The Pattern Remains

So today I kind of forced myself to get started on sewing.  I knew I was dragging my feet and I just needed to grow some, pick a pattern, pick some fabric, and get to it.  I decided to first try some reconstruction.  I pulled out an old turtle neck from our re-purpose pile and planned out how to make a halter top out of it.  It was plain navy blue jersey and huge so I had a lot to work with and the fabric was pretty forgiving.  I also had no emotional ties to the fabric, so I could care less if I failed.  I did pretty well I think.  there are two triangles for the bodice that tie around the back of my neck and the rest of the shirt hangs straight down to my hips.  I measured my girth wrong and it's still too big, so I need to go back at some point and fix that.  I think it was more of a creation exercise for me than the want for a finished product, so it may be some time before I go back to it and finish it.

Next I began making the trapeze dress from my new book, "Weekend Sewing" by Heather Ross.  I chose my pretty blue owl fabric and set to work trying to read the pattern.  Keep in mind folks that this is my first time using a pattern EVER.  I don't think I've ever actually opened one up and looked at it before.  I don't have one of those handy dandy tracer thingies and this pattern is one I can't cut apart (it has 10 or so other patterns on it for other projects), so I had to do some figurin' to cut out my pieces.  I ended up taping several sheets of notebook paper together and tracing the pattern shapes onto them, then cutting them out and using them on the actual fabric.  This worked pretty well, but I am not very good at cutting fabric or patterns.  I think I'm just awkward in general because of being a newbie.

So at the end of the night, I have all the pieces cut out and marked for my trapeze dress and hopefully Wednesday I'll find the time to begin sewing it.  It's exciting and scary all at the same time.  What made it especially good is that I think Evan is as excited as I am about all of this.  I think he's just happy that I'm excited about something and doing something creative.  He has been a huge help in figuring out where to make my space for crafting, as well as always being excited to hear about what I have done/plan to do.  It's awesome having such a great hubby.

Well I probably won't post tomorrow since I have a long day at work, but I'll be seeing you Wednesday night!