Stitch Frenzy: a journey into garment making

Well, summer was not at time for sewing. I think fall might be - specially since I need some additions to my work wardrobe, and pronto! Tonight I'm cutting up the free Lekala 3 seam skirt and making a muslin of that, tomorrow night I want to make a muslin of the HotPatterns Chameleon dress (bodice part). After those two things, my next challenge is the bodice muslin for the Marigold dress. I hope the 3 seam skirt works - it looks pretty straightforward (only 3 seams!) and as my biggest fitting hurdle is my pot belly I'm hoping that the lekala fitting algorithms have worked their magic to account for my 'high hip' measurement. Bloggers I think make beautiful things, such as Thornberry, have demonstrated a great fit with this pattern. I'm making mostly dresses and second layers (a Hotpatterns Chimera jacket and a burda soft knit jacket, I think) as work is overly airconditioned and chilly, while summer lingers far into September here in NJ.

I started! I cut something out! My sewing table is the kitchen table, so the cut out fabric pieces and these two little drawers full of my notions and gear are now in a box in the IKEA expedit behind me.  I'm making the  Cake 2224 Tee because it's free, was easy to find, and goes up to my size.  Tiling and cutting out the pattern didn't take very long, it was only 18 page. It was very straightforward.  Cutting out the fabric was harder because it stretched as I cut it. This is my first bash at knits, and I should have figured out that would happen. I was all nervous and blah blah but it worked out alright. I have cut the crew neck in a size 45 at the bust, grading out  to a 50 at the hips,(i.e. I drew a straight diagonal line on the pattern between the 45 bust and the 50 hips, and felt pretty darn accomplished) so this second pic is me cutting out the 50 waistband. In her craftsy class "Pattern Fitting for Plus Sizes"  Barbara Deckhart is always saying