Simplicity 2766 view B: a vision in purple

I took today off. It was the perfect day. Woke up when I wanted to, read in bed, ate a leisurely breakfast, cut out a shirt, had lunch with a friend, bought a new dishwasher (finally!), talked on the phone, ate some Halloween candy, sewed half of the shirt, went to my favorite gym class with my favorite instructor, sewed the other half of the shirt, had dinner, and now I'm writing this blog posting while drinking an Airborne cocktail.

Does life get any better than this?

So here's Simplicity 2766 view B. Yes, it's the blue Superman dress, only in purple and tunic length:


Above it's with a purple cloth belt I made for another shirt, below it's with the brown belt, Mary Nanna style.



This pattern is great; set the sleeves in flat, NO gathering required. Easy peasy.

Tip I used from the ASE: I cut each sleeve separately instead of cutting both at the same time. That is supposed to avoid errors in cutting because knits are likely to shift. I think it helped. I used the same technique on the aqua jacket a few posts back. MushyWear had already pointed this out in one of her posts a while ago.

Tip I didn't use from the ASE: Do not cut any piece on the fold for knits; either trace out the entire pattern or buy two patterns and tape the pieces together and cut as a flat piece. That's also supposed to avoid errors but I didn't do that....I cut on the fold.

Those tips were from Rosebud of Islander Sewing Systems.

So, previously when making the dress,I had cut the shoulder, armhole and neck as a 12, the bodice as a 14 and the sleeves as a 16 grading to 10 to avoid too much poufiness. While I love the Superman dress, and will wear it again when the weather is warmer, I felt it was a little too snug in the chest. So this time I took a guess and cut out a 14 for almost everything except for the bodice as a guessed 16 and the sleeves, still 16 grading to 10. I think it's much better fitting around the chest. I was really guessing where the lines for 14 and 16 would be as I don't trace patterns like this, I just cut through them and throw away the other sizes. I had tried to buy this pattern again during the 99 cent Simplicity sale but JoAnn's in Colonia was out of that pattern.

Here it is on Emma:


I'm not as proud of the neck binding as I have been lately on other shirts and dresses, but I'll show it to you anyway:


It's rib knit fabric in a deep purple. Since I didn't have purple that was a close-enough match, I used black thread instead.

Oh, and I used Kathy Ruddy's tip about interfacing the hem for knits to prevent waviness due to the knit stretching. It does make it a bit stiff for a shirt; she taught the technique in terms of a jacket and it does seem best suited there.

And I am itching to make another pair of undies using this fabric and pink lingerie elastic from joann's. But maybe it would be better to wind down and finish reading the novel.

Parting shot: goodie bags for the training class I'm teaching on Wednesday. I train a lot but this one is a special class that's only once a year!



Good night!