The coolest mistakes I've made last decade

"You have your first set of build plans, and then you have the plans from after you've built (it) "
You make a thing, and then you make it right.

December 2019 Popular Mechanics, page 8

I cut the sleeve too short because I used the lining pattern piece rather than the fabric pattern piece.

I have made this V1664 Miyake as a shirt to great happiness, using a totally traced off pattern (so no original landmarks). As a completely finished moleskin jacket, it really would like full length sleeves. To resolve this expensive and time-intensive jacket, I inserted extra purchased moleskin fabric.

Is it a bug or a feature?

 Inserted upside down. Very subtle error here, which I cannot stop myself from pointing out. Must stop doing that. Is here the place to start? No. You aren't strangers in a crowded elevator (or maybe that's what this blog really is).

I cut one piece cross grain, for visual interest. Yes, I preshrank. It still has a lot of shrink left in it. Shrinks and  fights with itself.  The point where the hem is slanting up is the seam where the fight is happening the most.

Now, these pants look really cool. They feel great, but you can see where this is going. Keeping them out of the dryer does not prevent them from shrinking. 

I cut the pants out of  overly lycra'd stretch woven fabric that won't stop shrinking.

Found this photo, aren't they great? SO GAUDY.

I got this fabric from Fabric Mart, there were no fiber contents listed on the website besides cotton. Came in with 8% lycra, and DAMN. I no longer have these pants, as they moved from "too short with too much elastic in the fabric" to "every time I wear these, I don't need to shave my legs and OW that hurts". Which is a shame because that print was WILD.

It was made of silver grey cotton with a silvery leaf pattern woven in. Yes, I dream about this fabric.

(sorry, no photo)

I cut a Burda without adding seam allowances.

This one stings. 1980. One of the first things I ever made of a Burda magazine traced pattern, with some super spendy Italian shirt cotton I purchased at  The Stitch, a lovely fabric store on University Way. I had made this shirt once -  perfectly - out of a bedsheet. And the next time, I forgot to add the seam allowance. Now, I hung onto this, and yes, I did fit into it some years later. I had been ill and lost a bucket of weight. But I did wear it. Once. Just once. In 1995. And I did let it go, so it would stop laughing at me, my mistakes, my chubb arms....

Stay safe, kids

The Coolest Ensemble I Messed Up

This was going to be a post about adding pockets to the Turner, and how shifting the side seams forward shows how brilliant I am. And that was a good idea and worked out well. The pocket shift worked at least.

December 2019 Popular Mechanics, page 8

This sums the rest of last year, maybe the entire life of this blog.
I made a thing.
It was okay enough.
But THIS is what I learned from that, and will do that better the next time I make one.
See, I love this magazine.

So,

When I make something that I've made successfully before, changed one thing and BOOM it's a fright show.

I really wanted a stretch velvet leopard print dress. And I had made the Cashmeretter Turner to great success, except the neckline was too wide and deep for my comfort.
So, armed with that data, I hunted down the fabric.
This was a several year process.
I wasn't having any luck, until a clerk at Joann's suggested I look at online sites that specialized in gymnastic wear.
Spandex World came through.

I bought a swatch. I never buy a swatch.
I was doing this right.

Hmmm, lots of tum exposed there.

The Cashmerette Turner in stretch leopard print velvet

Original dress, traced off pattern (too lazy to reprint pdf)

The fail here is that I cut the pieces just right,  but out of the wrong material.

The first version of this Turner dress is made of 4 way stretch, so the bodice lengthens with the skirt weight.

(see, the piece matches the original dress. No I am not going to model it today, you will trust me when I say that the Spoonflower modern jersey will stretch that much to hit my high waist, vs my almost covers the rib cage)

This stretch velvet doesn't really stretch lengthwise, and the tricot lining I used (the pattern calls for a double layer in the bodice pieces) has absolutely no longitudinal stretch.

Thus adding the waist piece. Which bags. 

Yes, I wore it out, but only as a part of the Super Over The Top Ensemble for the Nutcracker ballet. Love that WilliWear leopard chubby! Also love those pony fur leopard print creepers.  This is as much of this as you are going to see.

But! you wail! That bag does not match.
Oh, but just you wait!
We have a leopard bag with a failed clasp to match.

 Spoonflower minky fat quarter

And the clasp broke before it left the workroom

It's just not meant to be.