Is that a coat? No, but check out those sleeve caps! (My November Project)

 As I was getting ready to go out wine tasting wearing my November project of the month and the newly saved McCall's 5847 denim shirtdress, my husband asked me: "Is that a coat?".  I was standing in our bedroom, no where near the front door and said:  "Do you really think I'm wearing a coat right now?"  Geesh.  That shows what he knows  :) 

 

So I was able to save my shirtdress.  I took of several inches off of the front princess seams as well as the side seams to undo my unnecessary FBA.  I also needed to raise up the bust point (the first time I have ever needed to do that), which I did by raising up the front of the dress at the shoulder seams.  Guess what happens when you raise up the front of a dress like that?  The size and shape of your armhole gets seriously changed (and smaller).  So when I went to attach the sleeves, the armscye (sleeve part) was a whopping and shocking 5" longer than the armhole.  How do you think that sleeve would look?  Like total crap, that's how.  (Thankfully, I had plenty of denim leftover to recut new full length sleeves.)  I found this very helpful tutorial about redrafting a sleeve to remove the sleeve cap ease.  The front of my armhole was at least 1" shorter than the back, so not only did I need to remove all of that ease, but I needed to move the top of the sleeve head toward the front.  Redrafting the sleeve was really no big deal and I loved how easy it was to set in the sleeve when there was no ease.  I think I may now be a convert to Fashion Incubator's belief that "Sleeve Cap Ease is Bogus".  I mean seriously, the re-drafted sleeves went in so smoothly and beautifully.  I may redraft my sleeves more often. 

Look at the difference between the before and after sleeve pattern...amazing!  And here it is in real life:

The top of that sleeve cap is so smooth!  If only I would stand up straight, that wrinkle on the back of the arm could go away too.

So my rookie mistake turned into a save.  Woo hoo!

 

Rookie Mistake

This weekend I'm going wine tasting with some girlfriends in celebration of one friend's birthday.  Did you know that Virginia is wine country?  It is!!  So a driver has been booked, and we'll be heading out to enjoy some local wines with good company.  What to wear?  My thoughts went toward a denim dress, cardigan, animal print scarf and my new boots.  Something like this:


from Polyvore

In order to wear this outfit, I needed a denim dress (minor detail).  I had some denim in my stash and after considering and rejecting it for jeans, I thought it would work well for a dress.  It was very lightweight with no stretch and I had a lot of it.  I pulled out McCall's 5847 shirtdress pattern.

I did a 1" FBA per the Palmer/Pletsch pattern instructions.  I cut it out and have it partially assembled.  OOOF!  I have made a rookie mistake.  I cut out the size corresponding to my high bust measurement and then did the FBA.  What did I forget to do?  I never looked at the finished garment measurements on the envelope.  DOH!  If I had I would have realized that there was 4" of ease at the bust, and I wouldn't have needed a FBA.  So now I have a giant shapeless sack.  Bring out the seam ripper, I need to slim this thing down a lot.