Octotunic!
I'm really sorry about the name. I just couldn't resist. And I'm probably the last person on the planet to hear about "octomom" or whatever, having gotten my first pedicure in eons last week. I know I can't be the only person who only gets their celebrity news by reading ten issues of Us and People on the rare occasion that they visit a salon. And lest you think I'm some sort of Gentlewoman of Leisure, getting manis and pedis on a whim while an au pair pushes my toddler around the park, I'd just like to say that my getting a pedicure is more an act of community service than anything else since I can no longer comfortably reach my toes. Strangers were starting to look away in horror as I passed on the street. In addition to learning who/what "octomom" was (if you don't know, please don't bother) I also learned that no one else goes to the salon at 6 pm on a Friday night (Mr Rae was watching Elliot). Sad, but at least I got all of the magazines to myself.
Enough of that. Here's today's FO, evidence that I am chipping away at the Mendocino in my stash slowly but surely. This one almost made it onto the Spring Top Week roster but I couldn't get it finished on time:
: : Pattern Process : :
This began as the back of this top and the front of this top. Neckline, armholes and waist width later got adjusted for various reasons (Arm: you need more room if you add a long sleeve; Neck: you need more room if you're going for a boatneck look; Waist: you need more room if you get knocked up), resulting in a finished product that no longer really resembles any of those beginning tops.
The neck thingy (what IS that called?) was just a trace of the neckline about 4 inches or so wide, with a longer portion in the middle for the slit. I sewed the right side of the neck thingy to the wrong side of the shirt, then clipped the edges and corners, flipped the whole thing around to the outside, and sewed it down.
Oh the arms: the bane of my existence! I didn't have a good "arm" pattern anywhere, so I had to draft these bell-shaped ones out myself, resulting in many, many reject muslin arm pieces on the floor of my sewing room and multiple tearouts.
In the end, the urgency of knowing that the top would not fit me if I tarried too much longer was enough motivation to get it finished. Here's one last pic, in which I'm starting to resemble another large sea creature...
