Creating Mini-Capsules: Teal/Burgundy

The jacket, in the same state it was in when I abandoned it to work on the clothes for the wedding. Goal is to have it finished by Dec 1.
The lining for the jacket is a Vietnamese silk that has the teal color in it that is in the rest of this grouping.

the start of the front of Interweave Knits "Dickinson" pullover. Yarn, Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk
Goal to have this finished: Dec 1. I can do it. It's a fast knit and I've got car time coming up.


The fabric for the pants, showing another yarn that I have to go with the fabric. This is vintage stash. I'm thinking this gorgeous piece of wool dates to the 1980's. The yarn does too. I remember buying it at Fran Kirklands in Grosse Pointe to go with this piece of fabric, and I left Grosse Pointe in 1990, and Fran's had already been closed for a year or two.
Some time back I started a sweater that had a diagonal ribbing that was sprinkled with popcorns. I must have been out of my mind.
I've kept it all these years just to remind myself not to be that crazy. The yarn is a mohair blend and in reality is quite itchy, so I don't know what I'll do with it. Maybe I should just make a scarf to wear with this with the jacket.
The pants, Burda 7718, fully lined with an acetate twill that I picked up at Van Fabrics in Boston a couple of years ago.

in need of buttons and buttonholes on contour waisband and buttons for tabs; and hems. Estimated finish date - tomorrow.
It's so hard to photograph the plaid, but it has gold/burgundy and a lighter teal in there, and goes with a lot of fabrics. It's just perfect for the jacket.

The fit on the pants, I'm happy! Will get my handy cameraman to take pics Dec 2 or 3 when all this is done and I can put it on.


In addition, I have a piece of silk left over from the MOG project that will be fabulous for a blouse. And I have a piece of wool gab in raisin that will be another pair of pants. And several knits that would work for tops.
I plan to have at least one top/blouse made up for this group. Goal date: Dec 15.

Not lost, and I haven't fallen in,

My sewing mojo is slightly intact, however my blogging mojo has just deserted me for a bit.

Anyway, I was just about to write out this on Pattern Review for Sondra, who lives across the state from me, when I thought that instead I could put it here. This way at least I'll know where to find it when someone asks again.
So, I bring you a boring tutorial, and not much else in the way of blog content.

Changing an armhole princess seam to a shoulder princess seam.

The Front:
Before starting, cut all seam allowances away from your pattern. You need to match seamlines, not seam allowance lines. You'll need to remember to add your seam allowances back on after finishing your refashioning.

Choose a point on the shoulder that you want your princess seam to terminate. This may be the center of the shoulder, it may be as close to the armscye as 1" away. It should be at a place where the vertical seams will be pleasing on both the front and the back.

Draw a line from the bust point to the shoulder, shown here in red.
Cut along that line, and rotate it to the side front.
I was working here with scaled up drawings from a layout, you'll notice that the armscye doesn't quite match up. In reality, the same treatment that is shown below for the back piece will probably be necessary for the front. Read on.

The Back
Mark the same place on the shoulder as the front- it is important that the princess seams line up.
This is Sondra's back pattern, that she's trying to convert to a shoulder princess seam.
Notice that the way she's got these put together to photograph that the underarm seamlines line up, but the notches along the sidefront seam do not.
This is what I wrote to Sondra earlier:

Shaping with Princess seam is created by easing one longer seam into the shorter one.
On the front, where you're used to seeing that side front curve away drastically from the CF piece, the side front seamline is actually longer, and it is a combination of stitching the inside curve to the outside curve, and easing in the extra fabric along the outside curve, that gives you the room you need for the rounder parts underneath.

On the back, you can easily see by the fact that the notches aren't matching up here, that your side back between the notch and the underarm is longer than the CB piece.
That length does need to be there to allow for the ease - it's not a 1x1 correspondence or else you'd just be able to take a flat piece of fabric and draw curved lines on them, cut them apart, then sew back together. There isn't much curve to the back due to body shaping, but some ease is still desirable for shaping over the shoulderblades.
So, what you're going to have to do is cut the back apart in a way to transfer the length to the vertical seam.

1. Draw your new princess line.

2. Cut apart the back along the new seamline. Make sure that the notch mark is still clearly visible on the Center back section.

3. Match the notches of the piece you cut away and the side front, and tape together.
Draw a line from the side back either where the new section starts to curve away from original side back, or at a point just below the shoulder blade if the curve isn't evident.

4. Cut along that line and move the top of the new side back section up so that your armscye seamlines match.
(Sondra's armscye has a v weird shape here, almost as if that seam allowance hadn't been cut off. In reality that line should be a smooth curve. Sondra, did you not cut off the seam allowances on both the side back seams and the armscye?)

Meanwhile I'm back in the sewing room when I'm not working. Hopefully soon I'll have a load of garments to show off.