Gallery of In Progress Projects

[Dinobabe]

I agree with Sealion....but I also think your shoulder straps are a little too long.
This has led you to pull them too far up on the shoulder and pulling the back out of wjack.
Try pinching up the shoulder straps before you do any cutting to see if that helps.

--by the way....I absoluetly adore the dress.

It also appears that the front back length might be just a tad long. The reason why there is a gap where it laces as well as it sits down the front. I know this might require taking apart the lining, eliminating a grommet set, and resetting the tabs, but I think you will be happier, Dinobabe, with the overall fit. I see many Bodices sitting at or slightly above the natural waistline so the tabs set nicely over the pleats of the overskirt.

I do concur about lifting the shoulder straps so that they sit more level on the shoulders.  That will eliminate the overlapping at the top.

I will start with the pinning and work from there.  Thank you all very much for your suggestions!

[Lady L]

Aw, cute garb, Guinevere of Leonesse!

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Sit down!  Don't faint!  But get the smelling salts ready! 


As of right now, the pattern is pinned to the fabric waiting to be cut out.  Yes!  Finally!  After 3 years -  ** drum roll ** -  I have started my first sewing piece.  Bloomers! 

By the way, I don't know how to sew.     

[CapnFayeCutler]

But my dear Lady Renee, that's how you learn! ^_^

Congrats on taking the plunge into sewing - I know you'll do a fantastic job!

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

If the forum ever crashes again, I probably did it by trying to sew!  lol

I hope that I will like it.  Right now, it's a catch 22.  I don't know what I'm doing, so I get frustrated.  I couldn't even read the pattern, so I took it to work, where one of my good friends is a professional seamstress, and she helped me lay out the pattern.  Of course, it didn't help that the lady at the fabric store said I only needed 2 yards of fabric, and my friend had to lay out the pattern completely different than the instructions because it wouldn't fit.  Which I wouldn't know how to do, so I was very frustrated last night.

Here is the funny part.  My husband said to me on Monday, that I shouldn't pay to have somebody make me bloomers.  Between the 2 of us, we could manage to make them.  So I agreed, albeit reluctantly, because I know that I really don't know how to sew.  Well, on Monday, we jaunt off to the fabric store, find the pattern, the material, and the other bits.

Every night so far he has come home (at night after working in the restaurant) and asked how my progress has been.  So what happened to the "we" will make them?  That is the extent of his help, to ask how it's coming.  I want to bop him over the head!

Well, when I got home tonight, Glory Halleluia (our newest rescue dog, Golden Retriever/Golden Lab mix), got into my yarn.  There were unrolled balls of yarn upstairs, downstairs, and on the stairs.  It took me forever to try to untangle it enough to put it in a mesh bag to wash.  So I didn't even get it cut out.  Tomorrow after work, Jeanne will let me come to her house and work on it there.  I want to do it myself, with her tutelage.

*big sigh*

[Lady L]

I know you can do it, Lady Renee. Just take your time and think things through. If you do mess it up, so what, you can always begin again. It might even go easier than you thought it would. 

[Margaret]

Sit down!  Don't faint!  But get the smelling salts ready! 


As of right now, the pattern is pinned to the fabric waiting to be cut out.  Yes!  Finally!  After 3 years -  ** drum roll ** -  I have started my first sewing piece.  Bloomers! 

By the way, I don't know how to sew.     

Good luck with your project!

When I first started to sew garb, I did not know how to sew either.  Sure I could run a straight stitch on a machine, but that was it.  I had never read a pattern before.  Did not know any sewing terms.  Nuthin'.

Now, I am still not the best *technical* seamstress, but I do alright.

So will you.   

[sealion]

Good luck Lady Renee! I know you can do it!
I taught myself to sew when I realized that I am too cheap and too picky to pay someone else to make my garb.

[Marietta Graziella]

Huzzah Lady Renee!  I know you can do it!  My first project was a set of placemats.  Yup.  I paid money for a pattern for rectangles.     I did it because I knew how it was supposed to come out and I wanted to become familiar with the style of patterns, layout of information, terms, etc.  Now I'm a whiz.   

[Sorcha]

Huzzah Lady Renee!  I know you can do it!  My first project was a set of placemats.  Yup.  I paid money for a pattern for rectangles.     I did it because I knew how it was supposed to come out and I wanted to become familiar with the style of patterns, layout of information, terms, etc.  Now I'm a whiz.   

"A pattern for rectangles"    I love that!
No worries Lady Renee.  There is no Sewing Police that come to your house and judge you.  No one will be judging your bloomers anyway.  Unless you want them to.    It's an excellent project to start with. 
Sewing really is fun once you jump in.  Trust us! 

[LadyShadow]

Best of luck.  I learned to sew on Ren garb.  For my birthday I was given my mother in laws 1915 sewing machine, she showed me how to thread it and that was it.  Everything I learned was on my own.  Luckily I had the internet to look up terms and stuff that had me stumped.  And now I have this forum to help as well.  I cant wait to see your completed work.  And I completely understand the "Hubby will help" part.  Mine always tells me he will help and then it never happens.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Here is a good laugh!  My husband and I were laughing so hard, we had to hold onto each other.

So I get out my sewing machine to start these bloomers.  Thank goodness it had a bobbin in it with black thread.  My mother bought it for me just after our wedding, and this week we celebrated our 30th anniversary.  It's a Sears Kenmore, all steel, nothing fancy.  I think it does a zig zag stitch, but I don't know how to.  Our first laugh was that the instruction manual had in bold letters "25 year warranty."  Oops, missed that.

So I start to sew.  Steve did help me.  He held the fabric.  Of course, while sewing the crotch part, on the curve, the bobbin runs out of thread.  So I get the manual out, got it re-threaded, put it back in, and bingo, start sewing, everything jams.  Took it out, tried 3 or 4 times, everything jams.  By this time, my husband is shocked, because he has heard more bad words come out of my mouth in an hour than in 30 years of marriage.  I told him I was practicing "pirate" and shut up or I'll stick you with the 29 pins I stuck in myself - even drawing blood from my finger!  Come to find out, I put the bobbin in the shuttle backwards.  Grrrrrr.....

Start sewing again, got all the seams finished, getting ready to do the elastic for the waist and the legs.  Wait a minute!  This looks like it can fit Steve and me together!  So I tried it on. 



This picture shows where my belly button is:




So in about 20 minutes, when my bloomers get out of the hot dryer trying to shrink them, I am going to a friend's house.  She is a professional seamstress, and after giggling uncontrollably, she said she will help me.

I don't think I better quit my day job yet.

[Lady Kett]

That was a great story Lady Renee!

[Syrilla]

But look, you made a pair of pants... Very full, but you did it!  I don't think you did anything wrong, or something that can not be fixed.  folding down the waist to make a casing, and shorting the legs is about it.

[Kate XXXXXX]

Well, they are nice and roomy...  Hm...  Hooped pants, anyone? 

Love the story!  And you are doing well, really you are.  Your friend will help you understand where things went off plan.