In search of my mojo

This was supposed to be Halloween costume day, but my enthusiasm for the project has been dwindling for a while now (I think I chose the wrong concept – it was hilarious for a little while, but no longer thrills me.   I was going to be corny – an ear of corn!  (I love visual puns) so odds are good I will recycle one of my older ones – there are standards to maintain.)   Then a few days ago, my mojo was sapped completely when my doctor decided I needed a CT to check for ‘masses’ in my head, had a funny look on her face and wouldn’t elaborate.   Anyhow, after a little less than 48 hours of controlled terror (personally, I was thinking holy crap, brain tumors) they found lots and lots of mucus.  I am officially a really snotty person.   (After having spent my life cursing mucus, I was never so happy to have so much)   Anyhow, its left me feeling a little less than whimsical, and as the weather has dropped, I got to work on my coat.   The hilarious thing (to me) is that the stage two muslin actually looks better than the stage three – now, having seen it in person, I happen to know a lot of that is due to off grain fabric and wiggly basting, but it is irritating.   After getting it to lay just about perfectly smooth post stage-two, I added and hood and the sleeve, and BAM!  The whole thing is being pulled diagonally up – but I have a plan.   (also -- it will be knee length, but for fitting, I only bothered to the hips)

stage 2 muslin

stage three muslin, with fancy patchy bits (looks worse than it is)

Random fitting remarks:   If you look at the stage-two back, you will see diagonal lines going up my back.   It turns out I have a rounded back (I can’t think of any good hunchback jokes) and inserting a triangles, fat side to my back and pointy side to my armpit did the trick.   The rest of the piece had to be reshaped a little, but it wasn’t a major undertaking.

I also tried to move the narrowest point on the back a little lower to reflect the actual shape of my body, however, that seems to have been lost in some other sizing modifications I made.

Also, as one should always fit a garment wearing the appropriate undergarments, I’ve been doing this while wearing one of my polar fleece jackets – I tried using the dummy, but it turns out a week on a hanger and then a week on the floor without adequate layers of tape has left it forever malformed and misshapen, so fitting continues to be a slow and painful.

The plan of attack is one final muslin out of new, on grain cloth, so I can be sure of its fit, and then I make it out of the real fabric.   Think happy thoughts.

lovely wool - blue on blue