WIP Wednesday: They Can't All Be Winners

 

Well I've been sewing up a storm lately, and with that comes a fair share of disappointments as well as successes. I picked up this blue shirting fabric at a thrift store a few weeks ago and decided it would make a great base shirt for my Irish crochet yoke I made back in June. I've had all these motifs pinned to my dress form ever since and I would really love for that project to be done, so I was excited about making this shirt. I decided to use New Look 6834 because I had just made a very cute version and knew how to make it fit well (or so I thought).

But this shirt just seemed cursed. I cut it out over a week ago but then sewed something else, so Sunday night I decided to finally sew this up. I had made changes to my pattern before I cut it out to reflect the changes I made to my first version, so I thought I could just slap this out in an evening. Haha famous last words, amiright? Everything went fine that night until the neckline binding. I'm not really sure what happened, but it was tight and wavy and just looked terrible. I picked it all out on Monday night and redid it with different bias tape with no issues whatsoever. Then I moved onto the sleeves, and herein lies the problem that makes this a fail: there was something majorly wrong with the armhole. I had moved the pattern in the 3/4 inch at each side of the shoulder itself, but I cut the regular sleeves size I made before. I knew something was wrong when I was "easing" the sleeve in, but had to actually stretch the sleeve out instead because the armhole was too big. I plowed forward anyway and tried it on - holy cow lol. The shoulder area was still too wide by about 5/8 inch and the sleeve cap itself could not accommodate my shoulders. It was the weirdest fit issue and so confusing because I had already taken the shoulders in before cutting. I tried unpicking it and making the armhole slope in more, but the sleeve cap was still too small for the hole, and I had nothing but scraps left of this fabric, so I just accepted defeat at that point. I feel like it was the right call even more now looking at these pictures because it straight up looks like a hospital scrub top. 

So now this project is back to the drawing board. I did pick up this purple rayon Monday that seems like it would work - it's just not the most thrilling color combination for me. I really see this navy with a blue or a white background. Ah well. We can't win them all, right? One of these days, I'll get that shirt made up. I just can't finish crocheting until I know the exact final shape of the yoke, so these pieces will just have to hand around a bit longer.

Another fail I had lately was the previous weekend when I tried dying this natural colored heavy weight linen. I had a specific vision in my head of a skirt in chocolate brown, and I had a bunch of Procion MX dyes, which I had never used before. Interestingly there is plenty of info on how to use this dye for tie dye or ice dying or batik-look dying, but very little that I could find about immersion dying and getting even color. This was quite the process, which took hours and made a bit of a mess, only to have my linen come out absolutely purple. This was done using a whole bottle of chocolate brown dye, ya'll. I'm mystified. I thought I followed the directions very well. Was it took much soda ash? Can that shift the dye? I'm not sure, but I was pretty disappointed by this one and I just wound up making my skirt in the plain, undyed fabric.

I've also jumped into making Regency era stays and this one is mostly a success, but there are some issues as well. I'm actually super proud of the result, but this was always supposed to be a mock up. As such, I used a random decor fabric I had a bunch of thinking it would never be used, but then it was turning out so well that I decided to make the pattern all the way so I could learn what I was doing for the real version and still maybe have a fun pair of stays as well. The problem is that my toile fabric was very loosely woven, so the gussets started to unravel at my stitching line. 

I had to hand stitch them back down and cover the areas in fray check just to keep the gussets attached to the project - and this is before they have ever been worn. I embroidered some "flossing" (not actually flossing though) at the V point of the gussets to try and cover up the reinforcing I had to do at the gussets, but it doesn't exactly look great. The blue side looks fairly nice over all until you look closely, but as this was intended to be the lining I traced my cording lines with yellow waxed paper since no one was supposed to see it anyway. Now I like the blue side the best, and technically these could be reversible, but the back has faint yellow lines through all the cording. I did learn a lot for my "real" stays, but it's still a bummer that these aren't more useable since it really was so close.

Now I have to get more eyelets for the back lacing because the ones I have are so bad they are unusable. I went to 2 fabric stores on Saturday, but I knew I had eyelets at home so I didn't even think about getting any. Turns out the ones I have are useless - I had to rip out the 3 I tried and then just stopped. These eyelets are all the same size - not one that slips into the other - so they just buckle and look mangled. Now I have to try and find some decent eyelets that will actually work to get these finished.

On a happier note, I have been teaching my youngest sister to crochet, and I've been making a minion rattle for my nephew so that I can show her the stitches. It's all done except it needs arms, but I'm waiting until we have another session to finish him up. He's turned out great though.

And I have a challenge with embroidering my niece's name a certain way on a little jean jacket for her birthday pictures, but what I need to do requires using software to custom make the design and I've never used it before, so I'm not super confident I can get it done. I made Barbie font patches for my niece and my girls while I was practicing though, and at least they look cute.

So, it's been a mixture of fun and frustration with my crafting here lately. I'm hoping I've hit my quota and will have a successful experience this week like I was having the past few months. These things do happen and I keep trying to tell myself that so I don't get too upset. Easier said that done though.

What do you have going this week? I hope you have had more success than me :)

Top 5 Misses of 2015

It's bound to happen - you win some, you lose some, etc. Here are my top 5 "misses" of the year.

5) Plume-y Plantain

This one is not an out and out fail. I love the fit of the shirt and I love the print of the fabric - it should've been a great summer staple, but in reality I didn't wear this much at all and when I did I felt self conscious. The truth is that the fabric is just too sheer for my taste. I was blinded by the cute print and should've realized it was too sheer before I purchased it. At least it was super cheap, lol, and I got great practice at t-shirt making.

4) Sunshower Cardigan

This is another that isn't a total failure. I love the sweater itself, but I don't like the mods I made. I made this size large everywhere except I graded up to extra large for the waist. If the sweater was made of wool like the pattern technically calls for, it would've worked out fine. Since I made this in cotton though, it stretched out the first time I wore it and now the waist is noticeably too large, making me look a bit heavier in the tummy. I still wear this sweater, but I keep it unbuttoned. I know it will shrink back down if I wash and block it, but that's just more work than I've been willing to do thus far. So lesson learned: size down on cotton sweaters.

3) Ruched-Sleeve Renfrew

This was a pattern hacking experiment that was foiled due to bad fabric choice. I didn't pay attention to the lack of stretch to the knit and it ended up being too snug for the ruching to show up at all. Something about the cut with this particular print also makes it more frumpy. This one has never been worn after these photos.

2) Skewed Flowers Dress

This was seriously so unfortunate and I knew it was a fail before it was completely finished. I had to do lots of modifications to the pattern to fit me, and while I did make a few muslins to determine the alterations I needed, I never made up the keyhole neckline until this final version. It turned out that I forgot to make sure my redrafted facing was symmetrical - seriously all I had to do was fold it in half and redraw it, but it didn't even occur to me at the time. The facing was completely crooked which made the keyhole completely crooked, and I didn't realize until I had already cut it open so there was no going back. I'm proud of my finishing to everything and the practice that I got toward the other versions of this pattern I made up later, but in real life I've only worn this dress twice - both times with a sweater buttoned up to cover the keyhole. Embarrassing :/

1) Crazy Chevron Tee

This was my only item I feel is a total and complete fail from this year. I wanted to try out The Tee pattern from Cake Patterns without realizing that I don't like the look of kimono sleeves on my already slopey shoulders. Combine that with the fact that I didn't notice how high the neckline was before I had it all put together PLUS this crazy print of fabric that I would've never chosen in ready-to-wear clothing and you have a very sad situation. I finished the shirt, and I did try several new techniques in the process . This was the biggest pattern placement and matching exercise I had done up to this point - I lined up all the vertical lines in the chevrons exactly before cutting, which required a crazy amount of pinning. I also squeezed this out of a small piece of fabric so I got to practice pattern matching in spite of limited yardage. This was also my first ever V neck, which I also realized I didn't like on me only after the fact. I did keep the shirt since the fabric is soft and I wear it to sleep in occasionally (much to my husband's chagrin, lol). At least it was a learning experience in what is not my style.

So there you have it - a year of fails out there for the whole world to see. In all honesty, I don't regret any of these projects since I gained new skills with each one. I'm in no way ashamed of anything here, and I feel like that's pretty big to say. I still wear most of these, so I guess that's a good sign too. I just hope I can apply all the things I learned from these projects in my future makes.