My finished shirt from the summer

I finished my shirt. I am not sure how I feel about it. It doesn't fit quite right and the lattice smocking (although very, very cute) is NOT STRAIGHT. (Whose fault is that?)

Darn.

www.prettypleatquilts.blogspot.com

This is why I buy clothes at the store instead of making them at home. The last time I bought clothing, I got a t-shirt at Old Navy for $0.97. How can I make something that fits me for $0.97?

(Here is where I get into the ramifications of buying a shirt for $0.97 which, of course, are many. There is the whole worker situation in Bangladesh or wherever, not including the environmental cost of this shirt and the fact that most everyone has dozens of clothes that they are not wearing. I am not much of a shopper, but I do have a number of plain t-shirts that I wear every day. But I try to be conscious of the fact that we need to be careful about the things that we buy and how it impacts the world more broadly. End of rant.)

So I remade the shirt. I got rid of the smocking. I couldn't handle doing that again as I needed to wear it soon.



Me and my handsome husband at the wedding.
This is, unfortunately, the best photo of the two of us together.

Anyway, I'm both happy and annoyed. Annoyed that it doesn't fit as well as one that I buy from the store (most notably because I can TRY IT ON FIRST before I buy it). And happy because this sucker is finished and I was able to wear it to my uncle's wedding. (His first wedding; 50 years in the making.)

(As a side note, what do you get for your uncle who is 50 and getting married for the first time? Do you get him a gift? Well, we decided to make him two Angry Birds pinatas. Yes, they were awesome, thank you! Way better than a gift card to The Keg.)



My original Angry Birds bride and groom, his and hers pinatas!
Also, a lot of fun when the bride give a hard whack to the groom piñata!
www.prettypleatquilts.blogspot.com


I'll stick to quilts, I think. My only goal in making those is to make them flat. If you don't count the pleats! :)

Sewing myself a shirt

My dad was in Beijing and bought me half a meter of silk.

My girl in the plaid dress I made her. 2009.

What do I do with this? I am not a clothing sewer. I can't remember the last time I made clothing for myself. I do remember making a dress for my little girl (before she started sewing her own things). And once I made pajama pants for my darling husband. I'm not sure why. It just seemed like the thing to do.

Now I'm not sure about everyone else, but I find that if I buy a pattern and then make it, it never fits. It's huge. Always. I make my regular size, which in every store is SMALL.

As I looked at the pattern, I wondered: maybe this is because for the actual bust for the small size is 43". Hello! 43"? What am I? A model in a girly mag? I am a small! I come with a small bust.

I measured my bust right now with a metal tape measure over all my clothes and it came in at 35". And I am at the height of my milk production with a six-month-old son. If you had asked me back before having kids, it would have probably been 25". Seriously.

Anyway, I have a plan to use this pattern to make a smocked top. Just the smocked part since the pattern is for a child. But I am not making it from a pattern. They will just make me look like I am wearing a mumu.