Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Why it's good to read the instructions, part II

This time I needed to take my own advice. I sewed the collar pieces together perfectly, with nice points and beautiful top stitching. And then when I was attaching the collar piece to the collar stand with 1 cm seam allowances I realized my error. This pattern uses 1/4 inch seam allowances. $*&#(~! Yes, the difference is only about 1/8 inch but this adds up and the result is that the collar would sit back from the front edge of the shirt by a bit more than it's supposed to. Would anyone notice? Would it bother me? Could I salvage another collar out of the remaining scraps of fabric? I don't know that anyone would notice, but yes, it would bother me and yes, I could squeeze another collar out of the scraps. Barely. I have just enough for one collar piece. I can seam the other collar piece that goes underneath and unless we return to the 80's fashion of wearing our polo shirt collars up (blech!) then I'm ok.

Other than the collar fiasco, the shirt is coming along. I didn't push and finish it before the BABES get together (obviously) but I did get enough done so that I could bring it along and get opinions on the fit. The shirt fits OK, but I had weird gathers on either side, right under my arms. Thankfully, Georgene, our ever helpful expert with loads of experience in patternmaking, was on hand to help. She realized right away that I had too much fabric under the arm and needed to take it up at the shoulder seams. I certainly did not see that and would have not figured it out on my own. But I'll have to remember that for next time because it's not bad enough to try to redo. I also enlisted Georgene's help with the New Look blouse but I received an F for not having put the sleeves in my muslin. Lesson learned - you need the sleeves in order to get the fit correct. She did say that I was pretty close with the rest of the fit and thought that the vertical drag lines I had in my sleeveless muslin would probably go away once the sleeves were in. Perhaps after I finish the Jalie shirt I'll turn my attention back to this blouse.

The BABES get together was a lot of fun. Tamtay took some pictures, which are posted on her blog. We started the day by sharing some recent sewing accomplishments. Georgene brought some RTW sweater sets that she beautifully embellished with trim, ribbon and beads. She has such a good eye for this! LisaM wore her gorgeous knit dress from a New Look pattern. Neefer showed off her terrific Asian-themed top with handmade frogs, which she says are easy to make (hmmm, I'll have to try that). I modeled my white Burda jacket (which I was so glad I brought because the fog makes SF quite chilly!). After some fitting help from Georgene and some nibbling on munchy-food, the swapping began. I lightened my fabric stash by transferring about 9 yards to sewing friends. Then we went shopping. I was good and only brought home 2 1/2 yards of some aubergine colored stretch crepe that I bought at Discount Fabrics and some buttons I bought at Mendels.

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