I don’t think I mentioned it in my last blog post, but my great-uncle passed away last weekend. He was 102! I didn’t post yesterday because we had his funeral. It was a long day. But we’ll get to that later.
I got as much done on Nadja as possible while awaiting my next fabric shipment. The upper skirt is assembled except the one back panel I’m missing.
I also got the lining layer for the skirt cut and assembled so it’s ready to go. And I made the upper section of the underskirt – the part that won’t be seen so I’m just doing it in lining so to save spoonflower fabric.
I pinned the biggest scrap of the fabric I had left to the bottom of the underskirt lining just to get an idea of how it was going to look.
Then got back to work on the sleeves and bodice. I got the other sleeve assembled – here’s both of them without the inner sleeve put in yet to pull it up into the right place.
And then here they are with the inner sleeve sewn in. I got them attached to the bodice, got the bodice lining sewn in too.
It’s looking pretty good so far, I think I may have to take up the bodice a little but I’ve got to wait til I can attach the overskirt to it to see how the weight of that changes how the upper bodice sits. So at this point, I was stuck.
But good news is my remaining yardage arrives today!! I can get back to work on it tonight!
So since I was at an impasse with Nadja, I tried to get a headstart on Breha.
First I got the first Rebels Leias shoes out and went ahead and got my original boot covers attached – but I did remove the neoprene lining, it wasn’t really necessary here, and of course cut it down since they didn’t need to be knee high anymore. I got the covers attached around the heel and sewn on at the top. I wanted to add some cord where the fabric cover stops at the heel because it’s a little rough looking, but didn’t have anything workable, so I got something yesterday and I’ll do that tonight.
I also got a thin tip glue gun at the craft store. I’m excited, I’ve needed something like that for forever.
So anyway, I was also REALLY hoping to do my Breha pants this weekend. Like start to finish, get it done, because my pleated fabric arrived Friday. It was a little sheer so I got some swimsuit lining material to use under it.
So I got started on this Sunday and… it was a disaster from start to finish. Like I’ve been sewing long enough, and I know myself, and I knew it was going wrong from the beginning, but I didn’t stop, I just kept thinking if I do the next step it’ll be ok.
My first mistake was using a pajama pants pattern instead of a “normal” pants pattern. Second mistake was using a pajama pants pattern cut to an XL. When I first tried on the lining layer pinned together I could’ve fit 2 of me in there. Did I stop and take it in? No of course not.
I also really didn’t take the time to get to know that pleated fabric. The first couple of seams were bad. I got more used to it as I went, but I should have played around with a scrap first.
I got it all assembled — and I should have basted the pleated fabric to the lining but didn’t take the time. Got an elastic waist in and it was SO bulky and bad because it was too dang big.
I was so frustrated at this point. I knew it didn’t look right in general AND it was bad technically speaking.
ALSO… ok so I have this ongoing feud with pajama pants – I have a LOT of XL-XXL men’s pajama pants. My aunt gave me a bunch she’d gotten for my uncle and he didn’t like them so she gave them to me to see if I wanted to cut them up or put them away for Kevin when he’s over. Brand new with tags still on! So I ended up just using them for myself because they’re comfy around the house. Well, all of those pj pants that are too big for me, the inner leg seam on my RIGHT leg, never my left, always twists around and sits on the front of my leg. It’s really annoying. Well it also was happening with these Breha pants – I guess because I used an XL pajama pants pattern. It was just so weird to see it happening with something I made, not just some random PJ pants.
Back to the drawing board. Today I ordered a brand new pants pattern that I think will work MUCH better than pj pants. And I’m going to do a mock-up to check the fit.
As for the fabric – in chatting with a friend Sunday night she sent me a great ref that made me realize the fabric I had was WAY too sheer. So after an exhaustive search trying to find something that’s NOT sheer, has wider pleats than what I had… I decided to just try to use my swimsuit lining I already have. I did buy too much of it. I experimented with pressing pleats in and it looked ok. So we’ll see how this goes.
BUT like I said tonight it’s back to Nadja. I’m really hoping to have the dress DONE this weekend. That doesn’t include the hat, the bag, the shoes, the wig — but the majority of sewing done. Then I can move on to Breha for the June project.
So yeah yesterday was Uncle Buddy’s funeral.
We don’t have a big family and it keeps getting smaller. It was just the 7 of us sitting around for the first half hour which was family only. Then folks started showing up for the visitation. Kevin and I went out in the hall and found a chess board – neither of us know how to play chess so we played checkers instead.
We had a graveside service. And then a bird pooped on Kevin.
We went to lunch afterwards, then I got roped into going furniture shopping with Kristie, went to dinner with them, then back home and i didn’t do anything that night. My plan had been to at least get that cord glued onto the edge of the Breha shoes, but I was exhausted, had a migraine and was done for the day.
I did absolutely fall in love with this couch though.
It also had a matching armchair. I’d love to do this couch on the wall and 2 of the armchairs to replace our other couch. But I sent the pics to chase and he was just iike “nice” so he’s not as sold as I am LOL
We’re planning to paint Kevin’s room this weekend. So will I get Nadja done this weekend?? Only time will tell. Next week’s post will be delayed too because of Memorial Day but we’ll see where we land…