Pattern Review is Still My Girlfriend

8813. In plaid. Theoretically strong.  Needed more definition.

I pulled this section out from the other posts, because it's so far offtopic it should have a set of bus routes, a water district and a library.

The problem comes from reading the directions. Because for once, I'm gonna read them.

See the space between the end of the piece and the top of the next piece you're sewing to?

In this illustration, you can see there's a distance from the seam join to the top of the pattern piece.

It's right there

In illustration #3, you can see there's a distance from the seam join to the top of the pattern piece.

In real life (yes, I shortened on the alteration line. I am short), there's about 3-4 inches distance.

But in this illustration (#5), it's just a seam allowance distance.

And this illusion continues to the next illustration (#6)

As it turns out, the discrepancy in the illustration is not a problem. It's just a drawing error. That transition at that corner did trip me up, and I had to unpick and topstitch it.

However, sometimes it's a problem.

https://sewing.patternreview.com/

 PR, here i come.

Now, as readers of this blog will note, I have ISSUES with PR. I linger every year over the 'do I give them my money and for what?' at renewal time. And I renew, I just renewed, because I do get something out of it, and I do want to encourage more of this peer review of patterns. The knowledge bank is deep, and full of Ann Smith's work on Miyake Vogue patterns (which is half how I got to this).

Generally speaking, I read the lowest scoring reviews first. I want to know if there's some ghastly rotting corpse in the instructions or the pattern pieces. Even Vogue has some horribly done patterns still in rotation. 

https://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v7464

You will make friends online over this one. You will have to.

This 40s vintage hat pattern that is missing half its instructions is still for sale, and is  still missing the second half of the instructions (and I took a hat making class and still cannot chalk that one up to 'you need additional millinery skills for this'. No.) 

On a wider view of the pattern world, there are plenty of patterns that make no sense TO ME* and have loopy instructions where you wave your hands over the pieces and they must assemble like Autobots or Avengers, all on their own. I like my match points to match. Miyake's blouse 2056 may be a mess of match marks that has defeated me SO FAR, but I know in my heart this does work.

There is no real proof of this shirt working yet. If you have succeeded, please comment and explain.

However, there's 
 https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2013/04/miyake-dress-1309.html
which DOES work

A dress that STILL fits me, twenty pounds later. Don't overlook this feature.

But clearly I have digressed:
Pattern Review, Vogue 8813 is a busy page.

25 reviews (23, two people reviewed it twice) and all of them made major alterations to the pattern. Even the ones that indicated they did not in the summary, made alterations of significance: added waistbands, buttons, sewed up the v-neck, major FBA, armsceye 'creation' (adding a dart to the bottom of the sleeve to create a fitted curve - a reverse gusset).  One relegated it to the Halloween dress up pile. People who rated it five stars and would recommend to a friend would not make another one. That's not a recommendation. 

 I do want to remind you that sometimes, it's really not you, it's the instructions or lack of instructions. More often than not, pattern pieces weren't reassembled to verify they fit together. Some patterns have a lot of moving parts that are hard to keep track of. Even professionals screw up. Stuff happens.

Remember how to make a peanut butter sandwich?

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2017/10/instructions-are-hardest-part.html

The pattern I did for SewBaby turned out okay, but it only turned out because we spent a billion years on the instructions. A BILLION. It's day is over, it wasn't the greatest coat for toddlers (though a very good bathrobe....it has the 'sew miles of bias tape around the edges' problem. Snoresville.)

Look, my patttern is in the bin at Value Village! Uncut...oh that's not a good sign.

There are different levels of instructional engagement. Some people need to know where to sew A to B. Some people want to wing it. But I insist that there are patterns that are just unsewable because they were drafted off an object that the drafter did not understand. Go look at that hat again. I'VE BEEN THAT DRAFTER. I've made that mistake.

This pattern broke me.

I think that a pattern is a promise that if you read it and follow it's directions with care, you will have a result that will look like the photo or the drawing. If you have basic skills and are willing to do some learning on the job of new ones, you can produce results that are consistent with the image you've purchased. If you are a beginner and you try a 1950s vintage ballgown, you will have plenty of challenges, but you can do it. 

Or if you're 18 yr old me and you're ruining some Harris Tweed  - the only Harris Tweed you will ever touch - to make an ill-fitted suit for a friend.
It did look like the drawing. It did not fit her. I followed the directions. I had to look some of the procedures up in a book in the library (this was 1977) but there were directions to follow and I followed them. Except for the one to make a toile to check the fit. I learned a lot. I also lost a friend.

Remember Rue.
https://www.colettepatterns.com/catalog/rue
https://ciaraxyerra.com/2016/10/04/we-need-to-talk-about-the-rue-dress-some-more/

*this is my blog. I am entitled to change my mind. Or not.

Dots and Stripes

You're welcome, but these should be on the outside of the envelope.

I think this is the first time in awhile I've opened a McVoguericity (the One Company to Rule Them All?) pattern and cut into it. I tend to read the directions and look at the layout and then fold them back up and make something else.

I cut the 16 because booooooty

Not suitable for plaids, stripes....WELL!

Challenge ACCEPTED.

(saving the plaid for later)

That neckline is way too wide

So I slashed and brought it in

Checked it against my recent successful neckline/shoulder seam

Drew a new neckline in green Mr Sketch (mmm minty!)

Cut it

Trued it up with the back bodice

And let's just say I messed around with the grain directions.

Except when I didn't

My working plan. Patterns are cheap - this didn't even get to the sketchbook level.

I used a yard and a half of each and goofed around a lot. This was an evening.

A fun evening. Really. Listened to "Science AF" with Jesse Klein and Dave Ciaccio. A science podcast by improv comedians who really like science. http://www.scienceafpod.com/scienceaf

Lots of f-bombs. Not for the kids.

Oooh. Tent stripe? Oh.

Not exactly the same turquoise bluish green. I didn't check this until I was taking photos.

Oh.

Matching the pieces up precisely was not an option after my slapdash cutting job. I had about an inch of slop width, and I put that at the sides, choosing to line up the center line as straight as possible. The original pattern has a bend there, as mentioned.

Looks okay.

It should look eye-catching, not stomach turning.

Now, this is the trick I learned, pattern testing for Cake Patterns

(MISS YOU STEPH C)

when you want to get something exactly where you want it, and also want to sew it together on a seam edge.

I could pin it and top stitch the pieces together. 

But I don't want that flappy edge.

So...

You line up the pieces, with the raw edges ironed over to their finished seam allowances.

Keeping them in proper relation to each other, you're going to iron them in place

I do love this stuff.

Wonder Tape is great, but it won't hold well enough on anything with a texture, 

and fusibles will fail well enough, you can pull them apart and re-iron them.

And then I open it up and stitch the seam line (the crease)

I pin them on the dress form to take a long look.

I will be honest: there are a lot of dresses that just stop here. The Infinity War novelty cotton dress dropped dead here recently. It's now a top, and you may see it eventually.

I am old enough to know when to say when.

But this isn't it.

I didn't like their pockets, so I drafted my own.

I could have made much cooler ones, but I was going to run out of fabric. 

Action shot

And then I decided I wanted facings for the rounded cuts by the hem.

Which required pinning the dress to the ironing board to work out.

(dress dangling upside down onto floor not shown)

I used the printed selvage down the back seam (another reason to straighten that out)

The floor shows it off well. I tried to alternate the dots and stripes from quadrant to quadrant. The hem facings  are not in the original pattern, and I like them better. 

I need to stress here: I did not follow proper bias/ongrain alternating. The dots are ongrain, the stripes are on bias. In a year or two, this is going to look like hell.

This is NOT heritage sewing.

And I will have worn it to bits by them.

And I wore it to work today.

It was a little heavy for 90F, but the skirt (which is a little long for me) swishes nicely. The hem side curve facings, plus a 1.5 " hem really gives it some body.

And for once, everyone in the family and at the job liked it.

So I guess this is the most sedate dress of the summer, even with Tent Stripes. And Pom Poms

I am entering it in the Pattern Review Stripes and Dots challenge, just in time.

If you like to vote, you can vote for me.

Or you can vote for someone else. Or not at all.

But remember, if you live in the USA, you had damn well better vote in November.

Not a link.

Jeanius Continued, Sort Of. Not Really.

I make my own pants. Mostly because RTW aren't Ready for My Enormous Booty. I can get the fit in the hips and legs, and I can put an entire loaf of sandwich bread in the space between my back and the waistband. Even the Torrid jeans don't accomodate me.

Obviously Kim Kardashian has a custom pair of pants for her pumpkin.

I had a fail in pants making that made me so sad, I needed a quick shot of redemption. And my TNT is the 'yoke up' self drafted jeans pattern from last year.  I just made a version of this pants pattern this past January.

See? I didn't even bother to take more photos. I just cut them and sewed them and boom.

This time I wanted to luxe out in upholstery tapestry cotton. I have an expensive piece waiting for me to commit to the style, so I got a slightly less expensive yard.three at JoAnn's. Shiny on one side, matte on the other, I reversed it for the yoke and the pocket facing.

But instant gratification is not possible it seems.

Before we get there, let me show you a positive thing I did here.

I have trouble with the bulk of fabric at the point in the waist band where I'm trying to put in a buttonhole. I wanted to reduce bulk.

Thus this foldover at the waistband.

Pin on extended waistband to front 

Stitch and iron up

Fold over at fly edge (excess interfacing removed from folded section)

Add rest of waistband facing, stitch across all

Trim excess bulk from this top seam

This is the same process on the other side of the front

Turned out 

The other side. Not finished yet, but you can see the overlap of the folded part over the facing part

The exterior is going to be prettier than the interior because I am going to run out of gas when I get to the .....camel toe...(runs off weeping)

I had a huge extra flap of fabric in the front at the crotch point (an inch extra, providing a stunning camel toe effect I do NOT have photos of - look into my eyes, for it is burned into them). 

I was careful about cutting and handling, but I must have stretched out what is, frankly, a very unstable fabric. Very prone to snags, so ripping out three or four lines of stitching and topstitching was a slow process.

Scooped that offending flap/chunk, and added a side to side gusset to relieve the shrinkage from front to back (when something stretches one way, it usually shrinks the other) in the upper thigh. And now they are the pants I was hoping for. 

Except for the final photo, which I take a good look at as I am loading it up into Pattern Review, there is an enormous ripple on the left upper bum.

I give up. It's probably stretching out the back seam. I could trim it down, I probably will (nothing is ever done, just not being altered right now).

Le Sigh. Call the Waaaaahmbulance.

Features a small welted 'watch' pocket in the facing of the left pocket. No back pockets because I don't use back pockets. No belt loops because no belts here.