New Beginnings

I’m sitting in my sister-in-law’s house in South Dakota, looking out the window at a snowy wonderland and contemplating the new year.  I just love new beginnings…the beginning of the school year, the beginning of a new sewing project, the beginning of a new year.  New beginnings hold such great promise.

This year, I have a new sewing room and some new fabric just waiting to be sewn into something fabulous.  It always starts out that way – me thinking that some gorgeous fabric I just bought is going to be transformed into a spectacular new garment. It doesn’t always work out that way, though;  but that’s the beauty of new beginnings – I can always hope that this time it will be so.

I have many plans in the works for the new year.  The first project will be to finish a new Sewing Workshop top, the Urban T-Shirt:

Since I seem to be in a brown phase, I chose the Issey Miyake brown knit kit.  I’ve already done the full bust adjustment on the pattern and added some darts, which I will post on my next entry.

The full bust adjustment was the first alteration I had to learn in order to sew a top.  It’s not that I’m particularly busty, but the size of my shoulders and back are small relative to my bust size.  If you have this particular issue, you need to measure your “high bust” like the number 1 measurement here (number 2 is the full bust measurement):

Make sure you measure snugly.  My high bust measurement is 32″, so I use a pattern size in which the full bust measurement is 32″ even though my full bust measurement is 36″.  So, for example, a McCalls size 10 pattern has a full bust measurement of 32 1/2″.  McCalls size 14 has a full bust measurement of 36″, but if I used that size, I would be swimming in it.  Instead, I use the size 10 and make a full bust adjustment.  It works beautifully.

Also in the works are Burda Style pants from the October 2009 issue, #107:

I recently took a pants fitting class and used this pattern.  The surprise from this class was that I needed a flat seat adjustment.  I had never done that before, so it was a very useful class.  I’m looking forward to sewing these up to see how well they fit.  I just know they’ll be great (I think…I hope)!

Ah…new beginnings.