Seamwork Meg Dress (and Beatnik wadder)

Yep, you read that correctly. Seamwork. 

I've been eying the Seamwork Meg dress for a while. There's just something about it that called to me. 

So I decided to test out a Seamwork membership because with a 15-day trial membership you get a free pattern download plus access to all the other membership stuff (message board, member projects, tips, project sheets, videos, etc.). If I decided to cancel, I'd still be able to keep the pattern at no charge and I wouldn't be charged for the membership — your credit card is not charged during the trial period. Good deal, right? 

So, I downloaded the pattern to have a look at the drafting, sizing, and instructions. I printed out everything and taped the pattern together. It all seemed in order. (I have some opinions — shocker! — about some of the instructions which I'll share later but overall, they're fine.) 

And here is my dress (still to be hemmed). And I love it!

My measurements put me in a size 20 bodice, but this pattern has a lot of ease and after reading through some of the Seamwork "Community" (message board) and seeing some YouTube videos on this and other Seamwork patterns, I think Seamwork patterns run large. I cut an 18 bodice and blended to a 22 at the waist/hip. My measurements would put me in a much larger hip size but there's plenty of design ease in this dress so I stayed at the 22. My sizing decisions worked fine. I also added length to the bodice. Instead of cutting the bottom edge at the 18 lines, I extended to the 22. Kind of a cheater FBA. Seamwork is supposed to draft for a DD in the larger size range, but, again, after my research, I thought I would need more bust length. I was right. The width is fine, but again, lots of design ease.

The fabric is rayon voile from Fabricmart. It was supposed to be challis, but it's not. I'm not lucking out with Fabricmart rayons lately. But I do love the actual print. Also, I see that I still need to more evenly distribute the elastic in the channels so the waist is looking a bit wonky. (If only I could distribute my own waist so quickly.)

The tie is organza ribbon from deep stash. I'm still "auditioning" it and I may end up making a tie from the leftover fabric, of which there is a lot. But I do like the bit of contrast so the ribbon may stay.

These are the "bonus" sleeves, which are "puffed" and have an elastic channel to create the gathered hem flounce. Members get "free" bonus views of patterns that you don't get if you just buy the pattern without a membership. I think that's how it works, anyway. The non-bonus sleeves are flutter style.

Line drawing of the bonus view.

Here's the dress in progress to show how low the neckline is before gathering shortens it. I also added about 6 inches to the skirt length, much of which is now taken up by the waist elastic. I haven't done a final hem yet, but I'm thinking I'll keep most of the extra length.

Side note:  Cyrus decided the pattern tasted good and I found this after walking into the sewing room one day. My fault for strewing pattern pieces all over the place. It taped together fine, but it turns out that the bonus view also comes with its own bodice pieces so I didn't need the chewed piece in the end.

Now on to my opinions about the instructions. Overall, they are fine and will get the job done, especially if you have some experience. But some of the methods are not necessarily "Best Practices." For example, almost everywhere, you are instructed to finish (zz or serge) seam allowances separately. Technically, that's fine. But it's not necessary to construct the pattern and on my lightweight fabric, serging one layer was horrible. I quickly ditched that after being sure no seams actually had to be flat. If there's no construction need for the seam to be flat/open, then I think the instructions should offer a choice. 

Ironically, there is no instruction to finish the seams of the CF bodice and facing, which means they end up raw edges which can be fiddly inside the neckline channel if your ribbon insertion doesn't go smoothly. The facing should be interfaced and it's not. This would eliminate one of those raw edges in addition to just giving the facing a bit more something-something IYKWIM. 

Another "bad practice" is you are instructed to sew the bodice sideseams before attaching the facing and doing the topstitching to it. Much, much easier to do all that in the flat and THEN sew the sideseams.

Lastly, the pattern uses 5/8" seam allowances everywhere. I know this is technically OK and standard for Big 4, but I personally hate a 5/8" seam allowance on a sleevecap. Since this one is gathered, it wasn't a big deal, but if it wasn't, I would have trimmed it down.

Out and out mistakes include some typos, a missing instruction to remove basting stitches from outside a seam allowance (the puffed sleevecap), and no instruction to understitch the facing join seam. These are things a sewist with experience would just do so they didn't slow me down, but a beginner would have no idea.

So, did I cancel my trial membership? Actually, I did not. I'm enjoying the behind the scenes features and other members and there are a number of other patterns I want to download/try, plus I might actually go through their Design Your Wardrobe class at my own pace since my closet needs a huge overall. I think I'm actually seeing marked improvement from Seamwork patterns and practices since their early days and I'm willing to give them another chance. We'll see how I feel next year at renewal time.

* * * * *

Now for The Wadder (HotPatterns Beatnik). Ugh. This fabric (French terry) is so nice that I hate to waste it so I'll probably just literally wad this up and put it in a pile for a while until I can repurpose it. But the actual garment is a Big No. It just looks horrible on me. It's just too much fabric in the wrong places and not enough where it's needed, and the neckline sits funny on me. I've wanted to try this pattern for a while and I'm glad I did finally get to it. It's now out of my system. I'll be trying a Cashmerette Stanton next, I think. 

The topstitching looks so wonky in these pics. That's about the only thing that actually turned out OK, but it doesn't look like it. Hah.

Parting Shot:  If you've made it this far, here's Alex prepping the bird for our Thanksgiving last week. He's an excellent Cook (haha, get it?). Seriously, though, he's done the turkey for a couple of years and it's always been SO GOOD. That's one of his 3 dogs, Oreo, standing behind him. Anytime anyone is in the kitchen, so is Oreo. It was a low-key but enjoyable day with my sons and all the dogs. I finished up the last of the leftovers last night. I'm ready for more turkey! 

Quick Update

It's pretty sad that I've now got to start any blog post with "Yes, I'm alive" but when 6+ months go by, I guess it's to be expected. (Yes, I'm alive.)

Sewing has taken a back burner for a while. I've had limited sewing time and when I did manage to eek out something, I ended up with wadders. Very frustrating. And the "best" way to instantly kill the sewjo. I'm still dreaming/thinking about sewing and will get back to it, but I'm also having trouble finding inspirational fabric. In other words, I'm not seeing very much lately that is ME. I keep looking, but I keep deciding that what's in the cart isn't really doing it for me and just close the check-out window. I'm pretty sure it's not my sewing ennui that is creating my "problem." I'm just not loving what's available at the moment (this "moment has been going on for months!). And while I still have a substantial stash, even it is pretty depleted of favorites (what I want to sew/wear), so that's not much of a help either. Ahh. First-world problems. If you'd like to share any online fabric stores with great prints I may have missed, please feel free to enable me in the comments. :-)

So, if not sewing, what have I been doing? Well for starters, I've been working at my job during the weekdays. I've been here 3 years now . On weekends, I've been 50% of the "rehab crew" for Alex's real estate investment adventures. He's just finished fixing-up and renting out his third property. It's been a lot of fun to work with him and I'm beaming with pride at his success but I'm definitely too old and out of shape to do this more than part-time! A couple of months just on weekends kicks my butt.

Here are the Before/During/After pics of the kitchen we just completed.

Last month, my stepson Michael got married. Here he is below with his beautiful bride Hannah. (Do you see the peacock behind them?)

The goofball groomsmen brothers. For any of you long-time readers, can you believe Alex is my "baby" and he's already 25. The years just fly!

Tyler is still in the Marine Corps (a Sergeant now) … for about 4 more months. Then he will leave the Corps, marry his fiancée Angela (below) in October, and start new adventures. 

Overall, life is good. There just hasn't been much sewing going on and my intentions to check in are on that infamous road. Hopefully, I'll be revving up the machines soon. I need things!

What's on Zillie?

Zillie (my dressform) holds my in-progress, or in this case, stalled projects. I liked this fabric because it's all of my colors and a little sparkly too. But it's been in the stash for YEARS and so I'm not entirely sad to be tossing it. A little sad, yes, but onward and upward.

This is the pattern. The problems are there in the photo, if only I had paid more attention. But I wanted to try a different silhouette than my usual. Yeah, no. There is just way too much fullness and fabric at belly and below. Camouflage is one thing. Ridiculous added volume is another. Plus the way the print "landed" is also unfortunate.

From the side ... can you see how much width this thing adds? Would make an awesome maternity tent. ;-) Needless to say, I won't be finishing this one. And you won't be able to convince me otherwise.

Next up is KS 3764.

I'll be finishing this one, if only as a wearable muslin until the fabric disintegrates. Which, I'm guessing, won't be too long from now. This is also years-old stash, bought from a co-op. I think it's really cheap upholstery fabric. It's not a knit. Just a bunch of chenille on an open-weave kind of backing. Weird stuff. And I have purple too.

But the last time I made this KS pattern, I hacked it to make a RTW knock-off and I was much bigger than I am now so I had to trace smaller and start somewhere. Cheap upholstery fabric is as good a place to start as any.

It will be OK as a muslin. I really would like to make a leather moto jacket sometime soonish (like before 2016?), but I have no idea where to get good leather or how many hides I'd need, etc., etc. so that project will be a while before I even start. And then bright, shiny will likely distract me for a while along the way too. Maybe I can get Peter to shop leather for me??

I'm planning to finish the jacket this weekend and hopefully make something else that I actually like. The week whoooooshed by with the Monday holiday and I'm happy to be heading into another weekend. Maybe I'll even get through a few things on my list.

Thanks for all the very nice comments on my last post about the sneaky way to fix a gaping neckline. I'm not brilliant, though  ... just doggedly determined not to surrender. Hah.

A few personal notes ...

The job is still going splendidly. I really like my workgroup and what we're doing. No, it's not a creative design job but the money is the same and it's 100% stress/drama-free. At this stage in my life, that's much more important. I can be creative on my own time, right?

I've started looking for a new place for Alex and me to live. I love my city neighborhood and my 7-minute commute but this house and my landlord have major problems that can't be solved by me. I'm not in a hurry this time, so it may be months before anything actually happens on that front. But if you hear of any great Tampa rentals, let me know.

Not sure I mentioned it earlier, but the Marine was promoted to Sergeant. He's doing well but looking forward to getting out in 3 years. He has other life plans and wants to get at them. At least he's now only 6 hours away so we'll see each other more often between now and then.

I'm also now a quasi-grandma. My stepson and his girlfriend had a baby boy last week. Alex is beyond thrilled about being an uncle. I'm hoping to see them all soon. They live on the other side of Florida, about 3 hours away. I just need to figure out dog care. Alex's dad will be coming from VA to meet his grandson in a couple of weeks and Alex will drive over then to see them all.

And that about rounds out what I've been up to. And, Susanna, I haven't forgot you. Just slow-going around here.

I Made the Dress, But I Didn't Make It Work

The dress is done, so there's that. But bad fabric cutting and extra fullness (mine and the dress') killed it. I will show it on me at some point but Sundays here are not the days I want to model for the camera. Trust me, you don't want that either.

So, before I come clean with the ugliness, let's explore some other points.

The morph of the two patterns (S2281 and S4122) worked out well and I may even revisit it in the future. After the pain has left my memory. The part I don't like isn't from the morph, but from S2281 alone, but more on that in a bit. I like the open, wide-yoked neckline much better than the original S2281 design. High necklines and me don't get along. I didn't want to lose the pleated raglan sleeves from S2281 but I also wasn't willing to put even more time into re/creating them for this morph. Maybe another time.

This is the inside view. I ditched the waistband "facing" cuz ... well ... fiddly poly fabric and unmotivation (Now a word. You're welcome.). I did interface it and with that, it's more than stable enough. The yoke is faced, and interfaced.

I edgestitched the yoke ...

... and the waistband, and all my seams lined up great so yay for an accurate morph.

Here's where it starts to get ugly ...

Good lord ... was I drunk when cutting that fabric? Let this illustrate how cutting single layer can be a project saver. And, more importantly, how not can be a project killer.

I admit I'm usually an eyeballer ... that is, I lay out my pattern pieces and align by eye and not by ruler. This is NOT because I don't know the importance of accurate grain. It's because I have excellent spatial skills. Not a brag ... it just is. (On the other hand, I can't carry a tune in a bucket.) And because of those spatial skills, most of the time I'm spot on. Except when I'm not. As you can see below. To be fair, this looks a lot worse in a still photo with the waistband hung up on some dressform phantom than it does in real life. But even then, she ain't purty. And I have no excuse except that I'm human and not everything that comes out of my sewing room is rainbows and unicorns. ;-)

And to add insult to crooked injury ... look at that first photo again (below for convenience) ... I inadvertently lined up the bodice and waistband pieces so perfectly that YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE THE WAISTBAND. Hahahaha ... if you can't laugh, you'll scream. :-)

But even if I had perfectly cut fabric, I'd still hate the result. Because of the bustle butt. Yes, Bustle Butt. I'm trademarking that one. Why did I think I'd want (or need) gathers across my backside? Again I ask, was I drunk? If my front was as flat as Zillie's, it might even be passable. But my tummy is anything but flat and my actual side view in this dress is ...well ... let's just politely say thick and leave it at that.

About the only good thing with the result is ... remember that side invisible zipper I was dreading? Well, it turned out perfectly ...

... because I didn't need it! I sewed one sideseam for real and basted the other to see if I really needed a zip. And I didn't. Whew. Dodged that bullet.

IF I wear this dress for real, it will be with an overlayer to cover the Bustle Butt (tm). And that atrocious fabric cutting.

At least this Doomed Project From Hell is done and I can move on to something, ANYTHING, else. :-)

Have a great week!

Strike Two

Yeah. Two weekends of sewing. Two wadders.

To be honest, I didn't have high hopes for this shapeless shift style (V8805) working for me. I was just lured in by the colorblocking and thought I'd try something outside the wheelhouse. I really should've known better. I know me. I KNOW what works on my body, and shapeless shifts are not it.

To make matters worse, I also got a wild hair this morning and decided to line the thing. Or rather, partially line it. Because if by some chance it did work, it was going to be Velcro butt to the max and n aturally I wanted to avoid that. I also substituted a better green for the green that came in the mail the other day. I do like the color combo, but that doesn't help the shapelessness even a little bit.

I shouldn't have bothered.

I'm thinking I *may* go ahead and hem it and then shorten the sleeves and call it a summer house dress. But I've got to cut out the lining for that because this dress is WARM and HEAVY, neither of which are things you want for a Florida summer dress. But before I do that, I'm going to try a chain belt around my waist and see if that helps at all. Probably not, but I've got nothing more to lose at this point.

I think (hope?) the wadders done now, since bad things come in threes and even though I've called this one Strike Two, it's really Strike Three. Oh, what's the third you ask? Remember that skirt I made a couple of weeks ago from the leftover poly print from Joann's. That's the third. I can't go to the bathroom in the thing. It needs a back vent because the hem width is fine to step into getting dressed in the morning, but if you have to hike it up in the loo to do your business (which you do), expect to spend a good 5 minutes wrestling the thing back down. Sheesh.

On the plus side, this pattern is nicely drafted and *might* make a good tee but I'd want to rotate the bust dart out. And, frankly, at the moment that's the last thing on my list.

Nope

It's going to the Goodwill pile.

It makes me look like a tree trunk. A wildly patterned tree trunk, but a tree trunk nonetheless.

Wadders happen.

How I Wasted 20+ Hours of My Life

(Or, If Looks Could Kill!)



I'm an 80-year old woman wearing a carpet.

I even fully lined it before I decided to toss it. But at least I stopped before sewing on the sleeve bands, hemming it, or thinking about buttons.




I spent far too much time working, ripping, and reworking ideas to highlight the seaming.

Plain old triple-stitch topstitching with dark green thread disappeared (see princess seams in first photo above). Double strands of off-white upholstery thread showed up slightly better, but looked like basting. Riiiiip. Raw-edge strips of self-fabric showed fine but were going to ravel away to nothing, which I decided *after* I had sewn it all on. Riiiiiip.



I settled on black bias tubing couched on with a green double zigzag. While this is the best of the bunch and looks fine, I wish I hadn't bothered. In the end, nothing could save it.



It's just not me. I don't wear fabric like this. Maybe that's why it had been in the stash for so long?



I cut my losses and threw it out, never again to be tempted to "save" it.

Moving on.

ETA: After receiving 2 comments with suggestions for fixing it or coming back to it, please note: It's too late. It's gone. Outta here. I decided I didn't want to come back to it and I tossed it. Believe me, I know pretty well what I'll wear and what I won't. Besides, there are too many other things on my list that I want to sew. I'll never miss this jacket.

TNT, or is it?

Today, TNT means not Tried-N-True, but Tried-N-Trash. I'm glad I used an unloved fabric for a muslin before committing to it.

The drawing of View C (tie front) looks cute, doesn't it? I thought so. But I didn't read the fine print mentioning that the neck edge was unfinished. With Views A and B, you can always add a binding for a finished edge. Not so easy with View C. Yes, it can be done if I round the corners of the ties and then bind everything all the way around, but I don't know if I want to be bothered. I'm just not feeling the love for this top right now. I'll let it sit on Zillie for a couple of days before I make a final decision.

It came out incredibly long. Like 8 inches or so. Easily fixed if I do decide to try it again.



Here's a close-up of the neckline. I didn't do the topstitching around the raw edges per the pattern, but it wouldn't make any difference. Raw edge is still raw edge.



Here's the neckline with the "ties" hanging. They aren't really ties though. Instead, the tails are slipped through a loop (also raw-edged) that's sewn into the yoke seam and just pulled into a tie-like shape.



Here's the top on me. The fit needs a little adjustment. The sleeves are too tight and I would prefer a little bit more ease throughout. But overall, not bad. Especially since I did not make any adjustments besides to blend between sizes. That's right. No FBA. The darts are even in the right place.

I also eliminated the CB seam for both speed and style. If possible (and it was with this), I prefer tees to be cut on the fold in the back.



I could fix this one into a PJ top if I rip the sideseams and overarm seams and sew them at 1/4" instead of 5/8" in the places that need more ease. I'm not sure if I'm going to be bothered though. But I might ... I don't have very many long-sleeved PJ tops and the temps are going to drop again at the end of the week. (Uh oh. It's the next morning and I'm already mellowing.)

Oh, one more thing I don't like about this pattern — it takes 2.5 yards of 60" fabric. The top front piece has the sleeve front attached and has to be laid out in such a way that it sucks up way too much fabric. The short-sleeve version would be much more economic.

Memory Lane

I was doing a little tidying up in the sewing room and ran across these UFOs again. I've been planning to deal with them in one way or another but I had wanted to take pics first to show how really bad they are. I finally had the camera in hand at the right time and now we can all get a good giggle. (Remember to click on the photos for the bigger versions so you can see all the ugliness in full detail.)

First up, a now-OOP Butterick (too lazy to dig out the pattern number) from years and years ago, when I first started sewing and knew nothing about fitting or FBAs.



Look at the shoulder points falling off of mine! The bust dart is about 2 inches too low for me, the armholes are too big, and it's just a sack all over. That's because I picked the size using my full bust measurement, before I knew better. This fits me exactly like a RTW plus size blouse would.

But look at how perfectly executed that wing collar is, inset square seam join and all. It's pure linen and a beautiful color for me too. Sniff. I'll never wear this one, obviously, but I've kept it around because all it needs is buttons and the sleeves hemmed and it will either fit my sister (who is much more broad-shouldered than me and is 6 feet tall, and used to RTW), or it will go to Goodwill. I still have the pattern but I'm pretty sure I didn't trace it so I really ought to get rid of that too. I wish I had a replacement for that collar.

Next, Silhouette #600. Now that years have passed, my memory has faded about exactly what went wrong with this one. I sort of remember that all I did was my usual square shoulders alteration and choosing the D bust cup bodice piece but whatever went wrong, it was horrible and unfixable. And I wasted wonderful rayon fabric that I'm still not over. I can't say for sure that it was the pattern and not me, especially because the 4 reviews of this pattern on PatternReview all rave about it, but I do know that Silhouette patterns have completely symmetrical sleeve caps and they just do NOT work for me in a blouse. I did re-sell the pattern so all I lost was some time and that great piece of rayon.



Judy Jetson shoulders:



Last up, a McCall's top (again, too lazy to go look it up). It fits perfectly, so that's not the problem. But it's a clown top. Literally. All that's missing is a red ball nose. The combination of the bright colors and that very ruffled neckline is Just Not Right. I should hem the bottom and sleeves and donate it. To the Ringling Museum just down the road in Sarasota. ;-)



DS#2 is on his way to football camp, which leaves me the rest of today and most of tomorrow for sewing.

I've got a 5:30 PM interview tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic for a number of reasons. Not about getting the job, but because there's a good chance I will and I don't think I want it. Isn't that always how it works? ;-) But I'm going to try to keep an open mind until I hear the details and actually meet the principals, and hope that I'm pleasantly surprised. I also have a second interview on Monday for one of the jobs I *do* know I'd like.