How do we feel about the name Petunia? Personally, I love it.

I got a lot of work done this weekend. The first major thing I did was alter my black buttondown. I pinned the sides to see how much I wanted it taken in, drew a straight line, then sewed on that line using a straight stitch. Next, I cropped the shirt by measuring how much I wanted taken off, drawing a straight line, and cutting. This is a temporary crop just to get an idea of what I'm looking for. Once I know for a fact what length I need, I'll finish the edges.  I added some small darts on the side of the buttondown so it would lay flatter against the curves of my body. This was the trickiest part  becuase it is difficult to match the darts on the other side exactly when you aren't working from a pattern, but I made it work! Finally, I made some adjustments to the sleeve hole. I used my trusty french curve to create the outline of what will be my new sleeve hole. I didn't make any permanent changes becuase I wanted to see if the shape worked with the new sleeve before I committed.

Next, I worked on my sleeves. I am adapting a pattern of Kimono sleeves that I found in the costume shop. First, I traced the pattern onto parchment paper. I measured about how tall I wanted the sleeve to be (I landed on 22in). From there, I used my french curve ruler to draw a large curve to meet that 22 inches. In order to make an identical curve on both sides, I folded the parchment paper in half and copied the shape on the opposite side.

Next, I needed to test out my brand new pattern! I traced and cut out the pattern onto some muslin and stitched it together using a straight stitch. Then, the tedious process of pinning the sleeve to the shirt begins. There was a lot of trial and error in this section, especially becuase this is such a difficult area to maneuver on the sewing machine. Once I got the sleeve attached to the buttondown, I was pretty happy with how my pattern looked! I made some markings so I knew exactly where to pin it in the future, but no major changes to the pattern were necessary!

Finally, I continued to work on adapting my vest pattern. This process has been far more difficult and tedious than the sleeve was. I needed a blank slate and to see what I had come up with so far. I transferred what I had onto parchment paper to cut out new pieces out of muslin. Once I had my pieces, I sewed them together and fit it on the mannequin overtop my buttondown. Some problems I discovered: I forgot to take into account the extra fabric of the buttondown underneath the vest so I have made it a bit too snug; The bottom hem isn't making the shape I want, but I don't have enough seam allowance to fix it so I will need to cut out another pattern with a larger seam allowance to fix it; With the added fabric from the sleeves, the arm gussets were too tight and crowded, I will need to make the sleeves on the vest larger.

I also made some pom poms at home! I combined three kinds of yarn to create the silly sparkly effect I desired. I used two eyelash yarns, one of which had silver tinsel for some shimmer. They were super simple to make, I actually made them while watching the finale of Apple TV's Shrinking. I took a piece of cardboard and wrapped each yarn around the cardboard as many times as I desired. Then, tied a string horizontally around the yarn to hold it in place and then cut the yarn! And magically you have a pom pom!