Sewing Sins: Time For Confession

All of us commit them from time to time — and though we know it's wrong, we don't even really care. Because who is watching after all? You only have your own conscience to worry about when it comes to the sewing sins you commit in the privacy of your studio/nook/kitchen table.

Though I follow many of the sewing commandments (Though shalt not cut off-grain; Though shalt not use the wrong needle; Remember the seam allowance, to keep it holy), I also can confess to breaking a number of them.

1) I often cut out my paper patterns (even tissue!) rather than devote the time to tracing. Of course I regret it later when alterations need to be made, like this men's shirt here:

Major d'oh!

2) I have never sewn a button on the proper way. I use the zig-zag butonhole stitch on my sewing machine:

Haven't lost a button yet

3) I'm not religious about matching my thread to my fabric, such as this black twin-needle topstitch on the bottom of this gray and red skirt:

Meh, close enough

 4) I don't tuck in the tail of thread that remains after serging a seam. Of course, those tails often end up enclosed in another seam or hem, but when they don't, I just trim them and pray:

Care to confess your sewing sins? What are the commandments you always keep?

Pants-In-Progress Again

So sad my pants don't fit. Also: that my apartment is messy.

So it's becoming clear that my new pants — the ones I drafted for patternmaking class, pictured on me above — are not going to be my new favourites. They're not horrible. In fact, I'm pretty proud of all the new things I learned in sewing them: welt and slant pockets, fly front with zipper. But they're just too big. I don't think my professor is going to be impressed. And she's a hard marker. Sigh. I still have the details to finish, but I'm going to leave those until after I get back from Mexico.

In need of a good pressing

OFFER: Two collars, both a little on the small side. Pickup only.

If only there were something that could be done with an extra collar — or two. Because I had to make THREE of them for my latest project before finally getting it right. So if anyone out there thought I was good at this, think again. (And if anyone out there has any ideas about what to do with a couple extra collars, let me know).

There's Lucy above wearing my smallest collar, Chippendale's-style. If it fits a two-year-old, it's probably not going to fit a Size 10 blouse. Here's another one destined for the garbage can:

 

And here's the finished shirt with the third collar firmly attached.

The shirt fits me really well, and I quite like it. The only fix now left to make is the hem on the bottom. For some reason one side of the front is bigger than the other. I haven't yet checked my pattern to see if it was a pattern problem or a sewing error. I have a hard time respecting my seam allowances, which makes a big difference when you have so many different pieces all fitting together. I also think there's some voodoo that happens when you use fusible interfacing....maybe it shrinks things somewhat? How else to explain why my perfect drafted collar wasn't even close to fitting on the neckline of this shirt? I will never, ever take for granted a collar again.