Saturday, March 22, 2008

Trial and Error

 


I've been working on getting a nice fitted top that I can use to do a 2-piece dress with and have been through 3 muslins, one wearable, which you see above. After the wearable one, I realized that if I wanted better results, I ought to start with something different as a base. I was using a very fitted Marfy jacket pattern with nice princess seams plus a dart. It was working somewhat, but I realized that no matter how nice princess seams work for everyone else, they've never been my best style. So, I decided to start with a darted pullover Vogue blouse pattern that I had altered using my saran block. I consider the two blouses I've made from it in the past to be some of the best-fitting and most comfortable ones I have, so why not start there? This seemed to work very well. and I'm very pleased with what I whipped up tonight. I made a nice wide scoop neckline and it has small sleeves which I think improve over a sleeveless top for me. I think I'm going to use facings on it instead of lining it completely like I did here, although I do want to underline it.

I will start tweaking my skirt pattern tomorrow and I don't anticipate much trouble there. If I have enough fabric to do it, I want to do a fairly deep pleat on each side of the center and put pockets there.

I ordered a very large scale floral print for this, and I think it's going to be nice. It probably would have been nice to have it done for Easter, except that it's going to be so cold Sunday that I may have to wear my winter coat.

I've also been knitting on a new project. It's the Cropped Cardigan from the big anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting from last fall? I didn't think much of it when I saw the magazine, but Elann had someone knit it up in one of their yarns, and it look so much better than the original. I like the pattern stitch very much. They just call it Textured Stitch, but I realized it looks kind of like crocheted Afghan Stitch to me, although with extra diagonals. It's kind of fun to knit, too. The right side has you slip a stitch, knit a stitch, yarn over, and then pass the slipped stitch over the other two. You just purl back on the wrong side.
 
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3 comments:

Marji said...

It's really nice that you know what works for you. I think for all of us it's a discovery process.
I look forward to seeing your 2pc dress.
And I'm jawdropping floored here - each RS row you're s1 k1 yo psso all the way across? It would take me a month of Sundays to knit a sleeve.
My hat's off to you.

Vicki said...

Couldn't you draft a princess seam top with the saran wrap block? Have you tried that?

BTW, I am glad you went for glasses # 1. I think they are pretty groovy without being too trendy. Nice!

Anonymous said...

Hello Liana,

I've been following your site for inspiration and am truly getting it. I can't believe how many garments you produce- do you ever sleep? :) BTW- are you still using the Elna as your main machine? Thank you for the wonderful ideas and tips, they really are a great motivation for me.

Shelly