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Ok, here’s some quick feedback! A couple of things to keep in mind here and with some of the shirts in your closet: this style of shirt is not a fitted blouse. It’s meant to be somewhat loose-fitting with a slightly dropped shoulder. In other words, I think you might be trying to make a fitted blouse with a shirt that’s designed to be more…[Read more]

Thanks for responding. Ok. I’ll try to describe my situation better. I am combining a lot of new to me techniques after making one basic dress. Maybe not advisable!
I am making a dress similar the one on 117 with the squared neckline using the basic bodice design. I am thinking I will treat it as a color blocking situation creating two pieces f…[Read more]

Thanks for your tips, Liesl! They helped a lot. I went ahead a made a muslin first, and just in case anyone in the future searches for this (also me, for when I forget, haha), I stitched the zipper to the outer fabric, just like you said, leaving a half inch at the top and sides (I trimmed half and inch from each back piece, after rereading the…[Read more]

Nancy, I’m really sorry but I’m not understanding your question(s). Can you re-ask it/them or maybe post a photo of what you’re trying to do?

Sorry, I made a mistake in the above post. I see that one of the dress variations has a shaped neckline on the bodice only. (I was rushing!)
I still have the question.
Or do I just split the bodice into two pieces…add seam allowances and cut the top one out of the polka dot fabric and the lower one out of the main fabric?

Question 1
I’m attempting my second Building Block dress. Maybe I’m in a little over my head here! But I was planning to make the neck line like the dress on page 117. But now I see that the pictures of a shaped neckline in the first part of the book only show the skirt extending from the neckline down to knee length instead of just going to the…[Read more]

Thank you. I will certainly prewash the muslin before use! I believe the leather closures I got do have pre-drilled holes and I think hand stitching would look nice, as I could use a heavier thread. This is all a new adventure for me – out of my comfort zone of making and quilting quilts!

I don’t have the pattern in front of me, but you’ll want to determine how much overlap was left for the buttons. Usually I leave about 1″ (1/2″ on either side), so that would mean you can trim 1/2″ from each side and use the remaining 1/2″ seam allowance. You’ll have to confirm that with the instructions and the pattern markings, however. I’m on…[Read more]

Hello, and a few quick answers to your questions: you can probably use unbleached muslin if you pre-wash it, and I would likely toss it in the dryer to be sure it’s completely shrunk. They press it well before use. My experience with Aurifil is limited but I would suggest an all-purpose thread for apparel stitching. It’s best when the thread has…[Read more]

I can’t help with the zipper, but I too am eternally disappointed by the button selection at Joanns. I can recommend Farmhouse Fabrics for buttons – they have a wide selection of real MOP buttons and others, including some fun shaped ones. They also often run specials on buttons. One thing to note – they’ll charge normal shipping rates, but if…[Read more]

The yoke is double fabric, so maybe you wouldn’t need one? Or what about making a slip dress to wear underneath? You could use the Pinwheel to make a simple slip that could be worn under other things as well. It wouldn’t be difficult to fully line it, but it might make it a bit heavy.

Thank you Todd and Liesl…and glad you liked the tag LOL…actually no swear words, just befuddlement. And thanks Liesl for the info on laying out…yes, your lines were easy to follow, and the thing in Acrobat about being able to turn off the layers like in Photoshop is brilliant! Slowly I am being dragged into the PDF pattern era. Thanks…[Read more]

I’m glad you figured it out as well. And here’s a little more information to help you in the future. Patterns are graded from the center-front or center-back neck, but when I lay out the patterns I often nest them differently than they are graded in order to make the various size lines more visible. If you need to make a change you’ll have to take…[Read more]

Ha! I love the tag you put in the collar. I’m thinking this particular shirt was made with more swear words that most!

So glad you figured out the issue, and thanks for providing an update.