New Student: Sheila

We have a new friend at Sewing Cafe.  Her name is Sheila and she likes bold fabrics (how fun is that) and creating quilted jackets, vests, etc.  She decided to join us because she was becoming increasingly disatisfyed with the fit of her items.  After spending hours quilting and embellishing it is quite disheartning when you put your newly completed garment on only to discover it bunches, or hikes, and is quite uncomfortable.  I know we have all experienced this at one time or another. 

I simply love to find new people with a passion for sewing and a desire to add to their skills.  What is better then that I ask?  Personally I am constantly trying to improve my understanding of my tension, and what I call my even handedness.(gently, gently, and breath....)  Pardon me, I started to slip into a bit of a haze. 

Sheila has a smile that simply lights up a room. What a gift that is!  Really her personality matches that smile, how could it not, its lit from within.  But let's get to her shirts shall we?

This one is done in a batik and the color is simply glorious on her

She told me that from the first moment she tried it on it made her

feel great. Her patience with the pattern alterations have paid off ,

don't you think?

I believe that both blouses are different views of  Vogue 8120

The fabric below was a fun find at JoAnn's and is a linen rayon blend.  Where the batik shirt has a one piece collar, the linen shirt has a shawl color.  The shawl collar proved difficult due to the fabric wanting to fray and ravel so easily.  In the future I suggested that she create a narrow piece of fusible interfacing to "stay" the neck edge.  This way when she needs to clip into the neckline to fit the collar in it will be a lot easier to control. 

Shawl collars are quite lovely and seem like they should be simple enough to manage, but the reality is....that it is difficult to understand how the two edges, the back neckline and shoulder will ever fit to the collar edge and front shoulder.  I am thinking this might be a good subject for me to do a tutorial on?

We both really liked the dropped front hemline on this version and although the fabric was a touch tempermental it drapes well into the pleats at the closure and at the collar edge.

After this fitting Sheila made a slight change to the shape of the back princess seams and then proceeded to the hems and finish work.  At the end of the day she had launched into altering a pants patterns.  Terrific!  I do look forward to seeing more.