Mentioning the Unmentionables: Cami Muslin

One of the sewing tasks I did this week was to work on the muslin for my Kwik Sew Cami. And boy-oh-boy am I glad I'm into muslin at the moment!! I would have been so sad if I had used my pretty silks for this!

OK, I admit it: it doesn't look too bad in the above photo - it just looks like it needs some tapering from beneath the bust to the waist. However, a closer look at the armpit is revealing:

There is a lot of gaping - the fabric stands several inches away from my body. However, when I tried to take it in at the side seam, somehow it seemed to pull and not fit right across the bust. I also tried creating some darts with the extra fabric, but this also didn't really work at all. This has led me to a conclusion that I have been avoiding for some time: I need an FBA. (Non-sewing friends, this is a "Full Bust Alteration". Sounds rather drastic, doesn't it?) It fills me with dread.

Why dread?  Well, first, it seems somewhat complicated, involving cutting up, shifting and re-assembling the pattern. Second, I have a feeling that once I do it to one pattern, there will be no going back. I will have to make a series of alterations to every pattern I sew. Yes, before you say it, this is something I should have been doing all along. However, I seem to have been wily enough to choose patterns that have a forgiving fit across the bust. And I was acting under the assumption that my bust would be smaller post-weight loss and I wouldn't need to learn how to do an FBA at all. Alas, no.

But my craving for lingerie must be satisfied. So, FBA  here I come. Stay tuned. And if anyone has any thoughts on doing an FBA for a bias cut cami that has no darts, without messing up the grain, please do share!

PS - My panties, post-alteration, have been worn and are perfect! More of these to come! 

Lady Grey Fabric!

Hooray!

What you are looking at is a red-orange boucles for the outer shell (it's a bit more orange in person) and a black, white and turquoise print silk charmeuse for the lining. Being a New Yorker, I definitely get stuck in a rut of always opting for black. It's practical, slimming and goes with everything. But I really want this coat to be a statement piece, and what color could be more perfect for autumn in the Northeast than orange? And the turquoise in the lining really makes the colors pop. Both are from Mood.

Lady Grey Muslin 1.0

I always think I'm going to get so much more done on the weekend than I actually do. However, I did finish cutting my Lady Grey muslin pieces and I basted most of them together for a preliminary idea of the fit. You'll notice that I didn't bother attaching the second sleeve or the collar before donning a sweater and trying on... or pressing very well... or doing a particularly good job setting in the sleeve (the one inch allowance made it such a problem)... You get the point, this is a very rough draft.

Front

I think adding 2 inches of length above the waist was probably too much, even with shoulder pads. I am going to edit out 1/2-3/4 inch.   

 Side

Even with an enormous cowl neck sweater, the front lapels gape.There is just too much fabric above the waist.

Back

Just too big across the back, even with a chunky sweater. There is plenty of room in the bottom half, too, although I think it currently doesn't look so bad.   

Obviously, I want the muslin to have enough ease that the jacket will fit once a lining is added and I am wearing winter clothing. However, I am pretty convinced that the size 10 is too big. And since it is big everywhere, I think it makes sense to try the size 8 rather than trying to take in each and every seam. Seriously, sewing 4 princess seams with a one inch seam allowance was near impossible. I am NOT taking these seams in. 

Next steps: So, the plan is to make muslin 2.0 in a size 8, and last night I cut the pattern pieces.  I'm not much of a week night sewista, but I hope that tonight I will get to making the length alterations on the pattern pieces and start to cut a new muslin. I am not planning on re-doing the tedious method of drawing in the seam lines and enlarging the seam allowances. I just don't think I will need the extra room. OH! And I will be buying my fabric in the next day I hope.

Stay tuned...

High Octane Ice Cream

 

Friday and Saturday were warm enough that I was inspired to try my hand at another flavor of ice cream. Coffee is Phineas' favorite, so that was next on my list. Also, it would serve my other goal of perfecting a recipe for an ice cream base that I could use for a variety of flavors.


The starting point for this recipe is the vanilla ice cream I made over Labor Day. If you recall, I thought it wasn't creamy enough. So this time I increased the amount of cream and reduced the amount of milk. Then it was on to the coffee. After surveying a bunch of recipes, there seems to be 3 different ways to add coffee flavor: using instant coffee or espresso, using strong brewed coffee, or steeping whole coffee beans in the ice cream base. I decided to go for the bean approach since steeping seemed to work very well for the vanilla ice cream.

Coffee Ice Cream

1 vanilla bean

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

3/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon Cognac

1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans

So, I basically brought my milk, cream, sugar and salt to barely a simmer, added in the coffee beans, vanilla and cognac, popped on the lid, turned off the heat and let the whole thing steep for 90 minutes. I strained out the beans and vanilla before refrigerating overnight and then churning for 15 minutes.

On Saturday evening, Phin and I tested the ice cream. The bean method made for a very richly coffee flavored ice cream. Yum! And the creaminess was much improved from the vanilla version. It didn't occur to me until late on Saturday night, as I tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep, that this was also a very highly caffeinated ice cream. Doh! Next time, I'll use decaf beans!

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

As I mentioned last week, Faye of Faye's Sewing Adventures nominated me for two lovely awards.

I love champagne! This award is right up my alley.

Aww, shucks.

Both awards come with some "rules and responsibilities". The rules for the first award are: 1. Tell us what you like about YOUR blog, 2. Then send the award to 10 other blogs that you read. And, the rules for the second award are: 1. Tell us 10 thing about yourself, 2. Then Send the award to 5 other blogs that you read.

Like Faye, I am going to do a mash-up of the rules for both. So, here are 5 things about me, related to my blog.

1. Why Clio? Once, my pop decided to assign everyone in the family a code name for when we travel abroad. My major in college was history. Hence, Clio, muse of history. It stuck.
2. Why Five Muses when there are actually nine? My blog's url is http://fivemuses.blogspot.com because I am one of five sisters (yes, all biologically related. nope, no brothers.). My sisters (Calliope, Polyhymnia, Terpischore and Erato) have done more to shape who I am than anyone else or any other experience in my life.
   
3. Why blog? My very excellent friend Magenta encouraged me to track my sewing projects when I first picked up needle and thread. Over time, I started adding posts about travel, cooking and my other pursuits and, well, I'm hooked!
   
4. What is my favorite vegetable? Broccoli a la Phineas. This has nothing to do with my blog, and I am now guilty of breaking my own rules, which is something else you should probably know about me by this point anyway. heh heh heh
   
5. What is my favorite sewing project to date? It's almost always the most recent one I've completed. Right now it's a tie between my pants and my sarong pants (mostly because I am proud of posting the photo of them). But the most meaningful project was my nephew's Christening ensemble.

OK, enough about me! Now on to you... There are so many great blogs and bloggers who write about sewing and other crafty pursuits. But, I've decided to pass these great awards on to 5 ladies - Muses each and every one. And the nominees are:

Weekend Crafting -  Reethi sews up a storm, does all kind of crafts and cooks amazing vegetarian food. Also, she is a fun fabric shopping companion.

A Sewn Wardrobe - Rachel has a great eye for fashion and spent a year sewing all her own clothes rather than buying.

Sheilaz - CTK - Sheila is another renaissance woman who sews, crafts, crochets and knits at a pace that leaves others in the dust.

Making the Seam - One look at her Burda rock star jacket  should convince you Karin is the real deal when it comes to sewing. (Seriously, is this jacket hot or what!?!?!)

Li'l Miss Muffet - Li'l Miss Muffet (Heather) sat on her tuffet, sewing up all sorts of fun and fabulous lingerie, the likes of which I am dreaming of sewing for myself.

Now, you may have noticed that Sheila and Miss Muffet have already received the Beautiful Blogger award, which you may think would put them out of contention. However, does Meryl Streep have more than one Oscar? Absolutely! So, there.

Epic Muslin: Will I Ever be Done?

On Saturday I got down to work on my Lady Grey Coat. And I worked on it more on Tuesday. And again last night.

My first big decision was choosing what size to make. If, like me, your bust, waist and hip measurements direct you to three different pattern sizes, you understand that this is not ever an easy choice. Should I go by my largest size (ie: hips)? That would definitely make the coat too large through the shoulders, which I find difficult to alter. Waist size? No, the waist is easy to fix if it is off. So, I decided to go with my full bust measurement over clothing, since this is a coat and will be worn over clothing - so a size 10 is what I am making.

Mirror, mirror on the wall: Am I an 8, a 10 or a 12?

I also made a controversial decision about alterations. I did lengthen each piece by 2" above the waist, which is "the usual" given my height (5'9"). BUT, Given the cut of the coat - flared from waist to hem - I decided NOT to grade the pattern out to a size 12 in the hips. I may regret this decision.

Do you think this style will hide flatter my hips?

I'm gambling on the fact that the style lines of the coat (namely, the flare) will have enough ease to fit my hips. But just in case, I've decided that I ought to do the super extended version of muslin making that Gertie posted about last week, enlarging the seam allowances to 1 inch in order to have extra room for any alterations. This is a tedious process. Very very tedious, and involving drawing seam lines onto the pattern pieces, using huge swaths of transfer paper (I *heart* the FIT bookstore!), drawing new cutting lines onto the muslin, then cutting, and finally sewing along the seam lines! TEDIOUS!!!!

My muslin pieces

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to say that by last night I was ready to commit hari-kari; I am only half way done cutting out my muslin pieces. Luckily for me, the only weapon in my home is a hot glue gun. And it wasn't even plugged in. Or loaded with glue. So, the worst case scenario, should I reach the breaking point, is that I glue my fingers together or give myself a burn on my thimble finger, so that I can't sew.

Tonight, as a mental health fun social break, I'm meeting up with Erato, Terp and Poly, for a bit of fabric shopping and chat. I may even relent and buy fabric for this project before I finish the muslin. That might encourage me. Either way, I think a trip to Mood will do wonders for my own mood. Stay tuned.

Lingerie Update

Well, my panties have been altered and will soon be worn again. I will report back with (fingers crossed) better news.


In addition, one of the things I did on Saturday was cut a muslin for the KwikSew 2589 camisole. Since I am in a muslin-ish mood, I figured that it's better to work out any fit issues in a cheap cotton (less than $2yd) than in my pretty silk charmeuse. The KS instructions seem incredibly straightforward and easy. So, I should be able to report back soon.