WIP = Work in Progress
Well, it’s been a pretty difficult couple of weeks here. I’ve put myself on a news diet again, as the constant stream of awful has made it hard to function. And lots of pressures and stressors are happening all at once over here . . . ugh. I’ll get it all handled, but things are going to be difficult and scary for a while until I do.
So let’s talk about sewing, just for a minute, and forget about all that other junk.
I spent most of last weekend working on my quilt blocks. I’m chain-piecing the black and white strips like mad, and I’ve also put together the blue and orange blocks.
This kind of pretty mindless piecing is sort of, I don’t know, pleasantly boring? Relaxingly tedious? If you’re in the right frame of mind and ready to settle into the rhythm of it, it’s kind of peaceful and soothing. If you’re thinking about how long the whole process is taking, it will drive you bananas. I find it a bit more boring than something like embroidery, so I think I need to find some podcasts or something to listen to while I do it . . . or maybe just resist the urge to marathon it and get my butt out of the chair once in a while.
I was a little discouraged after I cut all the pieces for the colored blocks and realized my scrap piles didn’t seem to be any smaller. But then I realized that this is the perfect project for a pieced backing–that ought to make a dent!
Also!
And the back!
I did finally get this top done, but it gave me a little trouble on the trip there.
As I mentioned before, cutting this was complicated, as two of my fabrics were knit in a tube so they didn’t have a selvage, and two of them are directional. To get the spaceships going up and down, I cut the front piece crosswise. To get the back yellow piece out of the small cut of fabric I had, that was done crosswise, too. I was able to get away with all this fudging, though, as my fabrics are pretty stretchy both ways.
The first time I put the neckband on the top, I thought the neck looked a little small so I tried it on. It was so small that I had a hard time getting it over my head. I debated for a while with myself as to how much to cut it down, but in the end I decided to be conservative about it and just cut the band seam off. I lengthened the band a little bit (yes, I was THAT precise about it), put it on, and the neck now is just right.
The other issue was that the sleeves were very tight at the forearm, especially the yellow sleeve. I unpicked both sleeve seams and re-sewed right at the edge of the fabric–perfect!
The only other change I made was to leave the pleat on the front open, rather than sewing it down.
And now a question for you, oh wise sewing folk: what the heck is happening with the wrinkles on my upper arms?
This isn’t a function of me changing the sleeve seam allowance, as it was this way before I tinkered with it. It’s not a result of pushing the sleeves up, either. I know the wrinkles are supposed to point to the problem, but I’m not finding that knowledge to be terribly helpful here. Any ideas you may have would be very welcome.
In the meantime, though, I’m just going to enjoy my new top. I wore it today and it was so comfy and cheerfully bright! I was worried that it would be too much and I’d feel self-conscious in it, but it just felt right to me. I can’t tell if I’ve changed or if I just got the right combination this time. The combo of the larger print with two coordinating solids always works really well in quilts, so why not here?
Have a great week, folks, and be sure to save some kindness for your lovely selves.
STH
Stephanie said:
Love the top! The more orange the better in life I think! As you know I know nothing about knits but my guess would be sonething about the grain. It looks like there might not be enough stretch across the top.of the sleeve. But that could be completely wrong and it could be the opposite problem. Curious to hear from others.
Keep on being kind to yourself and of course you will get through with flying colours!
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STH said:
Thank you! Your comment is so kind, as always! It took me a while to warm up to orange, frankly, but now I love it–so sunny and cheerful. Have no idea if you’re right about the sleeve thing; my usual tactic is to totally avoid the whole sticky issue of fitting by making loose, comfy things, so I’m lost here. It’s clear to me that I need to get myself a book on fitting, though.
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Stephanie said:
I love orange. I look terrible in it, if it’s bright. I can get away with it if it is muted. 🙂 Enjoy your fun top.
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STH said:
I suspect it’s not a great color for me, either, but blue and yellow are, so maybe they cancel each other out? 😉
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Stephanie said:
As always, I like your attitude!
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Judith Rickard said:
Hello from the rainy side! (Seattle) Love your top. It will brighten our PNW winter, for sure.
Re: sleeve wrinkles – When I look at the photos of the models on the Butterick site, I see the same wrinkles…so it’s not us, it’s the pattern!
Your top is so great that I’d just wear it and love it. I don’t know of a way to retroactively eliminate the underarm wrinkles.
If you decide to make it again, though, here’s what works for me (and I have been struggling with those underarm wrinkles for years): I cut the front and back with 1″ side seam allowances and baste together. I cut the sleeve cap with about 3″ extra height in the cap*, between the notches, then baste it into the body just between the lower notches. I put it on and let the sleeve cap fall until the underarm wrinkles disappear enough to satisfy me – often this uses up 1.5-2″ of the extra cap height. Then I mark the new sleeve cap seam line. Now comes the tricky part – I have added more length to the sleeve cap so I need to pull out my bag of tricks for easing excess sleeve cap. One of those tricks (and why I cut with 1″ side seams) is to open up the side seam.
*This is easy to show but not easy to explain in words. If I were clever, I’d know how to include a picture of what this looks like. Since I’m not, here’s (I hope) a link to Mrs Mole’s picture: https://fitforaqueen.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/13-sleeve-cap.jpg?w=640&h=384. If this didn’t work, you can see the picture on her 11/16/14 blog post Fit for A Queen. She is working with a pattern which already has a definite sleeve cap, while I expect your pattern’s sleeve cap is quite flat…now. If my guess pans out, you’ll end up with a taller cap.
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STH said:
Hello, rainy side person, welcome, and thanks for jumping in! Yes, I noticed a little bit of wrinkling in the pattern pictures, too, and I can’t remember ever having this problem before, so I don’t think it’s a weird quirk of my shape. I will definitely try your technique if I make this pattern again; thank you for the link to the picture as that was very helpful in understanding your method (it’s so hard to describe these things in words, isn’t it?) And I really need to do some reading on fitting in general, so I can get a bit better at this stuff.
Thanks again for your help with this, though–it is very appreciated!
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Stephanie said:
This is very interesting!
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STH said:
This whole “fitting” business is a foreign land to me, once you get beyond lengthening and shortening and other easy stuff like that. Much to learn!
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peggycooperquilts said:
Love the colors of your strip quilt blocks. Very vibrant.
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STH said:
Thank you! That orange was so fun to work with, and it’s going to look so great with the black and white (I am all about the color drama!) 😉
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Lynn said:
I love the blue and orange blocks.
I have a lot of leaning pictures but mine are mostly those taken outside so I have always assumed it was the ground being uneven but indoors, I don’t know.
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STH said:
I suspect my dirt-cheap tripod is to blame. I may actually have to read the manual. 😦
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