January 10, 2011

To err is human...

My dear ladies and gentlemen readers, I wonder, is any of you under the delusion that, either by years of obsessive practice or by some form of supernatural interference, I am incapable of having any of my sewing projects just not work out?

Well, I'm not. Sure, the influences mentioned above may give me an above average hit-versus-miss rating but I'm by no means immune to any of the errors in judgement which commonly lead to failed projects.
Picking unsuitable styles, poor fabric choice, haste?
Experience helps to lessen the occurance of the first two, but the third can pop up at any moment.
And experience and success breed their own particular error in judgement. Hubris. Pride at one's accomplishments, leading to a false sense of invulnerability.

Case in point?
At the end of my last post, I casually mentioned I might just make a quick 60's dress, just because I could.
Famous last words.
If you've been following this blog for a while, you will know that waistless mini dresses are not my usual thing. But past experiences had made me confident of my ability to make different shapes work for me. And last year's purple dress was really nice...
Because I wasn't too sure about the style and because the colour was really nice, I used fabric, cotton flannel, left over from my red trousers.
Of course, this style of dress being so simple, I just knew I could make this in next to no time.

The pattern was easy enough. Curved french darts for bust shaping at front, the only waist shaping in the back darts, skirt widening to A-line below the waist.
Afraid it would be too simple, I decide to make center front and back seams with 'cording' sewn on both sides into the seam allowance. Because I didn't have any cord of the right thickness, I used strips of fleece, sewn double. And because I was short on fabric, I made the sleeve about three quarter instead of full length.

The end result, as you can see, is just mwah. And this is after ironing it. The seams for the 'cording' pull too hard on the rest of the fabric, making it all look a bit crumbled. And this style is just not that great on me.
E, always an honest judge of how things look on me, didn't like it at all first time he saw it, got a bit milder after I ironed and decided it might sort of work with some crazily coloured thights (I only have bright red, which doesn't work with this colour).
I was disappointed by this thing and I should remember not to be tempted to make anything in a hurry.
To make matters worse, I'm now finishing a cardigan which, also, didn't quite work out as planned. I that case, I may just have been trying to be too clever for my own good... I'll show you when it's finished.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, :( sorry your dress didn't work out as you had hoped. Maybe you can re-use the fabric to make something else if you really don't like it?

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  2. maybe you can wear it over some skinny trousers and add a scarf or necklace. I like the shape, but I found in the past that true a-line seems to be missing some shape when I wear it... I need darts.
    That's how I fixed up a dress
    http://bombardone.com/sewingprincess/2010/07/a-line-dress-with-a-70/

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  3. Darn wadders! At least you've got a good sense of humour about the whole thing. It helps to know I'm not alone in Waddersville!

    I've been known to set my wadders on fire...just an idea if you'd like to send yours off in a blaze of glory!

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  4. I think your new tag, "failure" is very funny. Here's hoping this is the only project that ends up in that category.

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  5. I've just posted a wadder/muslin failure (not sure whether to bin or continue) and LindsayT just posted a failure. Is it the season to confess that even some of us veterans make booboos?
    XX
    D

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