It's been nothing but disasters in the sewing room lately. Not all of them my fault. Got all my silk organza jacket underlining cut out and marked and went to lay it out on my fabric. I started out with 1/2 yard extra and ended up with not enough fabric. How you ask? Fabric irregularities. I had never opened up the whole piece as I was planning on dry cleaning it. When I pressed it I noticed that parts of it looked somewhat irregular. There were 2 bands of wider, rippled fabric and a 2" band of darker fabric, not in the aforementioned rippled areas. When I laid all the pattern pieces out to avoid the defects there just wasn't enough fabric. Now I had to find another piece of fabric that matched the other two fabrics, so basically I had to find another piece in the silver family. I went to my trusty computer and Emmaonesock to the rescue. I bought this washed silver lame, which by a stroke of luck I even had a sample in the house. Good thing I'm such a lousy housekeeper that I hadn't thrown it out yet.
The second disaster was the pattern for my top. Did not work for me. Fortunately I wasn't sure about it so I cut a muslin in a knit that had about the same stretch as my silk jersey. This is a plus size pattern that Burda showed skin tight on their so called plus size model. I am not happy with tops being tight in the middle showing off my flabby middle. If I wanted to wear spanx in the summer sure I could wear it but I'm not that crazy, or maybe I don't like feeling like a sausage. I had added to the middle before I cut it and I cut wide sas. While that fixed the sausage aspect the ruching droops if it's not tight. So no good. It was this Burda top, 139 6/10.
It obviously needs to be tight to keep the gathering from drooping. Ah well. At this late date I needed something that I knew would fit. I took my newest knit top and made it into a tank top. I lowered the neckline a bit and made some other adjustments. Now to cut it out.
I did make progress on the pants, thank goodness. But, before I cut them out I wanted to check out the alteration I made to fix the diagonal drag line. I pinned out a dart in the inseam of my gray pants until they hung properly, transferred it to my pattern, and guess what? It worked! I cut out a pair of drapey rayon pants in the wide width I'd chosen for the pants and sewed up just enough to see if it worked. They hang perfectly. I will finish them after I finish my wedding finery. I cut and marked my pants this afternoon. Since the silver lame won't get here until Thursday, I should be able to finish at least the pants by then. I feel a lot better. Wish me luck on the jacket.
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Does not sound like a good sewing day!
ReplyDeleteLove the silver lame.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow is another day.
Glad your day ended on a positive note. You sure have that fitting thing figured out. I'm impressed! Can't wait to see it all.
ReplyDeleteWell rats. I want to try that top too. I wonder if a beefy knit would work better/keep the ruching from drooping??
ReplyDeleteGood luck on the placket! At least the pants muslin hangs well. How annoying to find out you have been sold a piece of dodgy fabric. It sounds like you will pull it all off though in the end. I am glad that I am not the only one who thinks that Burda's plus sized models are rather tall and thin!
ReplyDeleteSo incredibly frustrating when all goes wrong like that. Why do we all have these periods :-)?
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I have noticed too that ruching isn't so plus-size friendly as all that. In swimsuits perhaps, since those have to be tight, but not in t-shirts..
It's so good your pants are coming along nicely after all the set-backs. So frustrating to find this fabric failure and then have a pattern that doesn't work for you.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind: "This too shall pass".
ReplyDeleteLove the silver lame!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder you were so frustrated! I didn't know you had fabric irregularity problems.
ReplyDelete