Swimsuit #2 at WEM Waterpark - Jalie 3134

I really loved my first Jalie swimsuit, but after wearing it to the pool, I soon discovered that it was too short in the torso, and didn't feel very comfortable!  I put up with it for a few weeks until I had time to make a new one.  Or rather, I waited until I had an opportunity to go to the World Waterpark at West Edmonton Mall, and had to make a new one that fit.

 I added an inch to the waist length.  I also omitted the piping.  I used this cute rainbow stripe fabric, and cut all the accent pieces so the stripe would be going crosswise.  I even managed to sew my lining in the right way, and now you can see the hawaiian print when you look at the inside!  I sewed the cups and the elastic in the same way.

 I didn't try on the suit until I was completely finished.  Did I mention that I finished it at 8:00am the morning of the waterpark trip?  We had to be there by 10:00.  It was last minute, but I didn't feel rushed, and I really enjoyed the process.  I love that I can make the whole thing by just sitting at my serger.

 When I tried it on, I was thrilled to discover that 1" in length was all it needed, and it was finally perfectly comfortable!  By the way, I took these pictures a few days later.  I didn't have time to have a photo shoot that morning!

 Even though I pulled the elastic tight at the back of the waist, it still gapes.  Next time, I will take a 1" wedge out, essentially making a swayback adjustment.  And I will still pull the elastic at that spot.  

 I'm very happy with this suit.  Although after making 2 suits with prints on a white background, I've discovered that they don't go well with my pasty white Canadian skin.  I knew that this time, but I wanted to make this suit out of something I had lots of, and wouldn't mind if the fitting adjustments didn't turn out.  

 I still love the way the back band joins the front and swoops down, even though the stripes are perpendicular at the side.  Who's going to see that close under my armpit?

 At the waterpark, my friend brought a waterproof camera, so I borrowed it and got some fun pictures.  This is a really cool shot that shows off how big the waterpark is.  I haven't been here in 7 years.  We used to come all the time when I was a kid, and I have many great memories of this place.  

I rode almost every single waterslide!  Yes, even the crazy loop-de-loop one, and the super steep "Sky Screamer".  On those 2, which are the most extreme, they put you in a capsule and shut the door.  Water runs down behind you, you cross your ankles and cross your arms over your chest, then this automated voice counts down: 3...2...1...then the floor drops out from under you!  The anticipation is scarier than the ride itself!  Man, what a thrill!

I had an absolute blast for 4 solid hours.  I rode over a dozen waterslides, and jumped waves in the wave pool (where I am in these pictures) until I was worn right out.

 I had such a blast, I'm getting some friends together to go back again soon!  And having a new swimsuit that fit made it that much better!

Corrin's Birthday Hoodie! - Jalie 2795 - Version 3

Shortly after I made my first hoodie, it dawned on me that Jalie patterns come in every size!  So I decided I would make my friend Corrin a hoodie for her birthday, which is today, by the way.

 I picked out some sweatshirt fleece from Fabricland, and it was 50% off.  Bonus!  It's really gorgeous fleece.  It's thick and oh so soft.  So snuggly.

 I sewed it up this weekend while watching 5 DVD's on my laptop.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

 I sewed up the size FF.  I'm guessing this pattern runs big.  But I'm not sure of Corrin's exact measurements.  I had them before Christmas, when I made her PJ pants, and I mostly remembered what they were, but I couldn't remember the exact bust size, which is the most important.  And Corrin has also lost 30 pounds since then, and I'm not sure how many inches she's lost, but I'm sure it's a few.  So, in short, the hoodie is a little too big.

 I will be taking in the side seams 4" total, and that will help make it wearable.  It probably needs to be taken in more, but I can't mess with it too much.  I'll just have to make her a new one in a smaller size!  

 She loves her birthday present and happily posed for me, including these cute sassy ones!

 I sewed the whole thing with orange thread in my serger and my sewing machine.  It looks really good against the burgundy.

 I think the orange zipper has a slimming effect.  And it will be much more slimming once it gets taken in. Other than the fit issues, I'm very happy with it, and so is she.

 Happy Birthday, Corrin!  I was so thrilled to be able to make this for you!  Now we're twinsies!  

Colour-blocked Hoodie! - Jalie 2795 - Version 2

I finished my second hoodie!  Good thing, too, because I wear that poor bright pink one every day!  Now I can let them take turns.

 I used a whole bunch of random scraps of sweatshirt fleece.  In fact, I had to use blue ribbing for the cuffs and waistband because I barely had enough blue for the sides and top of the sleeves.

 I'm really happy with how this turned out.  However, I think I need to acknowledge that I'm a bit thinner than I used to be, and I need to make a smaller size.  I took in the waist and hips 2", but the ribbing is really loose.  I also added an inch to the width of the bottom of the sleeves, and that solved the tightness problem, but again, the ribbing is loose, and they hang way down now!  They're about 1 1/2" too long now!  But that's okay.  I'll wear this hoodie when I go bike riding or something that requires me to reach forward a lot.

 It is very comfy, and I will wear it to bits.  I love the way the colours turned out.

 These are my kind of colours!  I absolutely love the combo of orange and blue!

 I'm so thrilled that I've managed to make 3 garments for myself in 2012, and it's only the middle of February!  I think that's a record!  :D

Neon Red & Black Bathing Suit - Jalie 3134

I started following the Jalie blog shortly before they unveiled their 10 new patterns this fall.  I'm so glad I did!  As soon as I saw this bathing suit pattern, I knew I had to have it!

 I picked it up from Davey Fabrics on one of my regular trips there.  I waited until my swimsuit I made in August became unbearable to wear any longer, and this weekend, I finally made a new one!

My mom had 2 metres of black swimsuit spandex in her stash, and she gave it to me.  I dreamed up a colour-blocking combo using a bright colour as the accents and back straps, and black as the main colour. If there's one thing I've learned from my last suit, light colours are not good when wet.  Especially when there's no lining underneath.  There's a reason everyone wears black suits to the pool.  But of course, I have to add a crazy splash of colour.  This is neon red.  Besides orange, this is one of my all-time favourite colours.  It is incredibly hard to photograph accurately.  This is the best shot I could get.  Just imagine that this is crazy neon bright, to the point of being hard on the eyes.  That's my kind of colour!

I cut out a straight size X, based on my bust size of 39.  I figured since my Jalie hoodie fit me so well right out of the envelope, this suit would be just as good.  Bingo!  Even though the measurements correspond with someone with hips 2" bigger than mine, this size is perfect!  It even seems to be more roomy on top, and snugger at the hips.  It's exactly what I wanted!

I found this hideous Hawaiian print on sale for 30% off, and decided to use it for my full lining.  It's very beefy.  I pinned it to my bra and then pinned the soft cups in place.

I also sewed a length of 1" elastic under the bust for extra snugness.  What I love about this pattern is that the back band is elasticized right to the side seams, and that's right where I sewed my shelf bra elastic.  So there's extra stability at the back so the elastic doesn't pull to the front.

I also decided to try the piping design.  I cut some multi-coloured spandex so that it would be striped.  It doesn't curl under like it's supposed to because I cut it in the opposite direction.  And there's no pattern for the piping.  You have to do it freehand.  I'm not sure I like it as much as I thought I would.  I really like the accent colour-blocking just the way it is.  I might not do the piping again.

And here I have the whole suit lined and assembled, and elastic serged to all the edges.

I accidentally put the lining in inside out.  I wanted the white layer to be on the inside, and the hawaiian layer to be visible.  When it gets wet, you'll see the print coming through the red layers.  Oh well.  You live and learn.  

I finished coverstitching and attached the straps, and after 5 hours and 45 minutes, voila!  We have ourselves a new swimsuit!  This suit is definitely more work than my last simple design, but it is so worth it.  An hour of that time was tracing the pattern, so I won't have to worry about that next time.  

The instructions have you measure all your elastic ahead of time.  Since I made a few swimsuits last year, I learned that for the most part, you sew the elastic without stretching anything, except for the back of the bum curve.  That's what I did for this suit.  It's almost perfect.  The only other place I would stretch a bit is  the waist curve on the back.  At the sides, it bags out a little bit, so that part could be tighter.  Other than that, it's perfect!

I absolutely LOVE this colourblocking!  It joins up from the back band to the side and swoops down to the front.  Cool!

Here you can see what I mean about the little bit of bagginess at the waist.  And here you can see my body shape pretty well.  I'm a rectangle with wide shoulders, and this suit is custom made for me!  I just love it!

I thought the high cut legs would bother me, but I actually like them!  I'll have to adjust myself when I get out of the pool, but that's about it.  I've also lost over 10 pounds since I made my last suit in August.  I can hardly believe the transformation myself!  I have only 4.6 pounds to go until I reach my goal.  And my last 10 pounds is coming off quite nicely, so I should be at my goal by the time I make suit #2!  I don't think you'll be able to see much of a difference from this.  I've lost 4 pounds in the last 2 weeks, and I think I look exactly the same.

Here is a fun shot I took especially for my mom.  This is reminiscent of when I was a gangly 12-year-old that was all arms and legs.  "HI MOM!!!"

Notice I painted my fingernails to match?  I glow like crazy in the sunlight.  :D

I can't say enough good things about this swimsuit!  I absolutely LOVE it!!!  I can't wait to wear it to the pool!  

I also have prints picked out for 3 more suits!  They will all be black with an accent print.  One will be the coloured stripe from the piping, the flames from my tankini, and a tropical blue and green print that my mom gave me.  Heck, if I'm swimming twice a week, I need all the suits I can get!

Lucie's John Deere Flapper Dress - New Look 6113

Lucie had an interesting request for me.  She wanted a John Deere Flapper dress for a 1920's Gangster Theme Christmas party in January.  She works at the local John Deere dealer.  Ah.  Makes sense now, hey?  She thought it would be fun to have a flapper dress in John Deere colours.  I thought that sounded like a fabulous idea!  

I found green cotton broadcloth, green organza, yellow satin, green fringe, green sequin trim, a yellow beaded necklace, and yellow feathers.

 I dug through my pattern stash until I found a simple, fairly shapeless dress with bust darts.

 Fits the bill perfectly.  The bodice would be green and the skirt would be yellow.

 I wanted to sew a pleated skirt.  My mom found this absolutely fabulous 80's pattern in her stash, so I decided to use the skirt pattern.

 I sewed the lining in the full length of the dress, and checked for fit.  This was a last-minute job, and I wouldn't be able to meet Lucie for fittings, so I got her to send me her measurements.  As it turns out, we are exactly the same size, except that Lucie is 5'4", and I'm 5'10".  I got to check the fit on myself, and if all goes well, it should fit her perfectly, too.

 I made up a muslin for this dress many many years ago, when I was the same size (I haven't been this slim for 8 years!).  I had already made a few tweaks to the fit.  I took a pinch out of the neckline, a pinch out of the armscye, and let out the bust dart.  Well I'll be darned, I guess I knew what I was doing!  It's practically perfect!  I think the only thing I'll need to do for future dresses is to do a swayback adjustment so the dress doesn't hang so far forward.

 Since flapper dresses have very dropped waists, I decided to use what the pattern gave me and traced the hemline from the tank top version.  This is where the skirt will start.

 For Lucie, I shortened the bodice by 1" at the waist.  Here you can see the pinches I took out and how much bigger the bust dart is.

Once I was happy with the fit, I proceeded to cut out the green layers.  I sewed the organza on top of the broadcloth.  Nobody would ever guess there's cotton in there!  These were the only green fabrics I could find, and I'm happy it turned out so good!

 I basted just inside the bust dart lines so I could keep the layers together.  Worked like a charm.

 Time for another fitting!  I wish I could do this for all my clients.  It's so much faster when you can try stuff on, make changes, and keep sewing.  Waiting for fittings tends to slow things down a lot more.  I like to have about 3 fittings for most projects.


Isn't this cute?  I may have to make the tank top as well!  I even like the colour.  I love the variety of garments I get to sew that I wouldn't normally choose for myself.  I'll be a guinea pig any day!

 Still needs a swayback adjustment.  But just wait.  Once I sewed the skirt on, it levelled everything out.  Amazing how that works!

 I sewed in a simple centered zipper.

 And another test to see what it will look like with a yellow skirt.

 Boy oh boy, did I have fun trying to figure out these pleats!  I pulled out the pattern piece, saw how huge it was, and started trying to draft my own.  I learned a few things about what pleats are made of, so that was useful, but the drafting wasn't working.  I went back to the pattern piece.  I was supposed to cut 3 of these, and I only had 1.2m of yellow fabric, and one of them just wouldn't fit.  So, I decided to take 2 1/4" out of each pleat, and it was perfect!  I could have cut 4 if I wanted to.  Took me a long time to figure all this out, though.  

 Everything from there on went really well.  I edge stitched around the neckline and armholes so the lining wouldn't roll to the outside, and I hand-sewed the lining to the zipper tape.  I made the sequin trim into a feathered headband with some narrow black elastic.  Cute, isn't it?

 And last but not least, I sewed the green fringe to the waist seam.  I left the dress unhemmed until Lucie came for her first and final fitting on the afternoon of the Christmas party.  It was still hanging perfectly straight, so I gave it a rolled hem at 1 1/2", had a nice chat with Lucie while I sewed, and ta da, it's done!

 Lucie got entirely dressed for the party.  Too awesome!  I hope she's bombarded with compliments tonight!  I also told her to try and get a picture in front of a John Deere sign.

 And gosh darn, it fits!  How bout that!

 Lucie, you look fantastic!  Have a blast tonight!