Progress

It's the end of February. The year is roughly 17% over, and I thought I'd take stock. So far this year I have finished 10 garments ranging from simple boys' shirts to a jeans skirt. Nine of those ten pieces have been sewn entirely of stash fabric! I estimate I've sewn about 18 yards of stash fabric, and I really haven't bought much to replace it. With the exception of a little bit of quilting cotton for sashing on my two quilt tops and the blue houndstooth, I've done really well keeping my fabric purchases to a minimum. I'm hoping I can keep it up for a while and get the stash sewn down significantly.

Of course once the stash is sewn down, I can go out and acquire new fabric! It's all about making room.

The other night I got my mojo on and traced this:

This is BWOF 02-2009-112, the flirty black and white trench coat. Now this pattern is a petite pattern, and I am not petite. Well, technically I guess my arms and legs are, but the rest of me- not so much.

I traced the size 21, which corresponds to a standard size 42 (why do all the really cute patterns only go up to a 42?) and then I used Angie's method for sizing it up one size to correspond to a 44. I moved the pattern piece over/in one size and traced again. I also had to "un-petite" the pattern by adding 3/8" of length to all of the pieces above the bust and again between the bust and the waist. Since I have short arms, I only added length to the sleeves above the bust (I had to- it's a raglan), and left the lower sleeve as is.

I made a muslin and it seems to fit just fine. I will add one more inch of length to the body pieces at the waist- a standard adjustment for me- and then I'll cut out the fashion fabric. I'll be using a pretty black stretch twill with white vines and flowers. I guess there will be more top stitching in my future.