Getting Fit: Week 1

This year I set myself a challenge to get fit. For the first three months, I'm working out bodyweight and interval training, on alternate days. My first milestone, due in April, is to fit well into my pink dress.

This week I only did bodyweight training. I wasn't sure what to do on my own so I decided to just follow the beginner bodyweight training model. I plan to start interval training when I get to Switzerland next week.

The most interesting thing about this model is that it's short and keeps me entertained. Maybe I'll keep at it!

Monday

I just followed the schedule and I discovered a few things:
- I'm not sure I'm doing squats right, they're just too easy
- lunges are easy as well but I'm pretty sure I'm doing those correctly

Wednesday

I thought I'd get the worst muscle ache after the workout on Monday but I was fine on Tuesday. Out really hit me on Wednesday morning and I spent all day limping from meeting to meeting.

I read a post and watched a video on how to do squats and it looks I'm doing them right. I also realized I need to learn how to stretch. That should be a priority before the next session.

Friday

I did not get more muscle soreness after the Wednesday workout, which might imply it was too easy. Actually got around to watching the video in the beginner class and it turns out you need to do the circuit 3 times! Oh well, this is going to get harder... I'm also doing planks incorrectly, go figure.

Someone was in the room I was exercising in by myself on Friday so instead of doing the body workout I went and did 20 minutes of intervals. Not the best thing in the world, but oh well... it will come in handy in the end, and doing something is better than doing nothing.

PS tomorrow - a post about a craftsy class!

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How to make silk bias binding

I promised this tutorial a while ago, but was too busy with work to get to it. This tutorial will focus on how to iron and fold the binding, rather than how to cut it. I have three links to good tutorials about how to do the correct cutting.

Here goes: a tutorial for properly making bias binding. Apologies for picture quality, I was using my phone.

Tools needed:
* silk square for the bias, sewing machine and scissors to make the continuous bias strip that will be ironed into place
* a 2-inch (5cm) wide piece of cardboard
* some sort of vaporiser, filled with water
* bias tape maker - for these pictures, I used a Clover which makes 1/2" binding (starts with 1" strips), but if I were to do this again, I'd use the one which makes a 1" binding (out of 2" strips)

Naming:
* left-side: bias strip not yet passed through the bias maker
* right-side: bias strip which has been folded by the bias maker

Steps:

1. Cut bias strips out of your silk square. I like this tutorial…

Birds dress

Just another sheath dress from me today, from my TNT pattern. This one is all about the fabric:

I got this bird fabric from Plush Addict, and it seems to have been the last fabric purchase pre-baby (Cosmo - Nihonkai - Budgies On Oxford Cloth if you are interested), so didn't cut into it for a long time. In May, after finishing my coat, I finally took the plunge.

The pattern, as I said, was my TNT sheath pattern, pretty simple. The biggest challenge with this dress was fabric placement, I didn't want any weird bird cuts at seams, nor did I want any other sort of weird placement.
As i had 2 meters of this fabric, I thought I should be able to get all that, so I spent a lot of time moving fabric pieces around, until I got it. I'm pretty happy with myself, the seams meld as much as possible, I'm particularly proud of the center back:

Construction wise, this dress has 6 darts and 5 seams, so it is all relatively straightforward. I stabilized the neckline and armholes with…

Vogue 1350: fitting and adjustments

I had another post prepared, but I thought I'd write this up now, even without pictures - before I forget what I did. :) I recently made Vogue 1350, if you follow me on instagram (@auxetically) you will have seen construction photos. This is a Rachel Comey pattern - I really like these patterns, they all turn out very well for me! Here is the line drawing for reference:

Despite the line drawing, this pattern is supposed to have a raised waist. I was very pleasantly surprised to see petite lines on the pattern sheet (yay). Here's my finished dress on the dress form:

I made a muslin of the bodice only, in size 14 - my measurements take me between 14 and 16 on a Vogue, but I had the pattern version with the 12-14, so 14 it was. Measurement wise, this dress was spot on - I had to make extra adjustments where I would have needed the bigger pattern size.

The petite line removed 1" out of the bodice, and 1" out of the skirt. I sewed the bodice muslin with the petite marking…

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