totchipanda

Another sleepless night where I woke up after I should have left for work already *yawwwwn*. Calcifer did the thing where she darted out in front of me as I tried to leave the room and then stopped dead and hesitated, making me almost step on her. Kitten, move your adorable fuzzy little BUTT RIGHT NOW.

Friday was a total write off, but I did cut out and stitch a mock-up of the short stays. I cut an XL body and XXL gussets. Just holding it up on me, the back was overlapping, so the next day I stitched the seams another 1/4" in to approximate an L. Even put grommets in! That was much better, but the backs still touched and it was a little loose, over all.

Saturday I woke up and I felt like I needed to do some running around. Namely to pick up my brain meds, as I was nearly out of one and totally out of the other. Then I went to the thrift store bc it was literally 2 blocks away, where I found the case of a 1950s Singer buttonholer, which had a few of the dies and the plate cover, but not the attachment itself. Someone had opened a bag of thread and stuffed the bag and a few spools inside. It was the green case so not the one I need (I think; I've seen that the pink one has the slant shank attachment. I already have 2 1940s straight shank attachments), and I left it behind. Then I went to the grocery that was nearby rather than the one I normally go to, partly because I wanted to price-compare. A lot of the things I wanted were only slightly more expensive than the other store, sometimes by a matter of cents. It was fine, and suited my needs and energy levels. DONE.

At home, I forget how it happened but I found some strips of coutil that I'd cut for the Victorian corset I made in 2021 and I wondered where the remainder of the fabric was. There wasn't enough for a full corset or stay, but there would be PLENTY for a short stay! So I moved some boxes, which got the corner where I wanted to put one of the sewing machines open, moved that, found the fabric, reorganized the boxes, went and cut the short stay. I took a bit off my L pieces to approximate an M and cut XL gussets. Then I went and TOOK MY TIME (gasp who am i!) to SERGE THE RAW EDGES (GASP) and stitched away.

It is... OK size wise. I can lace it pretty snugly and still have a gap. I only have that one perfectly sized spiral steel and no short-enough straights, nor any sturdy enough plastic bones. I found one singular cable tie that is considered heavy duty without being the REALLY heavy duty type, but only enough for a couple of the seam channels. I did put the heavy heavy duty one in the front as the busk type, but I had bent over to get a dress out of the bin and that little bit immediately got pinched as my tummy moved. That was not a mood and makes me think a long stay will be more ideal in terms of getting the *perfect* silhouette. I need to add the boning before I can bind it, and it was rather late in the evening by then, so I put it down for the time being.

Also had pulled out aforementioned Victorian corset and changed many of the not-heavy-duty cable ties for straight steels and tried it on. I was sitting down, which helped to immediately adjust the bottom edge. The pattern was Truly Victorian and has a straight bottom, which would work OK if it was much shorter than it is but on me it is much too long. I pinned the adjusted edge in place and stuffed the bust improver in the front, which filled out the bust area and made me giggle. I love ridiculous underwear. Will need to use shorter steels in those channels now too, but that is a project for future me.

Yesterday I got up SO LATE after waking up far too early, and decided to bake! I made orange cranberry bread (but I took it out too soon, so the structural integrity is lacking) and bread. The orange loaf is delicious, the bread did not turn out well and I'm not sure if it's because I had too little batter in too large a pan, or if my yeast didn't activate. It is very old by now, so I will get new yeast and try again. The resulting loaf was short and dense, but tasty and edible. That all took 2 hours, so by the time I was done, I was DONE. I pulled out some really thick cotton canvas to make a mock up of the long stay, but decided (with Calcifer's help) that I should wait until I could print off the M pattern.

I am trying to think of my winter slow-down in an intentional way, so I decided that I was very productive already (two baking projects AND a pan of dishes AND scooped the cat box) and I would now rest. I put on a show and knitted until dinner time. After dinner I took a shower and laid around in bed, where I was awake until 3am and then slept through my 6am alarm and was late for work, whoops.

Tonight I hope to cut another mockup. I'm curious to see how the M body will work with the gussets (which I will cut open but not place yet). Get my show on again and knit some more. Cross stitch. A nice cozy end of December evening <3

Not even gonna talk about last week. I wrote it in my paper diary, that I've been very bad these last few days about keeping up, in order to practice with writing with a drugstore fountain pen. (OK i bought it at Michael's, but you know what I mean, yes?)

STAYS PART 2

After the previous entry's noodling about stays, I decided to go back to my Redthreaded pair that I started uhhhh some time last year. I spent most of the first weekend of January on them, and finished them. Prepare for info!

Large size
Lengthened 1" all around (this is important)
Added an extra tab to the back piece
Forgot to stitch the horizontal channel on the body pieces

Uhhh I guess that's all I did for alterations. I'd cut all the pieces and stitched the fronts and sides together, as well as the backs, and done boning channels on the stomacher and fronts (but not the sides). After my frustrations with Augusta, ktlovely suggested RT, which had been laying on top of my serger in an unfinished state for months.

OK, time to go then. I finished all of the channels, boned them, set a couple grommets, forgot how my die worked overnight and tried to set like 6 upside down, stitched one grommet hole by hand, remembered how the die worked, boned, and bound the stays.

They are not even a fraction as pretty as RT's ready made stays are. But they work. Mostly.

I'm overall VERY happy with the fit. I can get an even gap across the front, and it's just the right amount of "hug". But there are some changes I need to make before I can be 100% happy.

Back is too long. It's sitting ON my hips and tries to collapse into my back the second I let my posture slip, and since it's lightly boned with plastic, it can do this rather easily and very uncomfortably. Temporary fix - Add a wedge at the side seams, hope for the best.

More permanent fix: remove the inch I added, and engineer the side seams to accommodate at the length needed at the front.

Side front panel and corresponding boning channel too high under my arm. This one will be tricksy since I have already bound the stays and all, and I hate the idea of pulling it back to fix it, but it needs doing.

Shoulder straps not angled correctly. Undo the stitching and reangle. Maybe need to be narrowed to prevent being seen at straps of outwear.

I have also considered remaking the stays. Aside from not wanting to redo any binding (the tabs were a bear!), I also need more boning material.

AMALIA JACKET

Everyone and their dog is making one, so of course I am too! (Also bc my friend is using this as a basis for one of her big projects, and we have been unintentionally twinning for years now so I have a matching gown planned, and it's a good idea, so) I decided to make it with my single black Waverly curtain panel.

Traced off and cut size 40 with no adjustments
Bit too large at the bust
Too narrow at the waist, which I expected
Straps maybe need to be reangled, they sat over the point of my shoulder and not behind the socket
Other than that, the fit is decent!

I took my traced-off pattern and did a fully belly adjustment the "proper" way, by marking and cutting an L shape from the side seam and the hem, leaving a hinge around the bust point. Ish. Rotated it out an inch to give 2" total at the front only, and then lengthened the centre front by 1" only. I chose to connect the hemlines back up, forgetting that the rotation caused a 5/8" shortening at the seam.

I've also been trying to remember that most patterns, even indie patterns, are drafted on a B-cup block, so I should at least choose my bust size based on my underbust, assuming the boobs were said cup size (They are not), which would be a 36. So I also cut down my front armscye to a size 36, which reangled the straps enough to keep them from hanging out so far over my shoulder.

The fit was really good - really good. I was really happy with this one. If I pulled the neckline down into place, then the body looks really weird, but if I let the waist sit where it likes, it suddenly looks perfect, if too tall at the neck, even for this pattern. Adding the extra inch at CF was absolutely worth it. I did not need to add length anywhere else - the back and sides were sitting perfectly a little above my rump.

So, it was on to sleeves. I cut out a size 42 based on my bicep measurement + ease (I can always make it smaller). It was likely to be far too long in the sleeve head, but that be fitted out. After I stitched, i turned it right side out and attempt to attach to the jacket. Gosh, it just doesn't fit! I was told this was the best sleeve that hadn't been cut on the body, why was it so bad for me?

Pro tip. Attach the sleeve to the correct armhole.

After attaching it to the RIGHT armscye... It was really good. Except it pulled a little when I lifted my arm. I can my arms to about shoulder height with no pulling, which is already great. But to go further, the hem comes up a little. It was decided that this means the armscye is too low, so next experiment will be to adjust the side seams there to bring them in, and if that doesn't work, raising the armscye. That's a Wednesday problem now.

PETTICOAT

On the weekend I started sewing a petticoat from some green silk I bought in LA after CoCo 2017 to no real purpose. It's such a dream, the colour is giving me LIFE. I was gonna make it from the rest of my red silk, but I don't have any pieces long enough. I set it on a waistband last night, and intended to sew it to the band, but I got hit with the sleepys, so I will sew it tonight. (I hope. I was sleepy and so I was in bed by 9:30, but I woke up at 4am for no damn reason.)

And in work news, I'm working on a large print job. Today my production printer jammed, and the last few sheets it had printed were horribly discoloured and mis-printed. When I finally located all of the jammed paper, the reason it failed is because a belt over the heated fuser had ripped and we all laughed as we looked at it. It cannot be fixed by us, so I have a service call in. It won't be fixed today, but this project is very large, and it can't be fully started yet since one part of it had to be outsourced and its not in yet.

At one point I was kneeling on some of the unfused paper, so now the entire shin of my black jeans is covered in yellow toner. Whee! I needed to do laundry tonight anyway, but now I REALLY need to.