Monday, June 20, 2011

Weekend Report: Muslin Progress and DNF: Baked Noodle!

Muslin Progress at last!
So the front of my dress is looking pretty good. The bust is now fitting just about right.

For the front of the bodice I enlarged the cups and the negative space they should fit into. Again, thank you Elmo for the helpful picture of what the bra cup alteration should look like. It took a bit of playing around with how much to add, but it worked like a charm. I also made the cups a bit wider and the bottom piece slightly deeper.


I'm still tweaking the back a little bit. I tried two different methods for narrowing the shoulders. A pivot and slide method made the back and front shoulder seams different lengths and caused me to have to alter the odd shaped shoulder strap pieces. And that got messy.  The other method- taking a tuck that ran the whole length of the piece didn't work because I need the extra room at the lower back (easing out the side and princess seams to compensate only worked to a point).

See, still some pulling in the tuck method
So I've made the excess fabric into a dart on the muslin. I'm going to then use the muslin piece (with the dart still sewn) to cut the seersucker, eliminating the extra fabric (in theory). I think this should preserve the grainline, which would look all wonky in seersucker if it was off or there was random darts in places. Um, wish me luck with this bit of creative fitting.

DNF: Baked Noodle Wadder
That is not a typo for DVF, who is fabulous. And it is not a cooking notation. DNF is what appears next to your name, instead of a finishing time, when you run a race and Do Not Finish. This is the running equivalent of a wadder.

On Saturday, I was signed up to run a 10k race, practically in my back yard. The race did not begin until 11am when the real-feel temp was 90 degrees. I don't do so well in the heat and there was no shade - not even a shadow. Despite being well hydrated, by the 1.5 mile water station I was overheated. I dumped several cups of water over my head to cool down. After a few minutes, my hands were still shaking. So I walked home feeling defeated, although I think it was a good decision. In all seriousness, I thoroughly baked my noodle. I was vapid and had a headache for the next six or seven hours - an utter waste of valuable sewing time!

Anyway, it was a defeat. But I've already bought some lighter weight running clothes and I'm going to do shorter but regular runs in the heat (to acclimate myself), stopping whenever I need to. Phin is trying to coax me into running in just a jog bra and shorts/capris. I'm not sure how I feel about this purely for vanity reasons. Although, if I just go for it, perhaps it will spur me to do something about the blob of ricotta that currently resides above my bellybutton? Hmmm... what motivates you?

3 comments:

Karin said...

Never mind about the race, I am sure you will have more chances and can do better. I don't even enter races much less finish them, so my hat is off to you. Your muslin is looking really good. I have no idea what will happen when you use the muslin with the dart still in to cut your pattern piece. I am interested to see how it turns out. It'll either be genius! or, a rookie mistake :-(

Anonymous said...

Hey, I hope you're feeling better. I'm just starting running and the thought of entering races is a very long way away, so I too tip my hat to you.

This dress is coming along nicely. I've got everything crossed that the dart alteration works out perfectly for you.

Kimbersew said...

The heat keeps me from doing all kinds of things that I'd love to do. argh! I'd suggest a light-weight light-colored wicking Tshirt with a wide neckhole though. The sun beating down on your skin as you run can feel worse than being covered, and sunblock clogs the pores (until it slides off.) Fabric.com has some wicking high-performance polyesters for about $8/yd if you're motivated to make it yourself. -Or stick to the cooler race-times! Don't let it bother you. Congratulations on even starting!