Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Well, I went to put the sleeves in my Wood Violet blouse, and it turns out the armholes are too high! We checked them against the ones in Mom's blouse and one of our new patterns (which is basically the same design), and both were 1” or so lower than mine. So tomorrow I get to rip the shoulder seams and re-cut and -zigzag the armholes. Hopefully they won't be so tight then.

Speaking of new patterns, Mom and I bought several at Hancock Fabrics the other day during a Spring sale. Five Butterick patterns for $5! So here are the ones we bought (and I'll put the pictures in later; for now I'll just link to Sewing Patterns.com):

4659: A princess-seamed blouse pattern for Mom. She'll probably put a different collar on it, and definitely some different cuffs—she's not hip on the ones in the pattern. We've tried making princess-line blouses before, but we used a size 16 dress pattern, and ugh! Both blouses were very nearly disasters. It made up fine as dresses, but for some reason it turned nasty when shortened to blouse-length. Eesh. So perhaps this one will work better. :-)

4732: A formal dress and princess-lined coat. I mainly got this for the coat, for use as a dress or over-dress. I like the standing collar that's cut in one piece with the coat/dress!

4827: Another princess-seamed pattern. OK, so it's a costume. :-P But hey, it's essentially your basic "under-the-arm" princess-seamed dress—I figured it'd be a good jumping-off point. Just switch out the lacing in back for a zipper, shorten the hem to a length that won't get dragged in the mud or trodden on, and voila! Change the sleeves and/or neckline, and you have all sorts of possibilities. (Oh, yeah, and make it up in more becoming colors, too. :-P) Plus it's normally over $15, so how could I resist getting it for only a dollar?? ;-)

4985: A cute blouse pattern very like some Inspiration pictures I'd cut out of an old Penney's catalog some years ago. I normally shy away from Empire-waisted blouses—they look like maternity tops!—but this pattern (and my clippings) looks like they're tailored enough that they'll just look pretty.

 5284: Another blouse pattern. It's similar to the vintage-ish one I'm using for “Wood Violet,” only this one has some cute ruffle options, too. We mainly got this one for Mom, so that, hopefully, the blouses she makes from it won't be too tight across the shoulders like her green one (made from the “Wood Violet” pattern) did! :-( And like I said earlier, I'll need to use it to re-cut the armholes on WV.

5348: Another dress pattern with potential. :-D The waistline, being neither an Empire nor a regular one, isn't my favorite feature, but I liked the round “yoke” and the cute sleeves. Leave off the skirt, lengthen the bodice, and you have a peasant-type blouse. Or the waistline could be raised or lowered easily enough for the dress option, depending on what you want.

5471: A really cute dress pattern with an upward-pointing waist. I have a vintage pattern with this feature, but the skirt has a seam up the front, and the bodice has these pleats in the shoulders and a high standing collar. Which are kinda cute, but with my wide shoulders, the pleats would probably look a bit like military epaulets, LOL, and as I plan to make a Summer dress from this pattern (or rather, part of one ;-)), the high neck is OUT. The new pattern will make it easier to get the design I have in mind without noodling with the old pattern and pickling my brain. :-P

Only a few weeks ago, everything was silent. No birds save the occasional quail flock or the random starling. Now all of a sudden there are bird-calls everywhere, robins all over the yard, and I heard a flock of red-winged blackbirds chattering across the tracks this afternoon! It's been trying to snow for nearly two days, and a couple times it even began to stick...then promptly melted in the 40-degree weather. Yesterday it was snowing, but not accumulating, prompting my brother to quip, “At this point it's just fluffy rain.” LOL!

I think of all this as Old Man Winter throwing a little tantrum again. :-P He knows his time is almost up, and soon he'll have to step down and let Lady Spring take the throne...but hanged if he'll go peaceably, it seems!
Twomoreweeks...twomoreweeks....

Until next time, Gentle Readers,
God bless,
~“Tom”~