lot more fitted than previous shirts I've made, but having made the bodice of the actual version... well, I don't know that my fitting changes worked. I fear it might end up being a total wadder. Luckily the fabric I used wasn't anything special or precious. I'm frustrated though because I felt like I was doing really well with shirt-making, but as soon as I stepped up a level in terms of fitting it all went downhill very quickly. :( The big problem is that I have an 18cm (7") difference between bust and under bust. I'm finding it really difficult to wrangle the darts that I need to achieve anything like a fitted look through both bust and waist/hips. I think I might need to find a similar closely-fitted pattern that uses princess seams for my purposes, because I just don't think darts cut it when you're working with such a huge bust/underbust difference.

• I recently bought a double tracing wheel which is something I've had on my wishlist for a loooong time. I put off buying it because my old (enormous, lasted me 2+ years) package of tissue paper I was using to trace patterns onto was very thin. It wasn't at all difficult to see through it to trace off patterns from Burda/Ottobre, so I just did that and then added seam allowances by hand. However, I finally ran out of the thin paper and the new paper I bought is impossible to see through -- you can only just see that there are lines on the pattern sheet underneath, but no details -- so I had to do something different. I wish I'd bought the tracing wheel ages ago now. Being able to add my preferred seam allowance at the same that I trace is A++++. Definitely worth thinking about it you're a big magazine pattern user and you don't already use one.

• Speaking of pattern magazines, I just renewed my Burda subscription for another 6 months and for the first time since I started getting it I really considered not doing so. The problem is not so much Burda itself as the fact that I really, seriously don't like most of the trends at the moment, which Burda faithfully reflects. I was in a massive shopping centre the other week window shopping and yes, it's all totally on trend in the UK at least, but I no more want to make it than I want to buy it. There's probably been enough patterns I like in the last few issues that I can just about justify continuing to buy the magazine... but only just.

• I do use my back issues a lot for inspiration, but also apparently to drive myself nuts. I briefly drove myself actualfax crazy-faced looking for "perfect" dress patterns to match the fabrics I pulled out of my stash for casual summer dresses this year. I got so far past over-thinking what I wanted to make that I gave myself a blinding headache one day and had to put myself to bed for a couple of hours. Rationality has been restored now, but wow, yeah, that was a nutty, mildly obsessive rabbit hole that I fell down of ~figure-flattery and ~age-approriate dress styles.

•  So much left on my sewing plan for May, and we're already half-way through the month!