The end of the holidays...

Two weeks of school holidays has meant reduced work hours and supposedly more time to sew.  I spent 5 partial days at work, took Dylan to a scan for his knee, and took the car for a service.  I managed to clean my gas stove top and glass rangehood hood which had both been neglected for way too long.  Several days were spent with low grade headaches... just general blahs... and doing Mum taxi duty as Nadia required this trip or that; so not surprisingly, I haven't sewn as much as I had intended.

I did get caught up in the Quilty Love patterns Quilty Stars sew along.  Making four scrappy star blocks (with pattern variations) to make a baby size quilt for a new baby within the wider whanau (family).

One block...

Became two with variation...

Became 4 with sashing variation...

And that plus sign extended to the outer border and resulted in a grey border variation...

And some final strips of a dark star print top and bottom to make a perfectly sized and shaped baby quilt!

One of my goals for this holidays was to get some clothes sewing done.  I had purchased the Megan Nielsen River dress pattern when it first came out... printed it, and then second guessed my decision and left it.  River is a raglan sleeve reversible dress or top with a round neck one side and a V neck the other.  My initial plan was to wear it loose as a tunic over a long sleeve top. 

I used a fine cotton broadcloth with lots of drape that had been on a super special from Spotlight for my  (optimistically wearable) muslin.  With front, back, sleeve and pockets it is a straightforward cutting and sewing project.  At the last minute I decided to omit the in seam pockets as I wanted to experiment with adding elastic at the waist and thought the pockets might not sit well.

I decided to not follow the instructions for the neckline (which should be a visible band) and used a purchased yellow bias binding which I sewed so that it was fully turned to the wrong side.  At this stage it was looking very hospital gown! 

Although I followed the instructions and checked the tutorial, I found the underarm seam did not sit well.  Although the instructions did not mention trimming or clipping the seam, it obviously needed it.

I restitched closer to the seamline with a mock overlocking stitch and trimmed that seam right back.

It did end up sitting much better although I always have the option of clipping that seam if needed.  Although I was worried about the raglan sleeve not sitting right... it actually looks very nice.  I'm not sure whether the tucks under the arm are how it is supposed to look.  While I thought I might wear this over a long sleeved top, I would need to size up as there is not enough room under the arms or through the sleeve.  I also think it would need to be a heavier weight fabric for a tunic length, and this lightweight fabric looks better cinched.

Turns out I prefer the V neck at the front, but no matter how I trimmed or sewed the round neck, I couldn't get the bias to sit flat.

Which is expertly illustrated here!  It is also quite low for a back neck which I don't like.

And sorry for a poorly lit selfie but you can see here that there is definite possibility with this.  It sits nicely through the shoulders and bust and the V neckline is a nice shape and depth.  I hemmed the one sleeve, and at this stage I am going to recut a different shaped neck, cut a neck facing and see if that helps.  If I can nail the neckline, I will probably hem it into a top length and consider it wearable.  If the neck is not fixable I might play with a waist casing for elastic insertion for future possibilities.

I am wondering whether this pattern is not close enough to what I mentally pictured.  Clothes sewing is tricky!  This is why my experiments tend to end before a finished wearable garment is achieved, because I can't be bothered with starting the process again.  As this pattern has so few pieces... I can see light at the end of the tunnel, but looks like I won't have a finished project by the end of the holidays 😣