Sewing with the Pattern Stash - The Frankenpattern

In the last post I talked about a few ways to sew with patterns that are already in the stash. Like many of you, this is an area that I have problems with. A brand new pattern often seems more exciting than a pattern bought last year. That new pattern doesn't have any "planning baggage" yet or been mentally sewn it up in my head several times.* It's new and shiny and I love it soooo much, until the next thing comes along.....and there's always a next thing. Ummmmmm, it's a bit problematic.

Since I'm the Stash busting theme host it seemed only fair to put my "money where my mouth is" and sew only stashed pattern this month. Luckily for me a really fun Frankenpattern idea popped into my head and got the ball rolling. Let me present a mash up of the Elisalex bodice and Burda 6834 flounce skirt. It's business time flamingo dancer.

Now you all know my fabric stash is large, but I have a pretty good memory about what's in there. Rarely do I stumble across something that I have no memory of purchasing.  However during this fabric cull I found 2 yards of red wool crepe that was a complete surprise. As frog is my witness I did not buy this fabric. Most likely it came from my grandmother's insanely large stash and she sneakily stuffed in a box for me. Well played grandma, well played. Also you knew what I liked and I wish you were still around to give me side eye about what I pay for fabric. Grandma didn't pay retail, she bought auction lots. Lots of them.

Grandma's wool crepe knew what it wanted, just like grandma, and told me to combine these two patterns. Not that I needed to be talked into it. Slim red dress with a fun flounce? Yes please! Since both patterns have princess line seams they were pretty easy to fit together.  Here's how I went about it.....

1.  The first version of Burda 6834 I made sits below my natural waist. It seemed prudent to add some additional length to the pattern if it was going sit higher. Two inches of length was added to all the skirt pieces at the lengthen/shorten line. (I could have gotten away with half that length.)

2. The Elisalex bodice was walked along the waist seam of the skirt to compare the princess lines seams. The skirt princess line seams were moved to match the bodice's.  The front skirt matched without any changes and the back needed a slight tweak.

3. After the princess lines were adjusted, the side fronts/backs were walked along the waist seam. A sizable amount, around 3/4", needed to be removed from the skirt side seam.

4. The skirt has an angle in the princess line as a design feature. I decided to smooth this out into a curve by adding a bit to the side front seam line and removing a little from the center front seam line.

After doing that bit of pattern making work, the two patterns matched perfectly.  I had very little trouble sewing the dress, other than some goofy mistakes sewing back skirt pieces in the wrong way. Oh the hazards of fabric with no wrong side and late night sewing. If the flounce seams hadn't lined up oddly I might have never noticed the problem.

This baby looks great in photographs, but there are a few confessions that need to be made......

1. The lining shows through.
I didn't even think to check this since there were no issues with lining my Christmas dress. It's not too noticeable in the photographs, but in real life you can clearly see it.  As fate would have it, the see through affect wasn't noticed until the entire dress was almost finished. At that point I decided it was a "design element," like a lace overlay or something.  Yeeeeah, I know the lining should be switched out but I'm not gonna do it.

2. Not all fitting changes were transferred to the pattern.
OK here's the deal. The Elisalex bodice was made in a larger size for the red roses dress in October 2013. Some time last year I'd traced a smaller size and "thought" I'd sewn it up into some garment. Wrong, the smaller size never got sewn up till now and I certainly forgot to transfer over some armhole adjustments. The armhole is very tight and lining it didn't help the situation. Oops.

3. Stretch woven and non stretch woven do need different amounts of ease.
Another big oops on my part since this fact didn't cross my mind pre cutting.  Both of these patterns had previously made with a stretch woven, but I'd forgotten that fact. When I put on the red dress there was a moment of, "Why is this tight across the back and the hips.....oh yeahhhhh no extra stretch."  In hindsight I should have muslined this dress to double check the fit in a regular woven.

4. No amount of under stitching, clipping or pressing would keep the lining from rolling out of the neckline.
I finally had to top-stitch the edge of the neckline to stop the lining from peeking out.  Growl. Having top-stitching in one location seemed odd. I decided to top-stitch the sleeve hems and skirt hem to balance out the garment.

So that's the knitty gritty on my slight fitting fails. What I should take away from this is to always muslin pattern mash-ups just to be sure. Now you know why I make all those muslins and have a quality control Frog. Wait....shouldn't he have told me to drop the armholes? Lazy frog.

Other than a bit of tightness in the arm holes, the fit isn't that far off. It's probably only something I'd be concerned with. "Oh no, it's 1/4" too tight, The Horror!" This dress is still going in the win column since it makes me want to do something like this all the time. Wheeeee dancing!

Hope everyone who is participating with the theme is having good luck so far. Many of you commented with excellent plans. May the sewing goddess bless you with plenty of machine time to crank out these projects.

*Why doesn't mental sewing result in a real garment? Science get working on that. Not like you need  to cure cancer or anything. Sewing is now your Top Priority.

Happy Little Trees Anna

Did I say that I rarely blog sewing repeats?  Ummmm yeah, seems I need to work on a little self examination about my sewing habits. But I can't think of any way to make that funny so let's talk about my third repeat instead, the By Hand London Anna dress. Cue photo where I'm doing something weird with my hands. Kind of amusing though.

The Tiki Goddess maxi version of this pattern is still on my top list of favorites for the summer.  Can't beat a dress that makes you feel gorgeous and allows the wearing of awesome shoes. The only downside to that dress is that I'm a clumsy bumbling fool that is endlessly shutting the skirt into door frames. My son has also witnessed some physical comedy involving maxi skirts and stairs. Is there a "Living with Maxi dresses" class that no one has told me about, or all of you magically coordinated? Coordination was left out of my genetic package, being replaced with "poses to toy frogs for comedy." Only the magical power of the Tiki Goddess has kept the skirt intact up to this point. Bless you Tiki Goddess, I'll pour out a frozen drink in your name.

Not wanting to put the maxi dress in peril so often, it seemed wise to whip up the tea length version of the pattern. Then I could still wear an Anna dress on days where I'd already ricocheted into several door frames. Damn, when did that wall move? You saw it jump at me didn't you Desmond? Child just gives me a look that says, "Mom you might have some issues."

Annnnnyway back to the whole sewing of dresses thing.  I knew what fabric to use for this project because it jumped into my head during one of my sleepless nights spent plotting the sewing queue. The vintage tree print cotton!  This fabric had a stiff hand so it seemed a good choice for a non drapy pattern like Anna.  The print is also delightful and I'd been itching to sew it up.  Something about those petite trees made me think about Bob Ross and painting his "happy little trees" and left me with happy feels

*Quick pause for back story - Growing up my paternal grandparents lived next door to us and were the default sick kid minders. A sick day at grandmas usually involved laying on the couch watching things like "My favorite Martian" and "The Joy of Painting" while grandma made you no less then 5 lunch options. Since I've always been an introverted child who loves eating and old TV, sick days pretty much rocked.*

One could argue that since the trees are blue and gray that they are depressed little trees. I choose to believe that they are just happy little trees that also enjoy my color scheme. High five trees, blue and gray together is one of life's perfect pairings. Let's make a dress together.

Not too much to talk about construction wise.  I'd worked out all my fit issues in the maxi version and didn't notice any new problems. The white background on this fabric was surprisingly opaque, so I didn't even have to mess around with underlining. Hooray! This time I was smarter about the skirt and only took the pieces off the labeled patterns right before serging and then sewing each panel. There were still a few moments of, "Is this the right edge?"  Those almost identical skirt panels will always make you question your sewing aptitude.

It's interesting how the shorter version of the dress has more of an Audrey Hepburn-ish feel to it, rather than the va-voom vibe of the maxi. In the tea length dress I'm just chilling waiting for Gregory Peck to arrive and take me on a tour of all the sites. He's going to tease me by putting his hand down a statue's mouth and screaming, that rascal.  Where as in the maxi version I am all goddessy like and ready to dispense festive cocktail umbrellas to all. I like both versions because some days a girl doesn't have the head space for always thinking about where her maxi skirt is. Ahhh I'm stuck in a door again! Find help! Confiscate their cell phones first. I don't want any pictures.

Last photo is for my husband who liked my legs in the sitting down poses. Ooohhh knees!

Nora - Beta version revamped

Thanks for all the feedback about blogging repeats everyone.  The consensus seems to be that it's fine in moderation and if the patterns are made up in different colors/fabrics. That's good because today's post also is a bit of a repeat. Just kind of repeat I'm more comfortable blogging about.

Remember the pattern mash up of Nettie and Flora, or the Nora as I liked to call it?  Well today I'm showing you slightly tweaked version of that pattern love child.  It's my Nora muslin revamped.

Most of you probably know that I'm a serial musliner.  It's my way of working out not only fit problems, but any dumb brain farts that might happen when I'm sewing a garment for the first time.  And let me admit that I still make A Lot of dumb mistakes when sewing. Enough that it's a tad embarrasing. Therefore it's no surprise that I whipped up a muslin of the Nora idea before cutting into the precious tree knit.  The knit muslin stores are a bit low at the moment, so I used the left over chuck of green polyester jersey from last summer's favorite dress.

The muslin Nora was close to being perfect but for a few things.  First the neckline was too low and secondly using a facing to finish the neck and armhole didn't work well. The only reason I'd put in a facing in the first place was that there wasn't enough fabric to cut a full self lining.  But whatever, it's just a muslin right? I threw the muslin in the corner and went off and made the "real" tree print version.

If I'd used some crappy knit that probably would have been the end of it.   Instead I keep starting at that pile of green knit thinking, "It's almost wearable and there are decently sized fabric scraps to work with. Why not use those problem solving brain cells?"

First bit of business was to rip out that crappy facing. Next I shortened the shoulder straps by about 1/2" to counter act some stretching and take care of part of the low neckline problem.  To further fix the depth of the necking I decided not to reinvent the wheel and used the Nettie neckband. Due to the width of my fabric scraps the neckband had to be made out of two pieces, but who's checking for extra seams at the shoulder anyway.  Now the dress wasn't too low cut, hooray! Why not continue with the theme and finish with some bands at the sleeves?

Yeah, I did put bands on the sleeves and it looked horrible! The proportions of the shoulder area were wrong for a banded sleeveless finish.  Hmmm, cut into the bodice blindly or put on some sleeves that would probably work? Sleeves it is then.  Due to my fabric scrap constraints the shortest sleeves in the pattern stash were chosen, the shortened skater sleeve used in this dress.

When I tried on this dress to check the sleeves it was instant love, just like the dress in this fabric last year. Oh my lord, the fabric is magical! Why hadn't I bought 10 yards of this fabric? What am I gonna do next year? Crap, need more magical fabric and or a time machine to buy more of this magical fabric.

For now I'm contenting myself with wearing this dress on a weekly basis. It goes with half of my Luxulite brooches and is comfy as all get out. Note to self, buy solid colored jerseys once in a while.  It's not a crime to have a layering base some times. Don't you agree Desmond.....Desmond?  (He just runs off to play with worms.)

P.S. I took these photos right off the "main drag" of my local town center. It was the first time that I had a lot of foot traffic and consequentially gawkers around while taking blog photos. So if I look kind of stiff or weird in these photos that's why. 

Sundress Hacks - The Nora

Oh No, some hooligans have been graffiting the blog again. Well they must have tapped into my brain because I have a special sew-a-long installment planned today, a sundress pattern hack. "A hack you say? I would have never in a million years thought Heather would hack another pattern." is what no one said ever. You come for the hacks and stay for the crazy. Yes? yes.  So let me take off my lab coat and present you with my latest Pattern McFrankenstein creation, the Nettie/Flora knit dress - Nora for short. Frogore, throw the lights.

This particular hack did not jump fully formed from my head and thank god cause ouch!  Instead I was inspired by Sown in Brooklyn's instagram feed. Nettie posted a picture of a great dress that immediately called two patterns to mind. Nettie on top and Flora on the bottom. It's comfy, it's sexy, it's Nora. And apparently if you start binge watching "Mr. Selfridge" then you think of everything in terms of marketing.  Do you think Mr. LeClaire will design me a window? What if I tempt him with the back view?

The bodice of this dress is the front scoop neck and the medium back view of Nettie with the straps narrowed. Instead of finishing the neck and armholes with bands, I cut two front and back pieces and made a self lining.  To get a clean finish on those areas I used the handy technique posted by Colette for the Moneta dress.  The Flora skirt was attached with a few "on the fly" changes to pleat depth to get the two pieces to match in diameter.  On my size the back skirt fit perfectly, but the front knife pleats needed to be deepened by about an 1".

Ooo look at that lovely hem sweep while I'm checking out an open trash can of hornets just out of frame. The things we do for sewing/blogging/decent backgrounds without too much sun. At least I wasn't wounded in action. I do appreciate hornets that respect fashion.

Nora is my favorite kind of knit dress.  One that is comfortable to wear, but still makes you look put together. Even better the pattern hack for making it is super simple.  I've outlined the steps so you can start making your Nora today. Yes, TODAY. You won't regret it.

*Note - I went one size up on the recommended Nettie size for this dress.  Mostly because of my wider back issues with the higher back neckline. You may not need the extra ease so muslin, muslin, muslin.

How to Adjust Nettie
1. To start, trace the front scoop neck and the medium back view on the Nettie pattern.

2. Use one of the lengthen/shorten lines as your waist seam for the patterns. I used the upper line.

3. On the front shoulders mark 1/2" in on either side of the strap. Then repeat this step on the back pattern piece.

4. On the CF raise the neckline at least 3/4". You need to fill in the neckline a bit because you won't have the added coverage of the neckband . Also the weight of the skirt will pull the bodice down giving you a deeper plunge then you might expect.  You may want to raise the neckline further depending on the vertical stretch of your fabric.

5. Raise the CB of the back scoop 3/4" for bra coverage.

6. Using a french curve redraw the neckline.

7. Then redraw the armhole.

8. Repeat the last two steps on the back pattern piece. Cut off the excess paper on the armhole and necklines to get finished pattern pieces that look like these.

Optional Bodice Step - You may also want to shorten the strap length to counter act the weight of the skirt pulling it down. The more vertical stretch the fabric has, the shorter the strap length should be.

Optional Skirt Step - If we are being good little pattern drafters, then the final step would be to compare the length of the waist seams between the Nettie and Flora patterns.  Then adjust the Flora skirt to fit by either making the pleats deeper for shaving some of the side seam off.  
If you want to be lazy like me and do it on the fly, then do the following.  Notch both the CF and CB on the bodice and skirt.  Pin the skirt to the bodice at these notches and both side seams.  Now you can see how much fabric needs to be folded at the pleat to make the two pieces fit.  You can fold the correct sized pleat and sew the skirt to the bodice.

Quick note about fabric - Because of weight of the skirt I'd recommend using a jersey that doesn't have too much stretch in the vertical direction. However it should be light enough to have some drape for the skirt. Something like an ITY would work great for this sort of design.  The fabric I used has been stashed long enough that the fiber content is a little hazy in my mind.  I believe it's a cotton/lycra blend, due to the hand. It's a lot more stable than a rayon jersey, but I still needed to shorten the straps to keep the neckline from getting too low.

Now that it's back to the sewing machine to work on my Cambie hack. Can't stop, won't stop. :) There's still plenty of time to join the sew-a-long if you get the itch. Just pop on over to the flickr group and join. I'll have Froggie mix up a fresh batch of daiquiris when you arrive.

Bow Before the Tiki Goddess

*So I was at the grocery store the other week and the strangest thing happened.  I stumbled, fell into an end cap of expired strawberry daiquiri mix and bashed my head.  While unconscious the sweetened liquid seeped into my pores and mutated my genes.  Upon waking I found that I had the power to make decorative leis out of any craft supplies, knew how to mix any frozen drink and could play the ukulele despite never touching the instrument before.  I had been reborn as "The Tiki Goddess!!!" - rights pending.

Much like Michelle Pieffer in "Batman Returns," I was compelled to sew my own alter-ego outfit. But being in a much less mentally disturbed state, I decided to pass on a faux leather catsuit.  Let's face it, faux leather chaffs in the tropics. Instead the BHL Anna pattern was unearthed and paired with the tropical red and white print previously mentioned in the ridiculous dress sewing list post. Sure this fabric supposed to be for Butterick 6019, but no one tells the Tiki Goddess what to do.  Unless they are itching for a frozen drink thrown in their face.  Do not cross the Tiki Goddess my friends, she might be smuggling tiki torches under her skirts

Sewing this was pretty straight forward since I'd already fit the bodice for my Anna/Emery mash-up.  Basically all I had to do was cut the skirt down to non-amazonian height.  After all the Tiki Goddess is devoted to sandals since she has to attend a lot of beach parties. Spike heels and sand do not mix.

Pattern
By Hand London Anna.  I used the slash neck bodice and maxi skirt length with the slit.

Fabrics used
Vintage light weight cotton snagged on Etsy last year. Not that vintage since the fabric width was 56" wide, but who could resist such a great print.   The white palm leaf areas were semi-transparent, so the entire dress was underlined with some siri lining.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. I traced a straight size 10 and needed a little bit more ease in the waist area. About 1" extra ease split between the skirt panels.
2. Did a 1/2" hollow check adjustment on the bodice front.
3. Standard 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment.
4. Lengthened the bodice 3/4".
5. Lowered thigh slit 2".
6. Took  6" of length off the skirt.  Of course then I like the length of the skirt unhemmed.  Anyone else have this problem all the time? Because of that I did a very narrow rolled hem instead of my regular 1- 1 1/2" skirt hem.

Confessions/Advice
1. While making the Anna bodice the first time, I didn't read the directions at all and wondered why the armhole area was such a pain in the ass to hem.  This time I actually consulted the booklet and found you were supposed to hem the sleeves before sewing the side seams.  This does work a whole lot better...durrrrr.

2. Man is is easy to confuse what skirt panel is what, especially when you're a dum dum who seems to miss cutting half the notches. If I make the skirt again paper labels for each panel will be in order.

Husband Comment
"It's long and pretty."   He must like this one better than most.

My Final Thoughts
I didn't jump on the Anna bandwagon last summer, sticking to my staunch party line of "maxi dresses aren't my thing." But now I get it. They're pretty awesome, especially in Hawaiian-esque prints.  Froggie book me a flight to the islands, there are tiki parties that need my blessing. Make sure my minions meet me at the gate with a cart full of Mai-Tais. The Tiki Goddess demands libations!

* I contend that my made up origin story is no less ridiculous than some presented in comic books or movies. Thrown from a window and revived by cats? Please.

Frolicking in a Field of Poppys

What's this? Back to back poppy print dresses? Oh yeah, I think we all need another hit of pretty poppy goodness. Just shield your eyes from the glare coming off of my lily white legs. Ahhhh it burns, quick find me some sunglasses!!!

Everyone have their protective eye wear in place?  Good, good, then I can show you this. Poppies precious, so many poppies!

Dipped hem Heather?  Did you go and make another Flora skirt? Guilty as charged.  To say that I've been jonesing to make another Flora would be putting it mildly. Instead of going the TNT pattern repeat route,  my brain was all, "Let's switch things up and make something fun and semi impracticable."  Just like that a plan was hatched to do a little BHL pattern mixing and matching.

Yep, it's the Elisalex bodice with it's gorgeous neckline and sleeves for those of us with reptile blood.  Wooo Hooo, I'm only partially freezing in these pictures and there was a nice patch of sunlight out of frame. Mmmm warm me sunshine, but don't burn my pasty flesh.

For this smaller sized Elisalex bodice I did all of the same pattern alterations as the first time, with the exception of increasing the diameter of the sleeves. One new change was made, the front of the sleeve cap was flattened to compensate for the 3/8" taken out of the front princess line seam. Here I was wondering why there was so much ease in the front sleeve with a forward shoulder adjustment made.  Ummmm because you removed 3/4" of armhole diameter without adjusting the sleeve Heather. Ooops.

The good news for those of you who also like bodice/skirt swamping is that the Elisalex/Flora patterns don't need much tweaking to fit together well.  I sewed a size 10 for both pattern parts and found the Flora skirt to be around 1/2" bigger in the front then the Elisalex bodice.  It was then a simple process to make the knife pleats a little deeper so that the circumferences matched up.  The back circumferences were the same to begin with, but I moved the box pleat over an 1" or so to match up with the princess seam line.

All pleat adjustments were done on the fly while attaching the skirt to the bodice.  The proper way would have been to check the patterns and adjust them before cutting out the fabric.  But I'm all for truth in sewing and doing it the lazy way work out just fine. Don't tell the sewing goddess lest she smite me.

Now about this fabric, it's a Milly cotton sateen with.......wait for it.....an ivory background.  Past Heather really had an ivory background buying problem.  This fabric should have gone in the "give to other people with warm complexions" pile.  But as you can see I greedily held on it it cause poppies and reasons related to poppies. I hope you can forgive me.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with this pattern mash-up.  The one thing I would change is to slightly lower the front portion of the dipped hem.  Because the front seemed short, a very narrow rolled hem was used to preserve as much length as possible.  I still get the feeling that a pair of poppy modesty shorts might be needed for getting out of cars and stiff winds.  I see London, I see France, I see your underpants, you hussy! So sorry, that's my inner grandma talking. Go bake me some poppy seed cake grandma and keep your opinions to yourself. Mmmmm caaaaaake.

Now You'll Sleeeeeep.....then I'll steal your shoes

Hello all. I hope you have your shoe closets locked up tight, cause I'm about to knock you out with one heck of a dress. That's right, I was not speaking in hyperbole during the last #sewdollyclackett post about hemming a poppy dress. The "Painterly Poppy Dress" is real, and it's amazing. (I'm really getting into this whole dress naming thing. Long live Dolly Clackette!)

Are you feeling woozy yet? No?  Darn!  Frog say in a ready position with the shoe boxes, I have to soften them up with a few more photographs. I know, let's pander to the pocket lovers. Back side of pocket bag matches skirt, front pocket doesn't. Ooo La, la.

This is my #sewdollyclackett dress number two, a pattern mash up of the By Hand London Anna bodice with the Christine Haynes Emery skirt.  OMG, don't these two patterns looks fabulous together. I just want to squee all over myself and make a couple more. The credit for this idea goes to Jennifer Lauren and her amazing Christmas Dress.  Upon seeing it I drooled all over the keyboard and then plotted to make one of my own.

That must have made Ann, over at Gorgeous Fabrics, spider senses tingle.  She went and posted the perfect fabric for this type of dress, a giant floral boarder print. The print starts out as kind of like a multi-colored polka dot that gradually morphs into poppies and foliage. YES, YES, YES, take my money!

If you can believe it, this was my very first border print purchase. The plan was to make the Anna/Emery combo and put the largest flowers on both the hem and top of the bodice. However my Christmas cookie addled brain neglected to realize that I'd need extra yardage to do this. It just though, "Hey 2 yards of 60" fabric is plenty for a sleeveless dress."  Yeah dumb dumb, if it's an all over print.....but you only want to use the one edge!  Past Heather, buy another yard!!!  Past Heather never listens. She probably couldn't hear me with her head buried in a cookie tin anyway. It was time for Present day Heather to put on the thinking cap and came up with a solution.

After playing around with the pattern pieces, I could see that after cutting the skirt some of the large floral area would still be left. I could also cut the bodice upside down on the print, to get some of the smaller flowers in the shoulder area. Then a few large flowers could be cut out and appliqued to the bodice.  This crazy plan might just might work!

I cut the skirt and bodice pieces as planed and then used the lighter print area for all the pieces that wouldn't show.  Except for the one side of the pocket bag, they needed to blend nicely in with the skirt. See my brain was working on that day.

After completing the rest of the dress I turned my attention to harvesting some of those large flowers. To keep the edges from fraying, I block fused the fabric before cutting. Then for added insurance I put fray check on the backside edges.

When it came time to attach the flowers on inspiration struck.  I had some left over beads in my craft supplies, why not use those to hide the hand stitching?  Get out the needles, cause we've got some beading to do. Who am I doing all this hand work? Frog hand me some chocolate, I think these poppies must be making me a little high.

Tadaaaa, a pop of red color on top, balancing the bottom. Perfect!

After completing this dress I knew it needed some very special shoes......and none of my red shoes matched the orange red poppies. Oops, I once again bought a fabric that is not in my color scheme. At least the background isn't ivory this time.  Then Frog told me I was thinking about this all wrong.  A dress that necessitates a shoe purchase should be a plus. Thanks Froggie, you'll always be my number 1 enabler.

So we asked ourselves WWDCD - What would Dolly Clackett Do? Purchase Miss L Fire heels with the grapes on the toes?  Yes, yes, she would.

Oh sweet, I think those shoes finally made all of you pass out.  Frog, plan "Rudy Slipper" is a go! Start filling the shoe boxes.  Muhaa haaa! You didn't know I was the wicked witch did you? My color correcting and my new nose totally had you fooled.  "I'll get you my pretties and all your little shoes too." Then I'll instagram my new ensembles, I'm not a monster after all.