L is for Learning experiences

The thing about decidings to (1) Work with expensive, delicate fabric and (2) Alter your patterns (for both of your first two major sewing projects) is recognizing that getting from Point Dream to Point Reality will require copious amounts of patience and tedium.

For one thing, you have to be willing to cut out the same pattern pieces over and over and over.

Fitted shirts have a LOT of small pattern pieces.

I can think of at least four trials I made for my Inara shirt before I finally felt ready to cut into my beautiful orange jacquard.  That fabric terrified me with its pristine beauty, and I wasn't going to betray it.

Test #1 - I made a drab, basic shirt pattern and learned about sewing sleeves (highly important).
Test #2 - Tested the pattern I decided to use as my actual costume base.  Decided that I wanted to make some alterations to make it truer to the source costume.
Test #3 - Implemented my alterations and made sure they worked, and carefully noted what I was doing so it could be repeated.
Test #4 - Tried the whole thing out AGAIN on cheap practice satin (I should note that the first three trials were in muslin, which is a very kind fabric to a newbie).

For Rapunzel so far I have made two test skirts and three whole or partial bustiers.  Below you can see some of these castoffs (in progressive order):

I used the red fabric for the latest bustier because I really wanted to try my hand at fully lining something, and it was easier with two distinct fabrics.

My trial pieces are invaluable learning experiences, and each one teaches me a lot. Alas, I am not quite finished making trial bustiers.  Adding proper armholes for sleeves (in conjunction with the alterations I've already made to the bust) is a very precise and tricky business, and I don't have the fancy tools or training to do it with a compass and an equation on a drafting board.  I'm sort of doing it by instinct, small tweaks, and everything I've learned along the way.

I actually spent a couple of hours last Saturday night making some of these very adjustments.  As soon as I have something substantially worth posting, I will be sure to do so.

In the meantime, don't you guys just love the berber carpet in our basement?  You're spending quite a lot of quality time gazing at its beautiful oatmealy speckledness!