Sewing woes

I checked on my followers today and discovered that their numbers have doubled! Yes, doubled from two to four. Don't laugh you guys. This is exciting for me. Now I wish I had something awesome to post to encourage all four of you to keep reading, but the last week has been nothing but sewing disasters. Feel free to stop reading now. It's just going to get ugly.

First, I whipped up a muslin of McCall's 6091 out of a bed sheet I got at Goodwill. Here's the pattern, as a reminder:

And here's the muslin/toile/mock up/whatever you wanna call it:

Ugh. Sorry everyone. I really do need a new camera. And a better place to take pictures. With some good lighting. And maybe a lesson in photography. But anyway, the dress - it looks like a nightgown, right? I do like the ruffly neck. Not everyone likes ruffles. Well, in the words of Mitch Hedberg, "I'm FOR 'em!" Like fancy toothpicks in a club sandwich. If you don't get that reference, please go watch some Mitch Hedberg.

Back to the dress. I didn't sew the casing for the elastic on very carefully, so it may be a little uneven. Even so, I just don't think this pattern is going to create a very polished looking dress. More of a sack with a drawstring. But it could be a very cute top if you cut it off at the hip. I stared at this for about a day, consulted a friend for advice, consulted Mom for advice (and received an earful about what different body types are supposed to wear - geez Mom, I don't think this makes me look flat-chested), and finally decided to choose a different pattern. So I bought McCall's 3562 off of Etsy, along with a shirt pattern for Josh (because someday I will sew for him - just not today). Here is the pattern:

Now if you're thinking "Huh, that looks like it still is essentially a sack with a drawstring" then all I have to say is "La la la la I can't hear you!" I may have made yet another bad choice, but I'm not going to admit it til I try this one out.

Now I couldn't just sit back and wait patiently for this pattern to arrive in the mail, so I decided to try out some pants from the Bella pattern from Burdastyle.

Bella #6011

I've had this pattern cut out for a year, and it's been under my bed waiting for me to gain sewing confidence. I've heard that Burda patterns favor curvy ladies, but apparently this pattern doesn't favor me. I spent a morning whipping up a trial version, and the result was so horrifying that I can't photograph it. I just can't. One reason is that my test fabric is hot pink linen (it was on clearance), and I'm a little embarrassed by it. The second reason is that the fit is so bad (too short in the crotch, too tight in the thighs, toooo large in the waist) that you probably can't even tell that these are pants or that they were sewn by a human. The third reason is that Josh took my camera to work and hasn't brought it back. So in summary: curvy ladies, pear shapes, whatever you want to call yourselves, "Steer clear of Bella!" It's not worth the headache. The only way I can imagine sewing pants that might fit is to go to Goodwill, pick out some pants that do fit me, tear them apart at the seams, and make my own g**d*MN pattern because apparently pattern companies just don't understand my butt.

We're about to move into a new house, so I can't imagine I'll have any finished projects to show soon. That makes me sad, but maybe I can distract the four of you with some photos of the new house once we're in. Til then, here's another project I'm dreaming of.

Gertie's Bombshell Dress Class

Gertie has an online class is creating a bombshell dress. And what would make a better bombshell dress than...

Pink flamingos! Sadly, I don't think I'm the type who could pull off this number. But it looks so good in my head! So as a compromise, I'm thinking about making the bustier top of the bombshell dress, and rescuing that hot pink linen to make a high-waited pencil skirt to match. Also, I only have 1.5 yards of this stuff because SOMEONE bought most of it up while I was waiting for a sale. Okay, so she lives in LA and might not be responsible for the shortage in Bloomington, but who else can I blame? This is a really weird coincidence because Sunni posted about this same problem on her blog this week.

That's all I've got for now folks. What do you guys think? About McCall's 6091. Or about our f'ed up government. Or about hot pink flamingos. Or anything really.