Adventures in sewing
Oct. 24th, 2004 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntiemeeshWoohoo! The bodice for my hobbit dress is all done. Well, except for the fact that I don't have enough bias tape for the bottom, so at the moment, the bottom is raw. I don't know if I'll have a chance to get to the fabric store between now and next Sunday, so I may have to become rather creative with how to fix that. Any suggestions would be more than welcome! But otherwise, the bodice is done! And it fits! Yay!
Having said that, let me just say, I made so many mistakes while cutting the fabric today, it's amazing that I was able to make the whole thing work. The pattern had the bodice opening in the front, so I had to alter the pattern to make the it lace up the back, as well as alter the cut a bit. I made the changes on the practice piece, but forgot to make some of them on the pattern pieces. So I merrily pinned the pattern to the fabric and started to cut. Then I realized I had the wrong piece on the fold, and had forgotten to alter the back of the pattern. Unpinned everything and fiddled around. Being very lucky, I was able to fit everything around the cuts I'd already made. Then I started cutting again, only to cut along the fold! How can one person be soooooo dumb? I'm blaming it on the advanced state of exhaustion I was in yesterday. Although I feel much better today, apparently brain function is still less than optimal. So I had to rearrange things again, and once again I was amazingly lucky and able to find enough uncut fold to make it all work. Thank goodness, cause I would have cried if I'd had to get new fabric at this late date.
And then there is the sewing machine. It is not really my friend. I cannot sew a straight line to save my life. Most of it doesn't look too bad, but the stitching on the bias tape, all around the neck and shoulders, is very crooked and very visible. Ouch! Oh well, no one will look at it that closely.
Now, I really should start working on the skirt pattern pieces, find out how much I need to size that up. I dread to think. On the bright side, I'm hoping the skirts won't be quite as difficult and time consuming to put together properly. I don't have to alter the pattern at all, and I don't have to be as picky about fit. *bg*
Having said that, let me just say, I made so many mistakes while cutting the fabric today, it's amazing that I was able to make the whole thing work. The pattern had the bodice opening in the front, so I had to alter the pattern to make the it lace up the back, as well as alter the cut a bit. I made the changes on the practice piece, but forgot to make some of them on the pattern pieces. So I merrily pinned the pattern to the fabric and started to cut. Then I realized I had the wrong piece on the fold, and had forgotten to alter the back of the pattern. Unpinned everything and fiddled around. Being very lucky, I was able to fit everything around the cuts I'd already made. Then I started cutting again, only to cut along the fold! How can one person be soooooo dumb? I'm blaming it on the advanced state of exhaustion I was in yesterday. Although I feel much better today, apparently brain function is still less than optimal. So I had to rearrange things again, and once again I was amazingly lucky and able to find enough uncut fold to make it all work. Thank goodness, cause I would have cried if I'd had to get new fabric at this late date.
And then there is the sewing machine. It is not really my friend. I cannot sew a straight line to save my life. Most of it doesn't look too bad, but the stitching on the bias tape, all around the neck and shoulders, is very crooked and very visible. Ouch! Oh well, no one will look at it that closely.
Now, I really should start working on the skirt pattern pieces, find out how much I need to size that up. I dread to think. On the bright side, I'm hoping the skirts won't be quite as difficult and time consuming to put together properly. I don't have to alter the pattern at all, and I don't have to be as picky about fit. *bg*
no subject
About the bias tape: how much leftover fabric do you have? It's not hard to make your own. Take some of the pieces that were messed up in the cutting and you can use that. Cut strips about an inch wide at a 45 degree angle to the grain of the fabric. (That is to say, you know how the weave goes? you want to cut diagonally across the weave.) Piece the strips together, and press open the little seams. Then working carefully so as not to stretch the strips out of shape, iron the two edges toward the middle, then fold in half again and iron. Voila! Bias tape! It's a fiddly tricky thing to do the piecing and and ironing, but it can be worth it. The good thing about making your own is that it will *always* match, no matter what kind of color or print of fabric you have!
You are right about skirts being easier. When you have a bit more sewing under your belt, you should not even need a pattern for a skirt.
Don't worry too much about straight seams--that will also come with practice, and anyone getting close enough to you to notice that your seams are not perfectly straaight will probably have other things on their mind than that, LOL!
Isn't it fun to have something to wear that you made all by yourself? *grin*