Drafting the Wrap Blouse

Well, I'm doing a sew-along with Sue on the vintage Wrap Blouse. She's using the pattern, and I'm drafting mine from my block. So far, it's going pretty well. I got the bodice and yoke pieces cut out yesterday and the bodice sewn together for a test fit. The fit is pretty good, but I could see immediately that I'd folded the front back on the Center Front rather than the front edge when I made my facing extension, so it's not right. I also need to change the armscyes, as I just left them the same as the block. I think I will just extend them and do them fairly straight, and use the dropped shoulder as the pattern shows.

I bought a nice piece of drapey rayon in a black and white check for the muslin. Quite a bargain, and I thought the checks might be helpful. One thing I've learned is that I do not want to fuse the fabric for the final blouse, as I had thought I might. It needs to be very drapey, and I think the rayon batik I bought at Sew Creative for a different blouse will be great, although I may have to go get some more, as I don't think I'll have quite enough for long sleeves, which are what I think I want. The tie ends will not need to be as long as I had thought, so that will save me quite a bit of fabric. Maybe it will even out.

Well, I hope to get more done today, but I'm not going to work until 2am tonight again, like last night. Sewing that late is sometimes a mistake, and when I'm doing something like this, I need to be fairly sharp.

I fixed my sprinkler line on the east side of the house this morning, where the gas company cut it when they replaced a feeder line or something, so I'm watering my newly planted grass and clover the easy way now, instead of standing there with a spray nozzle. Hope it comes up as well as the first bunch did. The weeds are just amazing in the flowerbeds and the grass. I sprayed 2,4D in the front yard Thursday, and it's beginning to take effect. I could almost wish for a freeze if it would just kill the weeds. Oh well, spring is always eternally optimistic, and by then I'll have forgotten just how much crabgrass there seems to be. Surely the crabgrass preventer should be doing a better job than this?