Monday, August 11, 2008

My First Failure

I got the Built By Wendy book, Sew U for my birthday. It has so many great ideas on how to personalize patterns to make them your own. It has patterns for a skirt, button down shirt and pair of pants. I decided to try the shirt. Oh boy.

I was used to the easy-to-follow instructions in the Amy Butler books and patterns. I think Wendy assumes you know more than I do. The instructions are really pared down and not incredibly intuitive. I decided to add a ruffle to the front and was happy that it came out well. Although I tried to use the new ruffler foot I got for my birthday and just ended up breaking a couple needles. I went back to the instructions which said to baste a row of stitches and then pull the thread to make the ruffle. That worked.

I then struggled with the collar for awhile and finally went online and found these easy-to-follow instructions with pictures. It helped a lot. I made some pretty puffed sleeves and eventually got them in the armholes without any bunches. But then, alack, alas, now that I could actually try on the shirt, I noticed I had accidentally sewed a bunch of extra fabric into the seam of the collar. The front of the shirt pulled at a weird angle because of it. And the collar, after ripping out the seams and resewing them so many times was finally on for good. Chock that one up to lesson learned, I guess. I am so bummed. Look how cute it would have, could have been.

1 comment:

Zoe said...

Hi! Thanks for your comment on my blog. I do have this book, but I didn't use the pattern included for my creation. I used the Simplicity #3835, which doesn't button up. It either has a zip up the back if you are including the neck band, or just elastic if you don't (like the one I made). It's very quick to make, I would definately recommend you try it. Good luck! Happy sewing