April's fool !

Current Mood : Through with the blue ! 

So. Again I got to do some late-night sewing, and I knew this would be the last trial with that blue fabric. I have maybe enough to do a small applique on my sewing machine cover to remember it by, but that’s it. Plus, I could see the spool core on the semi-matching thread. Soooo…what to sew to that bodice…

The NG Creations drop-waist bodice is good now. I got the right balance between snug enough to not give a free show, but not too tight. I’m happy with the fit, finally. Since there wasn’t much material left, but I wanted to come as close to using it all as possible, I didn’t have a lot of options. Then I remembered those cute rompers that Dolls Ahoy makes – what about a playsuit ? Shorts would use most of the remainder, and it’d possibly be cute, too. I just didn’t have enough for the adorable gathered legs DAhoy sews. You can see hers on Flickr. I’d been meaning to try to figure out how to make my own, no time like the present ! I’d already accomplished my main goal, testing out the last bodice version, anyway, so if it was a total fail, oh, well !

Knew the shorts wouldn’t work well as a drop waist, so I measured a bit and decided to bring it up about an inch from the bottom edge. In retrospect, I should have gone ¾”, as I had to resew the inner seam to avoid doll wedgie-dom. Wrote down the steps as I sewed ‘em, although it was basic enough stitching – I just like having directions nearby. Kind of a security blanket, ya know ? Anyway, after a few tweaks and resews, I had a cute little playsuit all my own, that fit the standard MH ghoul body pretty well. I was pleased, and went to bed happy.

Today, though…eeeeh. I still liked it, but it looked so blah. April made a fool out of me - I just did not like last night's work. After a morning of errands and a quick run to Dollar Tree, I was trying to figure out how to make that playsuit work, make it something I was proud of again. I thought, maybe putting it on an actual doll, and not my broken DLaura fitting body, might work. Kinda did, but still not ‘there’. Maybe I just had it on the wrong doll ? I looked at everybody – except the boyfiends, no way it’d fit, and none of ‘em look good in a strapless ! – and my eyes settled on Howleen. Hmmm…that was a possibility…

The bodice, of course, gapped badly on her, but the rest of the fit was good. The shorts waist hit about where it should, and the blue looked good with her skin tone and hair. Tried cinching up the Velcro ™ in the back, but that just made wrinkles and still gapped, just not as much. Hrf. I could ‘hear’ Tabitha (Me Love Gangrels on Flickr) tell me that I could do darts, it’s just a pinch and a sew ! But I’d never done them, unless they were part of a pattern, because I didn’t feel confident just adding darts any ole where. Actually, I was just kinda scared – worried about messing up the design, about getting mine parallel and straight, when I could barely do so with a pattern and a marking pen, about having one more procedure to learn and improve on.

Still…if I wanted it to work, I’d have to get over m’self. So I did. Measured and marked off two tiny triangles in pencil on the inside, and yeah, I didn’t do ‘em well, and they don’t really match, they’re definitely not parallel, and I ran out of bobbin thread so one has a bit of white thread showing…but the fit is much better, none of that really shows in the photo, and I like my little playsuit now ! I’ll dress it up later, with a little jewelry, and probably a pretty belt, but I wanted to show you the plain, unadorned version first.

Yaay ! What a great way to start April – and I’ve gotten over and through quite a bit in March. Who knows what’s next ? Wheee ! Probably something with shoulders, I’m a bit tired of strapless right now…

PS - It's an old superstition that sez it's good luck to say 'white rabbit' out loud on the first day of the month. Get to it !