Can't I get anything right?!

After making and loving Miss M's skort I felt it was time to make another one, especially as we are off on holiday soon and they are great for playing.  I used a different woven this time and set about making the skirt, in doing so I decided my life wouldn't be complete unless I had a ruffler as I find the whole sew-a-line-pull-the-thread method although successful a bit time-consuming and tricky to get the gathers evenly distributed.  I've been umming and aahing about one for a whole and decided enough was enough!  So I've ordered one now and can't wait for it to arrive!  Anyway, skirt was done and all beautiful french seams, overlocked edges and OK gathers, onto the shorts......

OMG even though I had made them before I had a nightmare!  I had made a pattern based on a pair of her leggings and they were OK last time but I wanted them a little closer-fitting so I had trimmed the pattern slightly but not made another pair yet.  I cut out the legs and then proceeded to sew the legs up but when I came to sew the legs together I found that I had sewn one inside out!  I'd used stretch stitch which is really tricky to un-pick.   I was doing them late one night and I wanted her to wear them the next day as we were going to a play centre and they are perfect for that so rather than unpick them I decided to cut another one out.   So I sewed that one up and did exactly the same thing!!!!!!!  Aarrrggghhhh!  So I cut another pair out and guess what I did?!  Yep!  So now I had like 7 legs none of which seemed to fit together!  At that point I threw the towel in and went to bed!   


When I came back to them a couple of days later I decided the problem was the pattern and admitted defeat and went to the fabric shop to buy a commercial pattern (I know, I know, surely for something as simple as shorts I should be able to do it on my own!?  Did you not read what just happened?!)  So anyway came home, got the knit fabric out again, cut out the view I wanted sewed up the legs and guess what I did?  Yep yet again!  How can I make the same mistake so many times!!!!!!!!!!!  I managed to quickly unpick this one and do it properly and once I had the shorts I was able to finish the garment quickly!  Finally!  I can't believe how much trouble I had with this, I'm not even sure how I kept making the same mistake but now at least I have a better pattern than my original one as it does fit better, its closer fitting and the crotch junction looks neater and more comfortable.  Also it brought Burda patterns to my attention, what great, modern, clean-lined, easy to wear clothes they have. Especially for Miss M who at 7 is needs more mature designs (but not as mature as the clothes in the shops!) so I shall come back to their collection after the summer I think.

So finally a great skort, she wore it the next day to the park and was climbing all over the equipment and flying high on the swings with her modesty intact!  Now I just need to sort out all the legs I have left over........

Failure and Success

Well in my last post I was debating whether to make a particular dress and whether it would suit my body type.  Well, I decided to go ahead with it, the suggested fabrics on the back stated, 'fluid fabrics, satin, silk' amongst others.  There was no way I was going to make it in silk but went to the fabric shop and looked at the kind of fabrics I don't normally look at, slippery, tactile, flimsy, glamorous(?) fabrics.  I ended up plumping for a pinky floral satin.  OMG, what a nightmare I've been having with it!  Its slippery, it frays easily, it snags easily, it puckers easily and it generally a bl**dy pain in the a**e!  The last 2 weeks have been tortuous, yes 2 weeks! (I've done a bit then got frustrated, thrown it across the room and then stomped off for a few days!)  Anyway, I've now finished the dress and it looks ok on although it clings with static (I believe fabric conditioner resolves this) but and this is a big BUT I have a problem.  Where the v-neck comes down and has a facing on the inside, I trimmed back the seam to fold over neatly but as I already said this fabric frays very easily....... this means that the bodice has started the fray leaving a hole at the seam line between bodice and the facing.  Here it is in full close up horror!

This is right in the middle of the v-neck!

So as you can see the hole is in a really obvious place, I've tried making a rosette/flower to pin over the hole but because the fabric is so blooming slippery etc its just not happening.  I've tried a flower, I've tried a ribbon, I make some bows from bias binding, ribbons everything and nothing looks good.  Even if I managed to get the hole covered the fabric is still really clingy and snags easily so I've sadly decided to cut my losses and abandon the dress.  Realistically I'm not gonna wear it (I was making it for a 90th birthday party but I have an alternative) so why am I bothering?  So what have I learnt?  Well, satin is a pig to sew, also the way it drapes is not particularly flattering to me, so I've learnt that cotton based fabrics are my friends and I should stay there! 

Well that was the failure, now for the success........

I've been wanting to try out sewing with knit fabric but hadn't been able to find it in local shops and even on-line its not a popular as woven fabric (unless I'm looking in the wrong places?  If you know anywhere let me know!) but the other day I found Vend and got some of what I though was reasonable priced knit.  I've been wanting to make a skort (skirt and shorts combined) for Miss M for ages and the other day I came across Carolines posting showing the skorts she has been making and I knew it had to be done.  I didn't have a pattern for the shorts so I made one based on a pair of leggings as I was having trouble with the shorts she has.   Following Carolines post I made................

How cool is this?

Miss M loves them and I loved making them, sewing with knit was easy-peasy and after the debacle described above a refreshing change.  The shorts I knocked up in about an hour but it would be quicker next time as I sewed the wrong leg up and had to get the seam ripper out!!!!  The skirt took a little longer but I'm so proud of it, its beautiful inside and out, the side seams are a french seam (as usual!) the raw edges where the tiers are sewn together have been finished by overcasting, there's top-stitching on the top tier and I even put a label in!

Miss M wore it today and she loved it and I think it looks really funky and I'm soooooo happy with it

I think she will be getting some more of these!  Maybe with shorts rather than longer leg lengths and a different woven. I want to wash these before I make another pair as I think the shorts should be a little tighter on the leg but the knit hasn't been pre-washed (didn't want to deal with rolling edges for my first time!) so I'm gonna wait to see what the shrinkage is and maybe adapt the shorts pattern from there.  The only thing I didn't do quite right was attaching the woven to the waistband & shorts as the woven has 10" of ease.  I realise now that the knit should have been stretched to meet the woven whereas I gathered the woven to meet the knit IYKWIM, that means I've lost the benefit of the ease going over the hips but on Miss M its not a problem.  Next time I'll know what to do. 

This might become a new obsession!  What do you think?