Top 5 Hits, Misses, Reflections of 2015 and Goals for 2016

I decided to look at hits and misses from this last year, as championed by Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow. Thank you, Gillian! The idea was to post the top 5 in each category. I wasn't altogether sure that I had a total of 5 items from the whole year,  far less 5 in any one of these areas. Indeed I've only reviewed 9 items on PR  the year; that's only new items made from scratch. There are some things that were such wadders that they didn't make it as far as blogging or in some cases past toile stage and these aren't included. Not a lot of sewing, you'd be right in thinking. I was,  I admit,  shocked!  After all,  I started sewing to make myself garments that fit - and I started doing sewing classes to learn how to make those garments - and I started pattern cutting classes to learn how to make the patterns for those garments, to make sure they fitted!

A lot of my time has been spent in course work, doing samples and in developing patterns for Helen's wedding. As a result, as I have so little,  I'm combining all the sections in one post.

It's interesting that my successful items are mainly for other people. I enjoy sewing for others (by that I mean family).  It's easier to fit someone else rather than yourself - and especially when that person doesn't have the same figure anomalies creating fitting difficulties.

Hits

1.Skirt for my youngest daughter Helen. Style 1981.

She tells me she wears it often, it appears to fit well and I was pleased to be able to salvage my mother's fabric.

2 Kimono for Helen. New Look 6217

Rear view to show it twirl

She wears this to death or at least did during the summer. Loves it. It was easy to make,  too.

3 McCall's 6844 for me

I've worn this regularly. I like the colour as it's useful. Next time,  though,  and there will be a next time, I'll make the straight version rather than the peplum version. Maybe in navy.

4 Jeans for husband.

Jeans in his favourite green

These were far from perfect but DH wears them regularly, so that counts as a success. They were self drafted and I think that was a step too far; I would have been better starting with a commercial pattern

I learned a lot of techniques in my jeans making class and in making these and feel more confident about making more jeans. I have more of the same fabric to make another pair,  perfecting the fit issues. I wouldn't use my drafted pattern,  though - I've since bought the Kwik Sew men's jeans pattern and will use that. Is have to go back to toile stage again,  of course.

5 Does this count as number 5? By far my most successful garments this year,  that get worn ALL the time are RTW garments that I have altered to fit. I didn't really enjoy altering things as often it seems it would be easier to start from scratch! However, I have a great sense of achievement and satisfaction to produce a wearable garment from something that wasn't. My altering skills have increased a lot. There are lots of future candidates.

Some of these items were new,  never worn that needed fit alterations. Others were items that had developed faults - the commonest was that a seam hasn't been overlocked properly and a hole had appeared. One top, though, had developed an actual hole in the fabric. My repair and disguise isn't great and I don't think I'll be wearing that out of the house.

I feel that RTW is a misnomer as they're not,  for me at least. Off the peg, okay.

There isn't a ‘proper’ number 5. I have some successful wedding related toiles, successful class samples and some successful craft items, and if course my very successful remodelling of my small dressmaking model, Missy, for Helen but I guess these don't count here.

Misses

1 Liberty print dress. Butterick 5951

Inside of dress

Just - no!

I didn't like anything about this dress. The style didn't work; I had problems with altering and sewing the darts to look good after trying to alter the fit and the colour was just not me. It has gone! I also gave away the rest of the beautiful fabric - lovely touch and feel that is, not the colour or pattern. I'm not a Liberty print type of gal - I don't like little bitty floral prints (on me) - I have,  however,  recently bought a couple of Liberty geometric prints. The fabric is beautiful to touch and in handle and I think the pattern is more me,  while,  true,  being a pattern rather than plain.

2 Blue Capstan dress Simplicity 1418

The dress was too small to put on my model

I was pleased with this dress which I made to practice some techniques. I intended it for Helen and used her usual pattern size and alterations - but it was much too small. I say her usual size - this clearly varies between pattern companies, despite their sizes being quoted on the envelope. The ease obviously varies.  Helen is a RTW 8/10 (UK). i started making items for her using a pattern size 12.  One thing drowns her, one is just right and this is miles too small! Just as well I now have Missy and some decent measurements.  My daughter is planning to donate this dress to a very petite friend.

I like the dress and style and considered it for the starting point of the bridesmaids’ dresses I'm making but am worried about the sizing so it's probably easier to draft from block. Both the bridesmaids need FBAs; I've made them both blocks (slopers) and need to make up and test the toiles (muslins) over Christmas.

3 Blouses - New Look 6407

I don't like the fabric; it fits better now but still...

I came 2nd in PR competition with this one

I just don't feel comfortable in these blouses so really don't wear them. I guess the fit needs further tweaked. There are fabric issues,  too - I find the blue fabric too thin and lacking in body, I think I'll make a standard shirt style next time instead of the lowered neckline which I don't like despite that being what attracted me to this style in the first place. I've made up practice shirts in class and now feel more confident that I could end up with a really good looking shirt. My burrito yoke was fabulous!  I learned how to insert piping and feel pretty confident about that now, too.

Jury's out!

There's only 1 item left on my list of 9! The jury's out with that.  Vogue 8646. It was the garment I made for my class in the summer and I didn't get it back from marking until the new academic year started in September, so I haven't had the opportunity to wear it.

Reflections

1 Skills

My skills have increased enormously. I feel ready to tackle just about anything.  I'm honoured to have been asked by Helen to make her wedding dress, though I'm terrified too! I'm designing the pattern rather than using a commercial pattern so my pattern cutting skills are useful here,  as are the contacts I've made - I'm getting help and support.

2 College course

9 garments!  Only one really wearable for me!  My sewing has taken a wrong turn! The biggest issue for me is that I feel my college course is not taking me in the right direction and I have to jump through their hoops to meet their requirements which are,  quite simply,  not mine. I don't mind the work. I like an element of structure. It's great to have expert tutors on hand to help.  BUT Pattern cutting,  whether flat or by draping,  appears to have been dropped for the moment at least. Pattern cutting was my main reason for starting my college career!  Last year we also had dressmaking techniques,  which have been covered in terms of shirt making - yokes, cuffs,  plackets,  collars,  which is good but not the area I need at present. Of course, last year ended on a high with me getting distinction in both of the coursers I did (only one course this year). Funding constraints mean that courses have to concentrate on entering this area as a business - well,  just no! Design, okay, but that's as far as go. (I did suggest that in fact I had a company with a very limited clientele consisting only of family!) I'm retired, have no business aspirations and want to make a good job of my hobby. I can't see me returning next year unless things change a lot.

We're only one term into the three term course so things might will change.

3 Fabric

When I started sewing, I quickly built up a fabric stash. A lot of this fabric was bought at a good price - although I didn't like some of it at all,  I thought it would be good for toiles - I make a LOT of toiles! However,  I now find I buy cotton calico specifically to make toiles. Some of the fabrics are polyester ‘suiting’, not suitable for toiles I find now, and very hard on shears, blades and needles. I will never make them into garments for me. Gillian alluded to the need for heavy duty deodorant - well,  yes!  It may be a consequence of ageing or perhaps of illness but I'm finding that I can’t tolerate synthetic or stretch fabrics, a change over recent months. So a major de-stash is coming up.

I'll use natural fabrics next year - probably not exclusively.

One very successful fabric area was getting our tartan woven and since then, getting it printed onto silk. I'll blog about that in due course.

4 Tools

The right tools make the job so much easier!

My stars of 2015:

Clips - great for pinning the bag layers together.

Micro serrated shears - purchased on Black Friday so new,  but fabulous! I saw these recommended for cutting slippery fabrics and am glad I followed the recommendation.

The fabulous pattern weights David made for my birthday. Just that. Fabulous.

Edgestitch and quarter inch with guide feet

5 Unselfish sewing

My husband gets mad when I promise something or other, without having been asked. He says I should be concentrating on myself. This was before I agreed to make the wedding dress etc. However,  I actually enjoy sewing for my family.  It's so much less stressful than sewing for myself! I'm not going to change that.

Goals and plans for 2016

There will be more selfish sewing! First,  though,  I have to get the wedding out of the way!  I won't be blogging about garments for the next six months. Then hopefully I can show off my makes. I might be able to share some of my mob outfit  development - my MOB outfit  is my class project. I need to work on that quite a bit over the Christmas holidays, work on a few samples and develop the pattern. I've been ill, not fully recovered yet,  and have fallen behind.

Wedding

Wedding dress - no further info here!

2 x bridesmaids’ dresses - creating fitting blocks and modifying to create dresses

Waistcoat for groom - using a heavily altered commercial pattern. The third toile is pretty decent.

MOB outfit - design and make. Probably dress and jacket. Dupion silk.

Skills I need to get under my belt:

Working with fine fabrics - satin, lace, tulle, silk etc

Welt pockets (for waistcoat)

Fine narrow hems (?) for dresses above

No doubt there are others!

After wedding

I was successful in altering Missy to fit Helen and need to alter my new model to fit me. Then sewing for me! Trousers and smart casual jackets are on my radar. I've enjoyed making some craft items,  including a bag (will blog after Christmas) and will do some more.

We also want to downsize and move south. Any recommendations, please? We want to be within easy travelling distance, preferably by train, of Cambridge and London. I want to be able to attend courses and exhibitions in London! I'd like the town to have a library, a post office, a doctor's surgery, local shops and decent transport. Maybe a local. Also within easy travelling distance,  a golf course and a sewing bee, not necessarily college course - could go to London for that. Not in London,  though - too expensive. I need something larger than a postage stamp! A house with a granny flat would be ideal.

RTW Fast; MAGAM Challenege

I don't think I will commit to this next year. There are some items that I can buy much more cheaply than I can possibly make - and I'm not talking about disposable fashion here. Tee shirts for example. They don't inspire me to make them,  anyway.  If by some miracle I found a well fitting garment, that I liked, of any description, I would buy it - no hesitation. I don't want to have to turn down a really good bargain, either, as I did this year. If I end up buying my MOB outfit, so be it. I can't sew fast enough to keep up with my garment needs - but I will continue to try. I just can't buy trousers. Or dresses, jackets… (so buying MOB outfit extremely unlikely!). I've bought much less this year and spent less time shopping. I do need to look in shops and try on different styles as part of my design journey.

MAGAM challenge - I love the idea but haven't achieved and maybe shouldn't aspire to this. Will see what happens in the second half of the year.

Health

I've been quite ill. Unfortunately the medication prescribed has disagreed with me, making me feel even more ill; that's stopped as a result of the side effects and they have greatly diminished but next year we'll be looking for some further treatment. I have a minor cold and it's knocked me for six, probably as a result of the depot steroid injection impacting on my immune system.

I was due to be going to the German Christmas markets tomorrow, for a few days,  and have had to cancel as I'm not well enough. I haven't been playing golf - the main part affected by the inflammatory arthritis is left hand. This is a chronic condition. Maybe I won't play golf again?  I've had to ask that question. I hope I can but I have to be prepared if I can't. I need to find ways to exercise (sewing doesn't work for that!) and to get my weight and cholesterol down.

Today I was at our ladies’ golf group Christmas lunch. We are a very select group now - only 8 of us!  I had pheasant for the first time ever. Some of the others had played a few holes before the lunch - in tee-shirts! It's once more unseasonably mild. My car was reading 16 deg C. Interestingly,  that was the temperature one year to the day before Helen's wedding!

Tonight is the Strictly Come Dancing final. I've loved the dresses. I'm not sure who I want to win;  it's pretty close this year,  I think. All down to the public tonight! I'll vote if I feel strongly about one of the couples. Looking forward to an evening watching. I'm posting this in the break between rounds - not as I thought it was going to go!! We'll see at 9pm who is leaving. Oh, and I did vote! I'm excited.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Anne x

A waistcoat started and THAT dress!

I achieved another of my August goals.  I bought Burda 3403 with a view to making a waistcoat for my daughter's fiancé, A, as requested. I was given his sizes, which fall between the 38 and 40 and decided to make up a toile for him to try when I see him next.

This doesn't even show the waistcoat! 

I decided to cut out the 40. This really only involved the fronts and the back. I drew on the pocket, tabs and button/buttonhole positions. I made it up in ghastly white polyester fabric. No final fabric has been chosen - this is for size only, to give a later starting point.

My husband tried this pared down waistcoat on and reckons it will be a pretty good fit. It was okay for him, perhaps a touch neat, but he and A are about the same height (about 6') and DH has a slightly larger chest size, more 40 - 42". The length was good. A is an athlete and had a broad back so I can only wait and see.

Tonight, before posting this, I decided to look at any available reviews for the waistcoat. One review said the waistcoat was rather neat, the other that it was rather loose, so who knows! One suggested it was a difficult sew (it's labelled as 'average'), but at least I have some help available should I need it. Maybe I should have read the reviews before buying the pattern! It's a lot cheaper than the Vogue one, though. A hasn't seen it so I hope this is the style he had in mind. I do have another waistcoat pattern, but he did see that and felt it was too casual.

I made Butterick 5951, view A,

I do have a waist - really!

but disliked both the style and the colour. I couldn't do anything about the latter but wondered if anything could be done to improve the fit and appearance. R and D, who are designers and pattern fitters, run the sewing bee I attended and were happy to advise. They agreed that the fit was poor, felt the design was faulty and didn't like the colour on me. I suggested that the design might be faulty because I had made changes but they didn't agree. They looked at adding a sloping bust dart to give some much needed shape,  pulling in the sides,  removing the shoulder gathering which they felt was not in the right place - they would normally expect to see this coming from further forward,  from a yoke,  for example. Maybe other changes too - my head was swimming a little! And R felt there would still be some unwanted poufing at the sides. I said that I didn't want to spend a long time on it if it really wasn't worth it.  They suggested starting by taking the shoulder seam apart and they would be able to give a better idea.

My dress was fully lined (bagged), understitched etc., so taking apart was no small undertaking. They were surprised that the lining is basically a duplicate of the dress, complete with shoulder gathering. This gave a little extra flexibility.

However, D looked at me after I had taken the shoulder apart and she had examined and asked if I would actually wear the dress in that colour after I'd put in a great deal of work. 'Probably not'.  D suggested that I use the skirt and its lining and simply make up a waistband or facing. I've decided I will do this.

DH doesn't think the colour is even ideal for a skirt but we'll see. I could wear a maroon (or maybe it's Marsala, Pantone colour of the year!) top. I might wear it as a skirt - I was never going to wear as a dress - and I couldn't give it away as a dress because I didn't feel the style made sense and the dress looked unattractive even on the hanger.

So as of the end of today, one dress fewer, one dress more (for daughter -separate post), one potential skirt on the way, and the various toiles I mentioned in an earlier post well under way. I feel I'm becoming a little faster. Just as well! 

Butterick 5951 finished

I posted the other day asking for some advice on moving forward with this dress, but everyone it seems was too reticent to advise! So I had to decide myself, with the help of DH and after trying on. Overall, it was fine.

 

I decided to go ahead to the next stage with the dress and cut out the bodice lining. I didn’t use the fine cotton lining I had previously chosen - rather I decided on a rather classy silky lining which I thought would make the dress easier to care for and less likely to crush. This fabric was part of my haul from a fabric sale last year; a pretty high class garment manufacturer shut down a few years ago and the employees took over the stock, selling it off gradually until they had to get rid of it all as the storage space they used was needed for something else. So I don't know what this lining material is - it could even be silk, for all I know. It feels really lovely, much nicer than the lining material available to me in local fabric stores.

 

I had a decision to make about what  pattern version to use for the lining as I had modified the fabric after it was cut out (this was the biggest issue - in retrospect,  I'd have been better redoing). I cut out the lining and made up to the same stage as the bodice. I finished off the darts as instructed on both bodice and lining. The lining sewed together perfectly,  unlike the bodice fabric.

The dress, inside out, showing the lining from the front

 

The next stage was sewing lining to bodice, right sides together, at armholes and neck and understitching. Then turning through the shoulders (the sides are open at this stage). Then I pressed and felt everything was looking rather nice - at least as far as the workmanship is concerned. There's no doubt that a lined armhole looks better than one finished with bias tape, which I had briefly considered.

 

Then I sewed up the side seams, lining and bodice separately, and pressed. When I turned it back to the right side, it looked very nice.

 

However, on trying on, the side seams under the arm were still too floppy and large. I took the side seams out and re-did with a larger seam allowance tapering from under the arm to midway down the seam back to the normal seam allowance.

 

Then I had to sew the bodice to the skirt. Here I ran into my problem again. Because I altered the dress after it was cut out rather than altering the pattern properly and then cutting out,  I created a problem. There was excess fabric between the front dart and the side seam - it came together nicely elsewhere.  This excess meant that the folds running from the dart sloped down rather than lying horizontal. I couldn't take the dart out again as it had already been trimmed very close to the stitching.

 

Rather late in the day,  I also decided to add a skirt lining. I see from PR reviews of this pattern that many have.  The advantages are that waist seam is easier to cover and the skirt will hang better. It wasn't difficult to add.

 

I went to a summer sewing bee yesterday with my college tutors, who work together in a studio closer to my home than the college. R had helped me modify the pattern previously. She remembered it - a simple spread,  as she put it. It would have been simple if I had redone - the bodice and skirt linings came together beautifully - but it wasn't and I hadn't.

 

R got me to try the dress on. She thought it looked rather nice.  She recommended an increased gather into the dart but as mentioned earlier,  I couldn't do that. I spent most of the class trying to alter.  I took out the side seams and waist seams again and pulled the front across to the side seams and beyond and down to the waist seam and beyond. Eventually I cut off the excess fabric and sewed up the seams again. This makes the dress a little tighter at the waist. It could be taken in even more, as it is still rather loose. This sounds easy but it took me a few attempts. I did succeed in the end,  though.  The lining looks better - it was too late to wish I had recut the pattern.  

 

I then inserted an invisible zipper, without too much difficulty. The biggest issue was that I couldn't get a 24" invisible zip or a 22" ordinary zip from the shop I went to,  adjacent to the sewing bee.  I ended up salvaging the lovely 24" invisible zip I used on an earlier sheath dress that doesn't fit now (it shrunk and I didn't). The zip was a touch wavy and R advised me to steam it, which worked beautifully. 

 

At this stage,  I just had hand stitching left to do.  I pinned the lining over the zip ready to stitch and tacked up the hem ready to hand sew. I put it aside as it was late,  ready to pick up today.

My husband asked me to try it on to let him see it. This I did,  despite all the pins present from the pinning of lining to zip tape. Like me,  he doesn't like the fabric for me (it's too green,  not my colour and too  Liberty,  not surprising since it is Liberty,  but I've never been attracted to these prints,  though the feel of the fabric is lovely) and realised that I was continuing because of the techniques I was practising. I was attracted to this dress in the first place by the gathered darts. He thought it looked better on me than he had expected (I agreed)  but picked up that my waist seam wasn't level across the zip. I had noticed that after I had tacked the lining - despite pinning,  hand tacking then machine tacking, it had still slipped slightly - fortunately not obvious because of the pattern in the fabric! I make DH sound very critical - he isn't. He's very supportive of my sewing and will happily measure me,  pin me into things and take photos - and I have asked him to be brutally honest about what he sees.

 

I had no intentions of redoing the zip. So I decided I would try to sew the lining to the zipper tape by machine,  making sure I was far enough away from the teeth to allow free movement of the zip. I managed this with less difficulty than I expected and it was definitely faster than hand sewing and arguably stronger. I hadn't finished the edges of my fabrics, so hopefully this will also make frayed ends less likely to poke out. I think I could be a touch closer to the teeth - I sewed it at an offset from centre of '4' rather than the maximum possible '5' which would have brought it closer. It's fine,  though.

showing properly finished zip top

showing distance of folded lining, machine stitched to tape, from teeth

 

I then decided to topstitch the hem rather than hand sew. By now,  I just wanted the dress finished and it would have taken a while to do all that hand hemming. I had decided to continue with the dress but only give it a limited time,  then stop.

 

A few minor elements sorted and the dress was finished! A quick press, removal of missed threads and,  more seriously,  taking out part of the waist stitching and redoing as I had caught the seam allowance the wrong way,  twisting it so it wouldn't have been able to lie completely flat.

 

DH had also noticed that the lining was showing at the armhole on both sides. I previously thought my understitching was good,  now I'm not so sure!  I think part of the problem was that I had taken in that area further and resewn and the two sides were no longer in perfect alignment. I pressed again and put in a few hand stitches in the hope that will sort things out.

 

The dress isn't the most flattering I've tried -.the colour is wrong and the style not ideal. However,  it is wearable and I will wear it if we get any summer!

 

I learned a few new techniques:

• Gathered darts (not sure what to call them)
• Machine sewing lining to zipper in lined dress
• Properly finishing the top of the zip

 

Practised some I've done before:

• Insert invisible zip
• Understitch
• Attach lining to bodice
• Insert a lining
• And learned that I wasn't quite as proficient at them as I'd thought

 

Developed my pattern cutting techniques:

• Learned how to alter gathered dart - a pity the fabric was cut and I couldn't apply what I'd learned to the bodice

 

Learned a few miscellaneous things:

• It's important to perfect the toile before moving on - otherwise a lot of time will be wasted and the garment may still not be a good as it could be
• I sewed and unpicked so many times here and learned that fabric is just fabric.
• I learned I can give up before I reach 'perfection' and that things can be good enough.
• I should sew with fabrics I like. This fabric was beautiful to sew with but as I just don't like the small floral too green pattern, I know I won't wear the dress as much as I might have in a different fabric.
• Although I was advised not to finish the fabric edges as that adds bulk, and everything is concealed by the lining,  I wish I had, especially for the lining which frays quite a lot.

So that's it. What do you think?  

Butterick 5951. Do I finish or abandon? And shingles disrupts both sewing and celebrations.

With my classes finished, I decided to get on with a dress I was making - Butterick 5951. This is a retro styled dress. I'm not keen on the gathered sleeve version as shown in the photo below, view B, but really like the long sleeved version, view C, for cooler days. However,  I decided to make the sleeveless version, view A,  in the first place. I thought this would be great for summer.

 

The bodice is lined, using the same pieces as the bodice. Bust shaping is created by gathering at the shoulder and a shaped waist dart with the fabric at the side gathered into a virtually separate front piece - the front dart is cut open.

Shape of front bodice

In fact, when I started this dress I intended to enter it into Pattern Review's plus size contest (the deadlines can be helpful for me,  though not in this case). I had never,  to be honest,  thought of myself as really plus sized before, even though I have to make some of the larger sizes in patterns. At 5'11" and a UK RTW size 16, most people don't think I look plus sized other than in height. Clearly, though, I am, certainly according to PR's criteria - and this has needed a shift in perception. My self view has changed. I've found that I'm unclear about suitable styles, though previously I really wasn't as my problem was that I couldn't  buy well fitting clothes, not deciding on style. Anyway, I was so busy with course work and family things that when I ran into early problems,  I didn't have time to address them. The dress was abandoned.

Showing the fabric

I had decided to use a lovely Liberty cotton that I bought for one of my daughters - who didn't like it. First, I made a toile, as I usually do.  

Toile with neckline changes marked

In the actual garment,  the bodice and lining get sewn together before the side seams are sewn. In the toile, I basted the side seams to test for fit. I found that the bust shaping was too high and the front bodice was too short. The neck was too high and the sides too loose. All these changes were made to the fabric.
I increased the length between shoulder and bust on front bodice and increased by the same amount on the back. I have a sloping back to front waist and don't need additional length in the back but do need a lot extra in the front. I tried to work out how to increase the front without increasing the back when there was the shaped dart at the front. Obviously,  front and back need to be the same length at the side seam. I asked some questions and got some answers but was still not clear how to proceed. However my pattern cutting tutor was able to point me in the right direction.

Tutor's drawing that helped me on my way

This dress, though, wasn't part of my pattern fitting classes and I made many mistakes on my own!

My block

I could now see the way forward. I used my bodice block to draw out and test the technique and was happy with it. I then moved back to the pattern and increased the length of the centre of the front bodice by more than the sides.

Here I made a big mistake!   Still trying to finish the dress in a short period,  I cut out the bodice and skirt pattern in the Liberty cotton, but not the lining fabric (fine cotton) I had chosen for the bodice, as it was still not ready after prewashing. I made up the bodice and skirt.

You guessed,  of course,  that the bodice didn't fit! My adjustments had been overdone. My pattern cutting tutor felt that I could salvage the fabric but felt I had to shorten considerably - by more than I had adjusted in the first place, though the bust shaping placement was better. She pinned the length adjustment necessary.

At this stage I abandoned the dress until I picked it up again earlier this week. I had to think whether I wanted to finish or move on with some potentially more useful work. I decided to give the dress a chance - a time limited chance.

I asked DH to fit the bodice on me as I felt the pinned length was too short. I decided to try out a length longer than that pinned by my tutor mainly because I would have been removing nearly all of the dart and gathered shaping if I had gone that route.

The pin marks where the tutor pinned it but I have cut to point showing

I have since cut off 7.5cms at the front and 10cms at the back. I have re-gathered the dart. The neckline was quite a bit too high and I adjusted that and the side seams needed taking in.

I haven't dared try it again as yet!

What next? (Yes,  I know I'll have to bite the bullet and try it on!) Do I go ahead with this - and make up the lining?  Is there a way I can get it to look reasonable and feel okay without a lining  - perhaps by using bias binding,  though I'm not sure that topstitching would look good. Hand stitching?  Not my favourite. I don't think I need a lining from the see through point of view.

DH doesn't think this is a suitable style for me, as I have less space between bust and waist.  Me?  I'm not sure. I agree with what he's saying about length but does this exclude this style? What do you think?  I'd really welcome feedback.

I'm paralysed by indecision.

My mother was staying with us for a few days, from Wednesday,  to rest and recuperate after a nasty bout of shingles affecting her chest wall. She hadn't been out and about for a while because of feeling really ill and the possibility of transmitting chicken pox to vulnerable people but that risk was now over. She's pretty frail, in a lot of pain and had been losing a lot of weight - at least partly due to being disinclined to choose what to eat, to cook. We let her rest and looked after her; she enjoyed eating meals which she hadn't had to choose or prepare and ate well. Yesterday, we took her home. It was our wedding anniversary but we decided to postpone it by 24 hours  - what's 24 hours after 38 years?

When my husband showed me a lump in his hairline on Wednesday, present for a couple of days he thought, I assumed the red and inflamed area was possibly a midge bite as he had been working in the garden. It wasn't bothering him. Then,  yesterday, on our way back from Scotland,  I noticed a couple of additional red and inflamed areas on his eyelid. He hadn't noticed them while shaving that morning. The red areas on his hairline were a little more extensive. We considered the possibility of shingles but the story and timeline didn't seem to match that and it seemed too much of a coincidence. DH had shingles on his chest wall 40 odd years ago and wasn't bothered by it then. Anyway, today we went to the NHS walk-in centre and they did feel this was (probably) shingles so DH is now taking acyclovir; they didn't feel the eye itself was affected. I had shingles affecting the left side of my face a few years ago;  fortunately, though I had lesions in my eye, these were treated and my sight wasn't affected. I still have itch and paraesthesia over my forehead, eye, nose and upper lip. Strangely, this has flared up a bit at the moment. It does that periodically though 'it shouldn't happen'.

Although my mother clearly didn't transmit this to DH,  I won't tell her in case she blames herself,  anyway.

We're still having a special meal tonight. M&S only does their dine in for two every second week, not this weekend. I went,  anyway.  It's amazing how good the value is for the dine in for two - I spent the £10 easily, without the wine. We're having a bottle of German 'champagne' - cremant d'Alsace - that we bought direct from the winery when we went on a German river cruise. We've been saving this bottle for a special occasion. Just so long as DH still feels okay.

So no sewing tonight but I'd love to hear your views and I can decide what to do tomorrow.