Monday, January 30, 2012

Quit before you get more behind

I've been working on McCalls 6512, a Melissa Watson pattern for blouses.


That's the line drawing.  I've been working on view A, the short sleeve with front pockets and the tabs on the sleeves.  This isn't my usual thing, and I bought the pattern for view B, but the more I stared at the envelope the more I liked it.  It's actually a very interesting pattern, in both views.  It's drafted in a unique way.

Anyways, I had this yellow polka dot rayon shirting, which feels like challis to me, in my stash for like a year.  It was one of those things that I loved so  much I never risked cutting it.  Can you tell yet that it's going to be a sad ending?

It came along just fine.  I worked really hard, especially on those $@%! front pockets.  It was so hard to get them not only even, but also symmetrical with the other one.  The pattern has you place the pockets toward the beginning and then continue sewing the shirt.  In my tissue fitting, this was a fine placement, so I went along with it.

Well, once I sewed the rest of the shirt together, I realized the pockets are WAY too low.  Laughably low.  My fabric is so soft and drapey that it has a lot of give to it, and I think the pockets just stretched out the fabric and dragged it down.

Picking out the pockets isn't an option, you'd see all the holes on this fabric.  At first I thought I could power through.  "Maybe when I add the collar..."  But the more I tried to power through, the more sloppy I got.  I started having the attitude of "What's the point if it isn't even going to work out?"  So I finally just made myself stop.  It's done, it can't be saved, and I just need to move on.

I did like the cut of the shirt though.  I have some pretty rayon challis from which I'm going to make view B (no pockets!).  I do recommend the pattern, just be careful with those pockets and a drapey fabric.

Crappy picture, I know, but I refused to spend any more time on this doomed project!

3 comments:

  1. Ugh. It's too bad this didn't work out, especially since the fabric is so pretty. But, I guess "live and learn", right? That's one nice thing about sewing, these little "flops" tend to help you make better garments the nexxt time around.

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  2. If you added interfacing to the fabric where the pockets go, maybe that would help?

    Congrats on the new job!

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  3. Thanks for this review. I have made view B successfully, and plan on making A in the near future. I'll be sure to double check my pocket placement.I have two pattern pyramids going on my blog at the moment if you are interested in entering to win one of them! trumbelinasews.blogspot.ca

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