I made a T-tunic first, and didn't like how the fabric bunched under the arms. So I cut the arms off and adjusted the pattern and made underarm gussets. I was already feeling irritable for some reason when I was doing this, and my inner voice was telling me not to worry about the tunic for now, but I ignored it, as usual.
Let me say a word about my cutting board. This is what I had:
The thing is cut so that there are three strips on either side of the center and is folded up like origami to get it into the square configuration. When unfolding it, the three strips on either side of the center flop around and land in awkward positions so that you have to do a lot of tweaking to get everything to lay flat. I have a tiny sewing room. The board takes up half of it, so I don't have a lot of room to maneuver.
And it's impossible to fold it up into a square again. There is a diagram showing how to do it, but who has the time or patience for that? (hint: not me) Whenever I use the cutting board, I just dread having to fold it up again because it's the kind of thing that tends to send me sliding headlong into a cold rage, but I've been using it as an exercise in patience and tolerance. I just take a breath when I start getting mad at how much I have to struggle to get the thing into a somewhat flat configuration so I can shove it behind my wicker cabinet, and I say to myself, "It's not worth getting mad about."
That worked really well until I had to redo my peasant tunic. I cut out the new paper pattern using my cutting board as the smooth, flat surface I needed. I laid out my fabric and cut two squares for the underarm gussets. I folded the fabric neatly when I was done and put it back out in the garage where I store my stash. I then proceeded to try and fold up my cutting board. It didn't work. I flopped it back down on the ground so I could try again with all the pieces in order. The pieces landed every which way but flat. I tried it again. And again. Finally, I snapped, and yelled out loud, "I HATE THIS!!!" and tore the cutting board up in a fit of rage and stuffed it in the recycling.
That felt good. It felt really, really awesome. I was trying not to spend any more money than I had to, so of course I had to get a new cutting board (which folds normally THANK GOODNESS), but it was worth the $12.99 I spent on the new one to rip up that old one.
I couldn't post a picture of my final peasant blouse, because it's made out of that very sheer voile and I didn't want anyone to see my undies. But here's the tutorial! It's the best peasant blouse tutorial I've ever seen! Try it, you'll like it!
http://www.thingsofcloth.com/documents/Adult-size_Peasant_Blouse_Tutorial.pdf
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