I am almost finished my #sewtogetherforsummer Wrap dress, which you might have read about last week. Due to some careful pattern/stripe matching I am happy with how things are turning out.
This Sewaholic pattern, the Yaletown, has been a joy to work with. This is my second Yaltetown, my first one was made with a woven fabric, not a knit. So second time around, sewing it up has gone pretty smoothly. The only changes I made to this pattern, just like the first time it was made, was to make the bodice slightly larger as I love the loose, comfortable feel of it. I also lengthened the bodice just an inch.
I’m not sure how it happened but I did manage to have a closely matching thread in my stash!
Before getting into the nitty gritty of sewing, I did a few test runs on this knit fabric with a stretch needle in my sewing machine and various widths of my zig zag stitch – until I got the perfect skinny zig zag stitch. I know my Janome has a stretch stitch, but I’ve never been interested in it!
I remembered to reinforce my shoulder seams with twill tape to prevent any excess stretching.
The only thing left was hemming it up. So I hung it in the closet to hang out for a day. Relax those fibres. Chill, so to say!
Then I got distracted … as I sometimes do … on the Designin’ December Facebook Group page. I was curious and asked the question “… sometimes I have minor changes to a pattern floating around in my head, sometimes I have major ideas for a project – HOW DO YOU RECORD THESE PLANS? Pencil on paper? a computer program? What do you use?” There was a common answer … a notepad full of Croquis to sketch your ideas on. These are just some of the books being used by other creative sewists. I found a dozen more for sale on-line.
Then I got to wondering if there was something I could use on my iPad to draw my ideas. I have a long commute to work and back and I certainly don’t like to waste that time, but the internet connection is not always strong during my commute and sometimes it can be a bumpy ride and with a shaky hand! Also, since I was only wanting to give computer designing a try, something FREE would be preferable. Searching on my Apps gave me dozens of choices. Reading reviews made me want to give this one a shot!
Have you tried something like this yet? This App is a bit more complicated than a pencil on paper or a Croquis sketchbook but I’m looking forward to learning a vector App. One advantage, besides planning and saving my projects digitally, is if I really learn how to run this App or something similar on my laptop, I can design using proper scale and specific measurements. It seems that I’ve only just begun!
So tell me, how do you record your sewing ideas? pencil and paper? Croquis sketchbook? A computer program or App? Which one? Have you any reviews you can share?
Happy Sewing!
STASH BUSTING WITH THIS PROJECT? 0 metres! But all that’s left is the hemming! (139.7 metres remaining!)