These last couple months have been crazy! So, for this month I only have one book. I was actually sent this book for free from Goodreads! Based on your interests and the lists you create when you sign up for the site, Goodreads will send you giveaways for FREE books! I'm so happy I was lucky enough to win a giveaway. It's been a bit since I've picked up a book that wasn't digital, but if you're thinking of picking this book up it's free on Amazon right now!
The setting for this book was a bit typical as was the relationship between main character and love interest. I think YA authors need to be more careful as to how they are representing love and relationships to their young audience. I don't think it's cute how the romantic relationship initially formed in this book at all. I wouldn't want teens to think that an overbearing partner that doesn't respect your choices or space is what a healthy relationship looks like. That being said other than the way their relationship first formed (it did begin to level out), I did enjoy this book and will probably read the next one in the series.
So, my question to you is, What's your favorite genre to read?
Next in our pattern drafting series, we're finishing our bodice draft with our back bodice piece. It's much easier to draft the frontfirst. So if you haven't, go do so now! If you would rather watch this tutorial, there is video at the end of the post.
A few things we need to know about this pattern.
1. This block is made for woven fabrics (ie. non-stretchy fabrics)
2. This block stops at your natural waist (which is also where we will take measurements from)
3. The term "square out"/ "square down" means the line you are drawing will be at a 90 degree angle to the current line. You can use an L square or in a pinch you can use one of those clear rulers with eighth inch line markings.
3. You will need this block later on to create full length blouses, dresses, jackets, bras, swimsuits, and even to create our knit bodice block so you can make tees!
Let's get started!!!!
1. Our first measurement is going to be from the highest point on our shoulder to our back waist. Using this measurement, draw a straight on the left side of your paper.
2. At the top of that line we're going to square out the measurement from the nape of our neck at center back to our shoulder tip.
3. From the end of this line, square down three inches.
4. Next measure from center back at your neckline to center back waist and use that measurement to measure up on our first vertical line and make a mark
5. From that mark square out four inches.
6. Next we're going to take our back bust line measurement. Do this by measuring from center back across to the side seam and adding three quarters of an inch. If you're using a dress form
this is going to be two inches below the arm plate. Use this measurement to draw a horizontal line out from our first vertical line being sure that your drawing it at a 90 degree angle
7. At the end of that horizontal line, be sure to square up just like we did for the front of the bodice
8. Our next measurement is going to be from center back waist to our shoulder tip and we're going
to add one eighth of an inch to this measurement. Then, we're going to connect from the bottom left corner of our drawing and rotate that up until we hit that vertical line on the far right side.
9. Our next mark is going to be on our top horizontal line and it's going to be the measurement from our center back neck to our high point shoulder minus one eighth of an inch
10. Next we're going to take our shoulder length measurement and add half an inch. From the mark that we made on the top horizontal line we're going to use this measurement to draw a line through the point that we made earlier on the right vertical line This measurement may or may not go past the diagonal line that we made earlier.
11. Using this line as a guide, we're going to square down to hit our second horizontal line on the left hand side.
12. Once again, we're going to decide where we want our dart to be at for our back bodice and we're going to measure from center back out on our pattern piece to create the mark that's going to end up being our first dart leg.
13. From that mark, we're going to measure out an inch and a half to the right for our other dart leg.
14. Mark the center of those two lines.
15. Along that same line, were going to measure out the from the center back on our paper the measurement from our center back waist to our side seam plus one and a half inches for the
dart intake plus a quarter-inch for our ease.
16. From that mark, we're going to square down three sixteenths of an inch.
17. Next, meausure your side seam. Take this measurement, and starting at the mark we just made, rotate it until it hits the right vertical line.
18. Our next line is going to be squared up from the center of our dart and it's going to be the same
measurement as our side seam minus one inch.
19. Now we're going to connect this line to the 2 marks that we made for our dart leg, and we're going to go past these two marks by one eighth of an inch.
20. to create our waistline we're going to draw slightly curved lines from our dart legs to our center back waist and to our side seam waist.
21. To create our shoulder seam, we're going to find the midpoint of this line and draw a three inch line out from there towards our dart point.
22. On either side of this line we're going to mark out one quarter of an inch
23. Draw the right dart leg connecting the three inch line to the right quarter inch mark going past one-eighth of an inch.
24. Take the measurement of this dart leg and use that measurement to draw the left dart leg going through that quarter-inch mark.
25. Finish making the shoulder seam by connecting the dart legs to the neckline
and to our shoulder tip.
26. Erase the old shoulder seam line, and this is what you should have.
27. Our next line is going to be drawn one fourth of the way from our neckline to our waistline
28. Square a line out from that point the measurement from center back to mid-armhole
plus one quarter of an inch.
29. Square up and down at the end of that line.
30. Now we can draw our armhole in using our French curve just like we did on the
front bodice.
31. To create our neckline, we're going to angle up a straight line three-eighths of an inch out from our intersecting lines that we have for it right now
32. Using our French curve again, create the neckline.
33. We're done! At this point, some people like to leave their block as is, but I personally like to add seam allowance, notches, punch holes, and true my seams and darts.
Whew!!! We're done with our bodice block! Before using your block to make anything, test out the fit by making a muslin. Don't forget to keep all of your measurements! You never know when you will need them, and I promise the second you do nobody will be around to help you!
Hey everyone! Keeping with my monthly reading update, I thought I would tell you guys about the book I read this month. Yep, a very slow reading month for me!!!
The only book I read this month was After The Cure by Deirdre Gould. The book takes place in a world after a zombie infestation. At this point in the story, a cure had been found and what's left of the population is seeking justice against whoever caused the plague. Court psychologist, Nella Rider, and defense attorney, Frank Courtlen, work to uncover the truth.
I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. It's definitely not your typical zombie book, and I like that the author focused more on the psychological effects of a zombie plague and less on the action. Of course, there is definitely action in this story too!
I bought the Kindle version of this book on Amazon for FREE and will be buying the rest of the books in the series eventually as well.
Hey everyone! If you read my last Feature Friday post, I talked about the different books I read in the month of August. Today, we're going to be talking about my 2 favorite websites I use for reading, and how I was able to get these books for free!
The first website I like to use is Goodreads! This is a great way to keep track of all the books you own or have read.
You can participate in book discussions, win FREE books, get book recommendations, and even make friends on this website.
Personally, I love this site to keep track of what book I am on in a series. I can't tell you how many times I'm about to buy a book and can't remember whether I have read it already (e.g. the Ender's Game series). Goodreads also has an app to make it even easier to access while you're away from home.
Bookbub is probably my favorite reading website! Bookbub is a website that alerts you when there are free or discounted books that match your interests.
To use the website, just enter your email address to start receiving notices for FREE books!!!
You choose as many genres as you want and can change them at anytime.
Through Bookbub's emails, I probably find at least one or two free books a day that interest me. As you can imagine, my reading queue has become ridiculously long.
Following up with our pattern drafting series, our next block is our bodice!!! Today, I'm only focusing on the front half of our bodice; otherwise, this post would be extremely long. If you would rather watch this tutorial, there is video at the end of the post.
A few things we need to know about this pattern.
1. This block is made for woven fabrics (ie. non-stretchy fabrics)
2. This block stops at your natural waist (which is also where we will take measurements from)
3. The term "square out"/ "square down" means the line you are drawing will be at a 90 degree angle to the current line. You can use an L square or in a pinch you can use one of those clear rulers with eighth inch line markings.
3. You will need this block later on to create full length blouses, dresses, jackets, bras, swimsuits, and even to create our knit bodice block so you can make tees!
Let's get started!!!!
1. To start off, we're going to draw a straight line measuring the length from the highest point on our shoulder straight down to our waist.
2. From the top of that line we are going to square out using measurement from the pit of our neck to our shoulder tip.
3. Then from the end of a that line we're going to square down three inches.
4. Next, we're going to take the measurement from the pit of our neck to our waist, and we're going to measure up from the very first vertical line that we drew. From there, we're going to square out four inches.
5. Next we're going to measure from center front over over our apex to our side seam. If you're using a dress form that's going to be about two inches below your arm plate. Using that measurement we're
going to square out from our first vertical line adding a quarter of an inch for ease.
6. From the end of that line, we're going to square up about 11 inches.
7. Next we're going to measure from our shoulder tip to our center front waist and add one eighth of an inch. Using that measurement we're going to draw a straight line starting from our bottom right corner and rotating that line until it touches our shorter three inch line at the top left corner.
8. From the end of our diagonal line, we're going to draw a second line that's going to
measure the length of our shoulder, and we're going to rotate that until it touches our top horizontal line.
9. From there, we're going to square down until it touches our other horizontal line directly below it.
10. Starting from the top of our diagonal line, we're going to measure down the distance from our shoulder tip to our apex.
11. Then take your measurement from apex to apex and divide by two and add one
quarter of an inch. Using that measurement we're going to square out from center front and go through the mark that we made on the diagonal line. Your measurements may or may not go past that diagonal line.
12. Next we're going to measure from center front across our chest to our mid armhole and add a quarter of an inch. Half way between our top two horizontal lines we're going to use this measurement to square out from center front.
13. then square up and down at the
end of that line.
14. Next we're going to find our dart placement, which is usually about halfway between your center front and your side seam and directly below your bust point. Use this measurement to make a mark on
your center front waist.
15. Then, square down three sixteenths of an inch.
16. Next, we're going to take our strap measurement and this is going to be from our highest point on our shoulder to our side seams plus three eighths of an inch. Using this measurement, we're going to draw a line starting at the intersection of our shoulder and neck line and rotating it until it hits our far left vertical line.
17. Next, we're going to take our side seam measurement, and we're going to draw a line that starts at the intersection of our last line that we drew and the vertical line, and we're going to swing that out until the bottom of that line is one and one quarter inch away from that vertical line.
18. Now connect the end of that line to our dart placement line that we drew earlier.
19. Now, we're going to take our center front waist to side seam measurement, add one quarter of an inch, and subtract our dart placement measurement.Using this measurement
we're going to measure out from our dart placement line along our diagonal line
that's connecting to our side seam.
20. Draw a straight line from your apex to your first dart placement point, and measure. This is going to be our first dart leg.
21. To create our second dart leg we're going to take that measurement and we're going to draw a second line from our apex to our other point that we just created along that waistline. Because our waist lines are curved, this new line will probably go past the diagonal line that we drew from our side seam to our dart placement point.
22. Now since we don't want to sew a dart all the way up to our apex, we are going to find the center of these two dart leg points and we are going to draw a line from that center point up to our apex and then along that point we're going to measure down from the apex on that line five eighths of an inch. This is going to be our new dart point.
23. So you can go ahead and connect the lines from our two dart legs to that dart point and that is what we are going to be sewing.
24. Now to create our waistline, we're going to connect our side seam line to our new dart leg point and it's probably going to be curved since our waist lines are curve
25. and we're also going to connect our center front to our right dart leg.
26. To make our neck line we're going to lower it by three-eighths of an inch and square out about a quarter of an inch along center front, and we're going to use a French curve to connect our shoulder seam to this line making sure that we bump it out towards the left one eighth of an inch.
27. To draw our armhole we're going to do the same thing by making sure that our French curve does not go past our vertical guideline that we created at our mid armhole, and then it's going to
connect from our shoulder tip to our side seam.
28. We're done! At this point, some people like to leave their block as is, but I personally like to add seam allowance, notches, punch holes, and true my seams and darts.
Whew!!! We're done with the front! I know there are several steps, but I promise it doesn't take nearly as long as you would think. Don't forget to keep all of your measurements! You never know when you will need them, and I promise the second you do nobody will be around to help you!
