Happy Monday, everyone! The pajama pants are almost all done: PS's are complete, SM's simply await hemming, and mine should be done by the end of the day. Soon I'll post a bunch of eye-candy (hopefully) of the finished products, but for today I want to talk about something that has consistently gone wrong in this project: alignment! No matter how hard I try to do everything right, cut every piece precisely, etc, I keep ending up with these sad little errors:
ARGLE
BARGLE
TOOMANY
PHOTOS
OK, let's break this down.
PROBLEM #1: PIECES DO NOT END IN THE SAME PLACE
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| Awkward |
So this has happened every time: The inside of the front and back pieces of the pants are not the same length. For a while I puzzled over how to line them up, given this problem, and I decided it would be best to match the notches and let the ends line up how they might. This always resulted in what's going on in the above photo: the top corners are like a centimeter apart! What is going on? Is the pattern screwy? Am I doing something terrible with my cutting? Unfortunately, I only have a varnished wood dining-room table to cut on, so I put down a flat sheet of cardboard underneath the part I'm cutting so my scissors don't carve up the finish. I hope the little elevation off the table isn't doing this... Anyway, This eventually leads to the front and back edges being lined up wrong when it comes to sewing the crotch seam. I try to even it out as best as I can, and trim of the extra. But it makes me sad! So... any tips?
PROBLEM #2: SEAMS DON'T LINE UP RIGHT UGHHHHH
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| "Join us. JOOOIIIINN USSSSSS. LOOOOOOVE UUUSSSSSSSS." |
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See how the seam goes all zig-zag in the middle there? That is supposed to be a continuous vertical line, because it is the inside seams of the legs. They should meet up in the middle, but
they do not. I don't know what to do about that, except... sew better? Again, I am lining up by notches, and I'm pretty sure those seams were closer together or correctly aligned when I pinned them, so at least a part of this problem comes from the way I'm sewing. Sometimes I catch myself pushing the fabric a little bit, so I know I need to check that bad instinct. But if anyone's got any more specific advice, I'd love to hear it. The worst part about this problem is I'm not even getting better about it! The above shot is my pants, which I made third. And here are SM's pants, which I made second:
See? Much better. So. Yeah! I'm getting worse. Or just fluctuating randomly.
ANYWAY, I don't want to be too much of a downer. For the most part, everything is going well and I'm SUPER DUPER THRILLED that the things I am making are turning into wearable garments. Here is a sneak-peak at the "Project Finished" entry:
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| YAY FEET! |
BUT WHAT'S NEXT?????
Good question! Yesterday, I went out shopping again with my mom, and got all sorts of things for my next three projects. The first is a late mother's-day present for that same mom:
Yes, my mom liked the skirt I was wearing in my first OOTD so much that she wanted me to make her one just like it (shape-wise, not color-wise). I think I've mentioned before that we are cute people. Anyway, I'll be making view A up there on the upper-left of the pattern. Although View E intrigues me, and I may tackle it for myself in the near future. When this skirt is done, my mother has requested her own photo-shoot for this blog, so look forward to that!
Project #2 is a Sewing-Machine Cozy from the Sew Everything Workshop. Oilcloth seems to only be available in patterns best described as "mad tacky," but this is the one I liked the most. So there you go! I'm going to try to whip this one up pretty quick, so expect pictures in the near future.
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| I don't think I can fully explain why or how much I like the cat in this photo. LOOK AT THAT CAT!? |
Project #3 is the "Breezy Easy Wrap Skirt," also from the Sew Everything Workshop. At some point I had a magical vision of making a skirt for myself in basically the exact fabric I managed to find, so I'm pretty excited about that.
If you have any tips for making these projects (which include gathering! and darts!), leave them in the comments. These will probably keep me busy for the next few weeks of spare-time-crammed-in-between-work-that-actually-pays-me-money. Have I mentioned that if you'd like me to sew you something, you should definitely ask me right away? I have ideas for myself, but I really want challenges and reasons to make all sorts of things. So please let me know if you want something. ALSO, since I really want to make kids' clothes, do tell me if you have children and would like me to sew something for them. It would make me super happy!
ARGLE
I like that leafy fabric you're using for your mom's skirt! It's pretty.
ReplyDeleteShe picked it out herself! We had to go through two other fabrics before settling on this one, because they didn't have enough of the first two (the pattern calls for a whopping 4 & 7/8 Yards of fabric). This one is actually my favorite of the three, so I'm glad that happened.
DeleteYou made the right call in matching up the notches and letting the ends fall where they may. That's the correct thing to do.
ReplyDeleteThings don't always match up. It happens. Some of it can be mitigated by more careful cutting, some of it is just quirks of the pattern, or whatever. I admit, I'm the worst person to ask about "careful cutting," because I take a lot of shortcuts. But the things I've heard mentioned are:
- move around the pattern to cut, don't move the pattern pieces
- You should always be looking at your work from the outside of the scissors.
- keep the number of pins you use in pinning minimal, because too many distort the fabric. (Some people prefer pattern weights to pins for this reason. Me, I can't be convinced to spend $15 for what are basically heavy-duty washers covered in fabric).
I'm concerned about the cardboard layer underneath, just because it might shift, although I understand your desire to spare the table. The floor might be better? I don't know how much money you want to spend on this hobby, or have disposable, but I highly recommend a cutting table, which is basically a tall foldable melamine table.
I have considered the floor... We have area rugs, so each cutting would basically require me rolling up a carpet and cleaning the floor, not to mention the strain on my back. I'm buying one of those little plastic cutting mats next time I go to the store, in hopes that its flatness will at least improve things over the cardboard. I have basically no disposable money right now, but I will hopefully be able to invest in a cutting table at some point.
DeleteI think I'm following your first three parts of advice. Although if pattern weights are just overpriced washers wrapped in fabric, surely crafy folk like us could handmake them pretty easily?
Yeah, we could. I'm also lazy ;)
DeleteIdea: sewing pattern swaps or some kind of local sewing pattern library (perhaps a google doc?) This idea is spurred by my desire to find out if that skirt pattern for your mom is in my range of sizes, and borrow it if so! I would, of course, trace my pattern size onto my own tissue paper, not cut apart your pattern. Maybe in turn I have some patterns you'd like, or Lise would, or Phoebe... and even if the patterns aren't in the exact right size, I'm sure there's some simple enough where we can extrapolate up or down. Hmmmm....
ReplyDeleteThat is a delicious idea! I'm going to be working on the wrap skirt today, but I can get a document started during my breaks. I love sharing!
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