Fitting Frustrations!

I had hoped to do lots of sewing this holiday weekend but a variety of things got in the way.

1. It's HOT! Over 100 yesterday and today and near 100 on Saturday. We don't have a/c, so we tried to do as little as possible.


2. Doing as little as possible was all I could do Saturday. I somehow hurt my back and it started spasming so I spent most of the day on the couch with ice on my back. At least the ice kept me cool. Fortunately the combination of ice, rest, and some nice little white pills did the trick and by night I was almost back to normal. The only thing I can figure is that I moved a rib a bit when I watered plants Saturday morning. Good thing I have a chiropractor appointment on Wednesday.


3. College football on TV. Had to watch Penn State start the season off with a win. Yippee. Colorado State didn't do so well. Bummer. But other teams I root for (Stanford, Michigan) also won. Also watched a few movies. Not an entirely bad way to spend a few days off.

I finally go to my sewing today, but the heat and some annoying fitting problems made at least my garment sewing short lived. I spent alittle time working on my miniature quilt. This quilt is a project that I will have to work on bit by bit over the next year.

So...the fitting. Ugh. Lets see, so far I have a size 14 muslin with the side seams let out 1/4 inch and a size 16 muslin with a narrow chest adjustment. Without sleeves, the 16 is kinda big and the 14 is fitted. But I forgot that this pattern has a tie in the back so the 16 looked like it might fit better. That is until I put the sleeves in. I hate set-in sleeves but I spent the time to do both sets on each muslin. I'm glad I did. The size 16 narrow chest adjustment that seemed fine without sleeves was awful once they were in! It definitely pulls and tells me I don't need the adjustment or I took too much out. The 14 actually fits better - nicely fitted across the upper chest and shoulders. But there are some drag lines coming from the bust. It could just be that this is the wrong time of the month to be fitting things in my chest, if you know what I mean. I fear that the size 16 without bust adjustment will be too big in the upper chest. To address the drag lines I think I need a bit more room in lower part of the armscye. But I'm not sure how much more time and effort I want to spend on this, let alone how to do such an adjustment. The fabric for the blouse is inexpensive cotton from Joann's but I was hoping to make more New Look blouses, so understanding the fit would be beneficial. But at this point I was too hot to deal with it...or any sewing. So I took a break and later on I worked on my quilt.