May 6: Another Hour. . . .

. . .on the shirt, and I finished the other placket (this one set in, not sewn on) and did the darts. The Sewalong presents the pockets as the start of step two, and since I'll have to sew OVER the dart, I think that might mark the start of my frustrating "do your best and then iron the hell out of it" stage, so I decided to quit and wait till next weekend to start that. If this is truly a mess, I might even *skip* the pockets. I mean. . . really. . . .

The darts seem okay, though a tad pointy (perhaps a good reason for a pocket or two?). I tried the "shrink your stitch size till the very end" technique that I had read about elsewhere, so we'll see if that makes a difference.

One other frustration with the pattern is the layout/cutting info: the only place that #s of pieces and interfacing requirements are listed is right on the pattern pieces themselves, which is frustrating to check should one forget or some such human error. ALSO: the two placket pieces of 1" x 29" interfacing aren't mentioned as pieces per se, so one stumbles upon them after one has put one's interfacing away. . . . But one has now added a lot of notes to the pattern, so one will not make that mistake again, one hopes.

I'd say my self-satisfaction was at a 10/10 yesterday; today it's about a 9/10, but I am anticipating a plunge to an 8/10 "good enough for government work" level when the pocket gets involved. Anyway. Here's a non-helpful dart-and-second-placket picture. Over and out.

May 5: Spring! And some steps forward on the shirt!

I've been trying the "just one hour" approach, and so far it's gotten me moving a few times when I wasn't particularly motivated. I have cut out all the pieces, marked them, and cut all the interfacing. Today, I made the "wearer's right set-in placket," the steps to which were confusing in a few places, but the comments on the (not really very helpful [more on that in a minute]) sewalong helped me figure out one fuzzy spot and helped me decide to wing it in another. I'm pleased with the result so far!

(That's my neatly edge-stitched set-in placket.)

So, the sewalong: so far it's mostly photos added to the directions. There's a blurb at the top from the designer, but the directions are word-for-word from the pattern, AND, especially annoyingly, the fabric in the example shirt looks the same on both sides, so there's no helpful contrast for visual learners like me. Maybe it will get "helpfuller" as time goes on, but so far it's a "partially meets" for me!

Still: I am happy to have gotten one of the fiddly bits done. I feel like I'd like to do the other and stick the buttons and holes on right off, as the buttonholes have been my bête noire for years.

Ooh: I guess I do the other band next, and then I do the darts, the pockets, and the back tucks, so the fiddly stuff is coming at me hard. I may be able to do an hour tomorrow, though, in my lovely sunny workroom.

Onwards!