Thankyou ladies for all your suggestions. You had some great ideas. I love Belinda's suggestion to add a band and topstitch that. And I hear you when you say that the topstitching will be lost in the check. I was thinking I needed the topstitching to give the same silhouette and body to the style. Perhaps I may not need that either as my fabric does have a fair amount of body and may stick out on its own accord.
Tonight I have been tracing out the pattern but have run out of tracing paper! So when I get some more tomorrow, I will see if I can straighten the hem to line up with the checks and then ponder from there. Hopefully I can get as far as cutting out tomorrow. I am sure it will take my most of the day to work out what I am doing and to place and cut carefully - lots of matching to do. Then I may even thread trace. No plans for a muslin at this stage. I will compare the shoulders and lengths with my sloper. The width I think will be forgiving.
This is my first sewing project for the year. I have not been sewing. We put our house on the market and after much cleaning and preparation it was sold the third week on the market. The girls and I have also bought a new townhouse that is just 2 klms down the road. We move in early July. Unfortunately the new home does not have a spare room for me to use for sewing but there is a small sitting area at the top of the stairs that I have called mine!
Other news is that Ellen has started a Bachelor of Film and Television at Swinburne University. Miss smarty pants won a scholarship and will have all her tuition paid!!
Sofie is in year 10 at school and is studying (amongst other subjects) VCE Studio Arts/Textiles. So far she has done felting, screen printing, silk dying, transfer printing, solvent transfers, shibori, tie dye, lino printing and mono printing! She is really enjoying it. She also has made a couple of bags for friends for birthday presents.
Here they are sitting in front of their gift bags. She used fabric remnants.
Inside view. She made the label from fabric and embroidered on the words. She did have sewing help from me but the choice of fabrics and trims and the design of the bag were all hers. (I had better keep an eye on my stash..lol)Finally I want to thank Paco and LindsayT for nominating me for for the sisterhood award. It is greatly appreciated and made me feel special when I have been so stressed and completely unable to sew or be motivated in general..sigh.
