Friday, September 11, 2009

Not meant to sew....

Have you ever had one of those days, or projects, where everything that could possibly go wrong does?? This little t-shirt did that to me. It is not a hard pattern. There aren't too many pieces. It started out wrong from the get-go, though. I had the pattern traced out - sans seam allowances. I usually just cut my seam allowance in by cutting a 1cm border around the pattern piece pinned to the fabric. Well.....I had a few minutes to cut out the fabric while dd's were playing and dinner didn't need started for a few minutes. I was proud of how quickly I got the 7 pieces cut out. A couple days goes by and I haven't had a chance to start sewing said project, but I have been thinking about it and decide to read over the pattern instructions (this is a project from Ottobre kids 4/2009 - 35). I immediately realize that I forgot all of my seam allowances! The only pieces unaffected were the binding strips. AARRGGHHH!!! Well, I thought to myself, this was a tad on the large side for my dd, so maybe I will go ahead and proceed and hope that it will work out. So, first things first, I put the yoke on the gathered front. I topstitch like it says to and it gets all stretched out and wonky. I try the back and get a little better results and decide dd's hair will cover the areas that aren't perfect. I pull the topstitching out of the front and decide I really don't need it. So, I proceed to bind the front yoke using my binders and coverstitch. Well, it was f*** up! It looked absolutely awful, everything stretched out and was unfixable at this point. Frustrated, I tossed that piece aside and started on the back piece. The binding went on much better for that piece, except for some reason, there wasn't enough to finish the binding!!!! I thought it would be hidden and I would just piece another bit of binding on. So I did it, it looked crappy but it would be hidden. Exept.....re-examining the instructions shows the back laps over the top so, nothing is hidden. AARRGGHH!! Next step was to wait a day to cool off!@! Coming back to the project somewhat calmer, I decided the front was trash and recut those pieces (still with no seam allowance so as not to screw up things further). I got the front gathered and the front yoke pinned to it and managed to get it all sewn together great. Except I sewed the yoke on upside down. Rip out all of the serging and put it in right. Recut my binding strips, got the back binding ripped off and sewed the new binding on with nice results! I go to sew on my front binding and realize I actually put the yoke onto the front with the wrong side facing.......I consulted my dh to see if he could tell and he couldn't so I just left it. I got the binding on great. I basted the top shoulder area together....not sure how the instructions were trying to tell to do it....but I got it to work.....I think there was a typo in the instructions. It said wrong sides together, when I believe it should have been wrong side of back to right side of front, since the back overlaps the front. I got the sleeves put in with no issues. I started to pin up the sides and realize that my stripes aren't lining up quite right on one side with the under arm area. I fudged it in. When I went to hem the bottom, I realized that I had mismatched a whole stripe at the bottom and that is why under arm area didn't line up right.....had I worked from the sleeve down I wouldn't have had this problem.....oh well. So, my bottom hem isn't straight with the stripes as it should be.....but unless you sew, you would probably never even see this.....no one I showed it to did! I don't think I was meant to sew this shirt!I hope to add some pictures of my dd wearing her new ensemble and I hope she appreciates the trials and tribulations that I endured making this for her!! :)

4 comments:

Tanya said...

I totally understand, we've all been there but the final result is awesome. It's really disappointing when a simple project just isn't.

Renee said...

So frustrating! I actually read the latest post first and really liked this shirt. So, for all your struggles, it does look good! I like the blue/black/white combo.

Tamara said...

I hope she likes it too after all that trouble! I think it looks very cute. I love the stripe. When I finish a very frustrating project for my daughter I am very glad that it wasn't for me. By the time I am done I hate it and wouldn't ever wear it. She, on the other hand doesn't know how horrible the garment was and wears it with glee. Your daughter will wear this shirt loving it and knowing that you loved her enough to make it. Good job persevering!

mermaids said...

love the way you utilized the stripe. very cool