Why Is It So Hard?!

First off, some proof I do still hand knit!  Lucy took this picture on Tuesday night during Meg's skating.  If you read my other blog, you'll have read how I got really distracted during Meg's swimming class and I didn't get much knit then, LOL.

Next up, more sewing.  I want some dresses with sleeves.  I don't have many patterns,  I bought a pattern at Value Village for a dress or top with or without sleeves.  I decided to try tissue fitting, but I decided while doing that that the pattern didn't have enough shape for me to make a dress.   

There was one dress I made last summer and never showed you.  I made it before I learned about "full bust adjustment", so I had made it for my chest size.  Well, it fit like a sack everywhere else.  The only picture I took was blurry, dark, and my hair was in a towel.  So you never got to see it, LOL.  I decided I would give it another try, since I found a couple blogs with awesome instructions on how to do a FBA on a princess seam pattern.  It'd be no sweat, right?

Why are things always so hard for me?

I started out by folding out an inch above the armhole and an inch just above the waist.  This made the waist a little high, but that's okay.   I then  followed the steps and tried to move the pieces apart the two inches I needed.  Things went REALLY wonky (look at that armhole, so I backed off to 1 1/2" (it's not a closely fitting dress).  I finished up the steps, which was not as easy as the tutorial made it seam.  The bust point is not marked on my pattern, and it seemed to be in the middle front piece while the tutorial showed it being in the side front piece.  The tutorial didn't show the notches, so I wasn't sure where to put all the slashes.  The amount I had to lengthen the middle section seemed humongous compared to the tutorial, and that threw off the pattern line. 

Today, I decided to retrace the side seams.  I had graded from an 18 to a 22, partly cause I want some swishiness, and because I was worried since I needed the 18 for the shoulders but the 18 waist (body measurement) is way too small.  I realized last night that the extra 3" I added in the bust would be going all the way down the length of the dress, and hence, over my belly (while it wouldn't be added over the back or bum, where I don't really need it!).

However, when I laid the pattern piece back on, I saw how weird the armhole had changed, despite the tutorial saying the armhole wouldn't change.  So now I need to go back and do something about that.  I decided that while doing all these adjustments I would do a muslin, despite hoping that the dress that I was making was going to be a (very) wearable muslin.  It might just be a top though.  I found out I have a shortage of woven tops in my wardrobe!  This is why I didn't know I have very big problem with "forward shoulders", the other dress I was going to make, which turned into a top, is woven and the shoulder seams were strange.....