A pattern pyramid has been formed! I was a lucky recipient of the goods and I'm stoked to be able to pass the goods on to one of you.  This pyramid is jammed packed with some rad patterns.  Why you ask of my use of words like rad and stoked...uhhmm I haven't a clue...Legend has it this pyramid formed in Australia, making it's way to the UK and ending up on my doorstep in a tiny little town in Indiana.
You can thank Amy of Almond Rock for that adorable image of the purple bear rocking out to his air guitar.  I only wish I find something just as adorable to include in the package to one of  you lucky winners.

There are close to 20 patterns to choose from.  I had hard time narrowing it down to just these three.


Vintage Simplicity 6529 - I don't know if I'm more attracted to the envelope design or the actual pattern.  Just look at that girl in the yellow. She's so damn happy, I wanna be her for a sec.

Vintage McCall's 8420 - What's not to love about a shift dress and a yoke jacket?  But look at the price back in 1966 - ONE Dollar!  Nowadays ya gotta wait for a Joann 5 for $5 sale to get a McCall's pattern for a dollar.

Vintage Butterick 3552 - A flared leg jumpsuit!? Whaa What!?  Once again I'm intrigued by the girl in yellow.

There's a lot more vintage goodies to choose from...


lots of dresses and skirts...


and since I'm so attracted to knits right now this was a hard one to pass up, especially after I seen the adorable version made up by Handmade by HeatherB


My contribution to the pyramid is one of those easy, instant gratification makes, Simplicity 2368


So are you wondering which patten I chose?  Well I think I've just about talked my husband into a Florida vacation this year so I'm gonna need a swimsuit coverup and a cheesy grin just like these ladies....


To enter this giveaway all you need to do is comment below and tell me what's your dream vacation.  This giveaway is open internationally!  To enter you must have a blog, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account where you can share the giveaway to others.

Muslin #1: What the Hey

After I determined all of my fitting problems I traced my pattern on tissue paper, marked the seam allowances and did a tissue fitting.  First I handled the back.  All of the excess fabric in the waist area points to a sway back issue but I also have the back bodice that hangs lower than the front.  I didn't do a typical sway back adjustment for this problem.  Instead I shortened the upper bodice.  This type of adjustment is also done for an erect upper back and according to this post this problem can be easily confused with a sway back.  I don't know, do I have an erect upper back??  In any case this adjustment helped tons.  One of the things I learned in Joi Mahon's Fast Track Fitting class was how to measure your body and compare those measurements to your pattern and make needed adjustments. To shorten the upper back I took my back to apex measurement and compared to the pattern.  This measurement starts from your shoulder seam to your back apex area.


I shortened my upper back by 1.5 inches by simply slashing the pattern horizontally on the upper portion and overlapping my pieces the required amount. (the circle on my pattern denotes where the apex area lands on the back, it's a rough guess, doesn't have to be exact).


I then tissue fitted my front and back pieces on my manny to make sure they were both the same length and ending at the correct spot on my waist.  You will also notice on the above picture that I did some adjustments to the armhole and neckline.  During tissue fitting I sloppily traced my armhole seam to match my manny's armhole seam.  Because I shortened the shoulder seam about one inch in the process I had to add this back to the neckline and grade out.
I'm telling you having a handmade dress form that is your exact twin is invaluable in the tissue fitting process.

Now on to the front.  To fix the excess fabric I had pooling around the armpit area I simply pinched it out on my pattern, essentially creating a dart.


I then retraced my pattern because I didn't want to sew an actual dart onto my bodice.  I guess this is what you would call a hidden dart in a pattern ??   Adding this dart will pull your center front all wonky.  I straighted out my center front and smoothed out my armhole.

Muslin #2: Getting Better

Muslin #2 looks way better than the first.  You can see my back bodice is now level with my front.  I did some more minor tweaking to the excess fabric pooling in the front and tweaked my armholes a tad more.  Instead of the 3/8th seam allowance I used a 5/8 seam allowance on my 3rd muslin.

Muslin #3: This is paying off!

I was happy enough with this muslin to move on to some real fabric. After taking pictures  I discovered I still had some issues with my back, excess fabric pooling around the armhole area.


Being the perfectionist I am I couldn't leave well enough alone. I messed with my back armholes some more much the same way I did the front.  I then made my leopard Lady Skater.  It fits really well although my sleeves were rather hard to put in.  Because I had added a hidden dart to the front bodice I also made the armhole smaller in doing so.  I realized that I had forgotten to adjust my sleeve for this when I noticed all this excess ease in the front of my sleeve. (don't ask me how i didn't notice it in my red Skater ?? lack of sleep??)  I somehow miraculously eased it all in.   I did receive feedback on my red Lady Skater post that I wanted to try out and I also wanted to correct my sleeve ease so tonight was muslin #4, you lucky peeps! Helllloooo are you still awake??

Sabine suggested my excess fabric could be due to forward sloping shoulders and to try and pinch it away from the top of my shoulders.
It's kind of hard to see because of the lighting so I traced around my armhole in black so you could better see how the front and back gapes open. This is exactly what is causing all the fabric pooling.
 

I smoothed out the excess and pinned up top and marked my new seam line on my front and back.  Because your shoulders are forward sloping your new seam line will result in an angle.  I added in my 5/8 seam allowance and trimmed away the excess.



My new seam line resulted in me shrinking my armhole 1/2 inch.  This will also affect my sleeve cap.  I shortened my sleeve cap 1/2 inch as well by slashing the pattern horizontally and decreasing 1/2 inch.  I used my sleeve ruler to smooth out the curves.   Now to fix all that excess ease in the front because of my hidden dart.  This was an easy fix.  I simply moved the center notch on the sleevehead to the back by 1 inch.  This redistributed the excess ease from the front to the back.
 

Booyah! I think my final muslin looks pretty freaking good! Feel free to click on the picture to open in Flickr to zoom in for a closer look!!  A major improvement from the first muslin.  Thank you to everyone for their expertise.  I really hope someone finds this post helpful.  I know my way of doing things probably isn't the proper way but it worked and that's all that matters in my little bubble.

Have a great weekend!  Surprise surprise we got more snow so I'll be staying in all weekend putting final touches on my next TNT pattern.  If you stayed with me this long well here's a little treat for you, a video of Vito in the snow.  He pretty much says the hell with this!  And he's not particularly fond of his shoes as they are about to flop off. This dog kills me!

My second version of the Lady Skater made in a fun animal print jersey from Fabric Mart. This version fits a little better in the back as I fudged some more alterations. Promise I will be posting my muslin pics from the first version later this week. I have a few things I want to try that were suggested by you all so I'll let you know how those work.  This fabric is a light weight jersey that will be perfect for Spring/Summer. I don't give a poo though if it is only 11 degrees outside, throw on some tights and boots and I'm good to go!


If you'd like to see a few more pics and me ramble on some more about how awesome this pattern is check out my post for the Fabric Mart blog.

Oh yeah peeps the Lady Skater got game.  If you haven't made the Lady Skater yet I'm begging you to just do it!


This is a downloadable pdf pattern available here.  Since Valentine's Day is just ahead I used a red ponte knit from my stash.  It's a very stable knit so it's just the right weight to wear in the cooler temps (I mean @#%^ cold! Spring I beg of you come to me now!).  I made several muslins of the bodice but after looking at pics I seen I still have a few fit issues to tweak.

Now I did take pictures of the muslin and fitting process for my own reference but I'm wondering if any of you would like a post on that. ??Anyone?? I know fit posts can be such a bore but I have had some express they find those types of posts helpful.  Now keep in mind my way of fitting is somewhat of a "wing it" type process.  I did just finish a fitting class on Craftsy and was able to apply a few things I learned.  If there is any interest, let me know.  But for now a quick run through of my fit alterations....


After looking at photos I noticed I still had excess fabric pooling underneath my armpits on the front bodice.  I pinched that excess out and adjusted my pattern again.  My Jungle January Skater seems to fit better because of that (post on that version later)  Here's where I am stumped though and I'm asking for your expertise...See all that excess fabric around my armpit area (and even on the sleeves) on the back?? What's the proper way to fix that?  For my JJ version I shortened the upper back bodice even more and even adjusted the back armhole in hopes to fixing it.  It is better but it still needs tweaking and I sure would like to know the proper fix.  I'm not sure if I need to raise my armhole, or if I'm missing a rounded back adjustment ( I thought that's what I was doing when I shortened the upper back bodice).  Side note: I do have this issue with everything I've made and have not been able to figure out how to fix it.

Despite the wrinkly armpits I'm still gonna wear the crap outta this. It's super comfy and paired with a cardi no one has to know.


Just a few fit kinks but excited to have one dress pattern down for my TNT Pattern Challenge!! Whoot! Whoot!  If you follow me on Instagram you've already seen Lady Skater number two, if not it will be posted here and on the Fabric Mart blog later this week.

Have an awesome week!!

Next up for my TNT pattern challenge, let's talk dresses.  With dresses it's reaaal easy to get sucked in to a complicated dress pattern because it's sooo pretty and yes I wanna feel like Cinderella!!  But that's a problem, the pattern is so complicated there is no way you ever want to make it again, even if it did fit perfect, it's too dang fussy!  So the patterns I chose should all be easy makes.  2-3 hours tops once all the fit issues are taken care of.  (I've already mastered one of these that I will share later next week).

CATEGORY: DRESSES

FAUX WRAP DRESS: NEW LOOK 6097

All pictures from Pinterest

 

I've had this pattern in my stash for a while now.  The fact that it's just for knits and someone mentioned it as their favorite TNT pattern made me dig it out.    If your on the hunt for a free pattern check this out!  

SKATER DRESS: KITSCHY COO 

My favorite style of dress.  I've made it twice now and it's a definite TNT.

SHEATH DRESS: MCCALL'S 2401

All pictures from Pinterest

 

I debated on this last pattern.  I've realized I like dresses but I love them even better when they are made of comfy knit and contain NO zippers.   But for good measure I included a woven sheath dress.  Actually I just read the pattern envelope and double knits can be used as well, sweeet!  I like this pattern because of the different neckline options.

Have you made any of these patterns? I mean hasn't everyone made the Lady Skater? I know why now! It's awesome.




 

What I hope to learn here..
1. Patience when it comes to fitting.
2. Basics pieces can be fun and versatile.
3. Patience when it comes to fitting.
4. Solids can be your friend too.
5. Patience when it comes to fitting.

Please note this list is subject to change either because I got frustrated with fit of the pattern and gave up or because I'm flighty like that and something more sparkly caught my eye.

 CATEGORY: TOPS

 

BASIC KNIT TOP: Sewaholic Renfrew

Picture Sources: Pinterest & Peneloping.com

Backup pattern: Deer & Doe's Plantain, I heard it was a life changer and it's free!!

BASIC WOVEN TOP: Grainline Woven Scout Tee

Picture sources: Pinterest

Backup pattern: Gertie's Portrait Blouse 

BASIC TANK TOP: Maria Denmark's Just a Tank Top

Picture sources: Pinterest