Chasing Coco

 This was the first pattern I made from Made for Mermaids! When the Oaklynn was released, I kept seeing makes of it and they were all so cute I had to buy it and make it for myself! Pros I don't have many comments on the fit or construction as it was pretty straight forward so I am keeping my comments to positives and negatives. Here are good things about this pattern: I LOVE that the pattern gives an arm measurement. I often have a an issue with patterns not fitting around my arm and this made it really easy to know what size would fit my arm. I will have to check if they do this for all of their patterns because that would be amazing. It could be it was just because this was a dolman style top. The pattern includes directions for how to mash sizes. This is great for newbies that haven't mashed before, so you can get better fit. There are a million options included with this pattern! There is a v-neck, crew, hood, color-blocking, cuffs, curved hem and probably more things. It ...

Apparently my last post was way too optimistic! I went to go see E for sewing class and we made a bunch of alterations to my muslin. See in the photo below the left side has been altered and the right side has only the first round of adjustments I made.  The front princess seams were tweaked several times, the upper part of the sleeve is being let out a little and a pretty major adjustment to the armhole. Armholes are tricky! If I was making this totally on my own I probably wouldn't have made so many changes, I think we be accustomed to buying semi-fitting commercial clothes that we don't really have any idea what really fits and looks good on us. If it fits around us and isn't 10 sizes too big we think it fits! E also helped me alter the pattern so I could have a button up cuff with a facing, rather than just turning up the end of the cuff. Much more Channel. To do this,  E measured up my arm how far I wanted the cuff to go and we have then added fabric that all...

I am so pleased at how well my muslin has turned out! It also came together really quick, I hate doing muslins because I have this idea that they take so much time but really, it was like 1 evening of sewing with a little cutting the night before. Not too bad! I suppose it makes a difference when you don't have to do any of the facings, hemming or structural elements :-) Sorry the photo is kind of dark and I cropped it since my hair was a disaster! I had been planning to make the shorter length ( look C for my pattern ) but at some point doing the muslin I decided to cut the long length and see how it looked - that's why the back is longer. Now to the fitting and adjustments! 1) Neckline is way too high - I feel like an old lady so that's coming down. 2) Sleeves are a tad too small (thanks Mom for the fat arms!), letting those out 1/4 in on both seams (I have a two part sleeve) 3) the front and back of the jacket are ok in the muslin but once I get a thicker w...

I am curious how many of you out there proof your patterns before you make something? Until I started taking classes with E, I would just look at the measurements on the back and pick the most appropriate, cut it and sew it. That's what we're supposed to do right? Well, sort of. E suggests doing what she calls "proofing the pattern." Having now done it a few times, I can see that it does improve the results, you get a good feel for how much ease you have and if like me (ie practically everyone), you're sort of all over the measurements table, which size you should cut and where you might have to adjust. This is how I found out that, though I'm 5'7", very Germanic and often buy the "long" or "tall" size in commercial clothing, apparently I'm "petite." What?!? To proof your pattern, you want to measure on your body your various circumferences and the vertical distance from one horizontal measurement to the next (...