You might be thinking, "Hey, that dress looks pretty great! What's the problem?"
Well, I ask you, "What is special about the 2 photos you see below? Can you guess?"
What does this mean?
I'VE LOST WEIGHT or INCHES RATHER!
Hello!
This means that my long, frequent walks and yoga are paying off!
So if you've felt like your exercise isn't producing results, take heart. It might be happening in an area of your body that you're not yet seeing!
Yes, since I took Jan Bones Dress Form class last June, I have gotten smaller in the high bust and around my back. I'm stunned, because I haven't noticed an increased ease of wearing my same clothing. And here I've been beating on myself for my food choices and my weight being at a plateau. But, this tells me that I am likely building muscle, which is even better than just dropping the weight. Yay, athleta me returns.
But, I need to do the fitting on this dress. I'm not going to take it to someone. That means I have to
- rip out the flap (which is top stitched)
- rip out the side seams
- dart the flap and side seams (the flap isn't just a straight fwd dart, you have to think inside out on this one because the way you'd dart you're actually working over the fashion side of the fabric be it front or back of flap)
- stitch it all back into place.
Monday night, I tried to do this on just one side. I was so ridiculously tired that I sewed the flap fronts together (as if they were the front to back) and likewise with the backs. I had this weird pokey point at the armpit. Oh God. I haven't sewn wrong pieces together in YEARS! Years I tell you. I gave up, went to bed.
Last night, I ripped more seams, started over. Because it's such a cramped area to sew, I decided that I would just have a seam showing on the back of the flap. I'll hide it and the likelihood of anyone looking at my underflap, under my arm is practically nil. As I learned from my Dad and in engineeirng school, use the roughest acceptable tolerance to get the job done. Basically, decide what is most important and critical and get shit done instead of wasting time on minute details that will not impact the final results. Thank you Dad.
I did also make a point of contacting Julia to let her know I will be sending in photos late only if it wouldn't cause her more work. It's a lot of work to host a challenge or an exchange. Having helped with them, I've learned how important it is to communicate and much an email like this is can be appreciated.
More sewing tonight after I excercise.
How is your dress coming along? Are you sewing any summer or spring wear?