Tech Talk: Mobile Robot Printer

I came across a Kickstarter for the Mini Mobile Robotic Printer and I was intrigued.  Basically you plop this device on a piece of paper and it prints. As my sister described it, it’s a Roomba that prints ink instead of vacuums. However, what made me back this project is that it can print on any size paper! I own a ridiculous amount of digital patterns, and there’s little more annoying than having to cut and tape them together.  With this gizmo I’m hoping I can just cut off a sheet of paper from a roll, plop it down and let it go!

pocketprinterNow I know I can get my digital patterns printed at Fedex Office and the like, but the last one I got priced would have been $18! That’s more than I’d paid for the pattern.  So I will be excited to get my Mini Mobile Printer and see if my printing dreams come true.

Patterns that Fit & Flatter

I thought it was great when Colette Patterns announced they were adding sizes up to 3X in their new knitwear line, but now that I’ve seen the patterns I’m not so sure.  There’s a difference between patterns that fit larger sizes and patterns that flatter large sizes and you can see the difference in the 2 patterns Colette released.

mabelThe Moneta dress has a simple fitted bodice and a full skirt. From the models used by Colette to the ladies in the Curvy Sewing Collective – it’s looked good on everyone. This is a flattering pattern and one I plan to make.

The Mabel skirt is a pattern that fits but doesn’t flatter anyone with a tummy…including me!  This pattern is designed with negative ease – that means it’s actually smaller than your measurements and stretches over your body.

What does that mean? All of your bumps get accentuated.  On dress like Moneta – its accentuating your breasts which is a nice thing for many women. But I don’t know many women who really want to highlight their belly pooch.

Colette used a standard size model and a plus size model for their shoots of this pattern – which is fantastic because you can see how it works on a curvier figure.  Unfortunately despite the plus model being totally gorgeous, that pink skirt looks terrible on her.  When a garment looks bad on the model, what hope does a normal person have?

So while I have already purchased fabric to make Moneta, I’ll be skipping Mabel.  I hope in future patterns, Colette takes into consideration we want our clothes to fit and flatter us. There’s nothing worse than spending all the time and money to sew a garment to realize it just looks bad on you.

Fit For Real People – Class 2

In Week to of my Fit for Real People we finally did some hands on alterations. After trying on my pinned together tissue, Marta suggested I do a 3 3/4″ Y-FBA and a 3/4″ broad back adjustment. The Y-FBA is new to me but it’s similar to normal FBA. It widens the top of the pattern a bit above the bust but this results in smaller side dart.

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The big eureka moment for me was how she figured out how much of an FBA was needed….she measured the gap between the the center front of the pattern and my center front. Brilliant!  It was also interesting to see how other people were fitted and the adjustments they made.

Now I need to get this pattern cut out of fabric so I can pin fit it in Class 3 and choose another pattern for tissue fitting.

My Quilt Guild

I love the third Wednesday of the month because its meeting night! I can’t wait to share all the projects I’ve been working on this month with the group of lovely ladies at the Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild. Our small group keeps growing every month, it is very exciting to have new members and so nice to see familiar faces each meeting.

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Fabric Panel Circle Skirt

One of my friends recently gave me a bag of fabric she no longer wanted. In it I found something I’d never seen before. It’s a fabric panel to make a circle skirt!13590214683_21bc40f377_zI thought this was a clever because you’d be able to make skirts with patterns in ways you’d never be able to out of normal fabric. It makes me wonder if it would be possible to design some panels like this and get them printed at Spoonflower.