The ‘A’ in A-Line apparently stands for Anger. So far, this has been my least favorite project.

I made this skirt as part of a Sewing Basics II class, which was offered by the Philadelphia Sewing Collective. The instructor was Christine Phillips, a local fashion designer. The fabric was purchased at Spool.

On the hanger, it looks like a typical A-Line skirt; nondescript and nothing obviously wrong with it.

But, underneath, lurks a disfigured monster that I am now referring to as…

Franken-skirt!

Everything started out well, but, after the whole thing was put together (of course), I realized that it was about 5″ too small in the hips. I had to add fabric inserts on both sides to make it fit. I started out with tapered inserts, but, the skirt kept puckering, so I had to go with straight inserts.

I am still extremely confused by how it could have been that small. According to the pattern (Simplicity #4036), the hips were just one inch smaller than the A-Line skirt from Betsy Ross Patterns. If the measurements were accurate, it should have fit perfectly, because I have a little bit of room in the Betsy Ross skirt. I can understand sizes being different (i.e., a size 10 in one brand, is different than a size 10 in another brand) but, in this case, we’re talking about standardized units of measurement (specifically, inches), so I’m not sure how they can be that far off.

I’m inclined to believe that Simplicity is the problem, rather than Betsy Ross, since another pattern I bought from Simplicity created a garment that was way too big. Although, after re-reading my last post, where I thought the Betsy Ross skirt was going to be 5″ too small, maybe I’m just inclined to give Betsy Ross the benefit of the doubt, since the skirt I made from their pattern actually fit.

The inserts weren’t long enough.

I felt like I needed to rush to get the inserts completed during class, since I needed help from the instructor. Consequently, they wound up being too short. It wasn’t the end of the world, but now my hem looks weird.

Adding inserts also made the waistband too short.

After installing the inserts, I had to make the waistband longer. I measured the skirt, and factored in enough fabric for the seam allowances, as well as a little bit of extra at the zipper. Unfortunately, it still wound up being about 3/4″ too short. As you can see in the above picture, I had to pull a Frankenstein at the end of the waistband, otherwise, it wouldn’t have attached properly to the zipper.

Although a lot went wrong, some things also went right…

I was able to install another zipper.

And, I got to practice some more darts.

Overall, I guess the skirt looks fine from the outside, which is one of the great things about sewing. However, the inserts have made the skirt too wide at the bottom, so I’ll probably still have to take it to the dry cleaner for tailoring. That sort of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

I can’t decide which project has made me happier, the outfit for my cat, or this A-Line skirt for me.

This A-Line skirt was made as part of a 3-week class at Spool. The class used a pattern by Betsy Ross Patterns, and was taught by Aimee Pflieger Dolby, the company’s founder. Believe it or not, the fabric came from Jo-Ann.

I expected darts to be hard. They weren’t. 

I installed a zipper. Badly.

I was convinced that it wasn’t going to fit, and was totally sweatin’ it during class, because the measurements indicated that it was going to be about 5′ too small

I swear, when I tried that thing on during class, and it fit, I think I heard angels singing.

I still don’t understand measurements. They never seem to match what the pattern says.

This whole sewing obsession started with my burning desire to create a tie for my dogs to wear in their Christmas portrait. At the time, the only nice tie pattern I could find was designed for cats:

click image for purchasing information

My dogs aren’t huge, and one of them isn’t much bigger than a large cat, so I figured I could just make the neckbands a little longer and the patterns would fit. 

I’m not sure what possessed me, but I decided to try making one of the outfits from the above pattern, even though I’ve only used a pattern once, and that was with a lot of help and supervision.

Here’s the super cute result:

It’s a bit difficult to see them, but the little “shirt” actually has pleats on either side of the buttons.

Unfortunately (for my cat, Willie), my whole just-make-the-neckbands-longer idea didn’t work out, and the outfit was too small for either of my dogs. So, here’s poor Willie, being the sweet, cooperative guy that he is:

Although I absolutely love this little outfit, it took about 6-8 hours for me to complete it. I had a lot of difficulty with the actual tie, and wound up having to take it apart several times. It didn’t help that the pattern seemed to be wrong in a couple of places, and, if not wrong, then at least extremely unclear. Since I’m a sewing noob, I don’t know how common it is for patterns to be wrong, but this one definitely seemed to have some problems.

The quest for the perfect dog tie continues…

This post is about the hideous drawstring pajama bottoms that I made in my first sewing class. The class was called Sewing Basics, and is offered by the Philadelphia Sewing Collective. The instructor was Stephanie Rubinetti, a local fashion designer.

Let me start out by saying that being a beginner is hard. I had no idea where to get nice fabric, what brands were good (or sucked), what was priced fairly (or overpriced), or what the heck I was looking for on the “notions wall” at Jo-Ann. But, here’s what I had to track down:

Simplicity pattern #9330
3 yards (45″ or more width) of lightweight, woven fabric (no knits, satins, or fabric with a nap)
Thread (matching or neutral)
Fabric shears
Craft scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Pins
Dressmakers tracing paper
Tracing wheel

Obviously, not everything was a mystery, but the pins and fabric caused me major angst. That, and they were out of tracing paper. Seriously, outside of Utah, is there still an unmeetable demand for dressmakers tracing paper?

You’d think pins would be simple, I mean how many kinds of pins could there possibly be? The answer is: More than you’d think. After what seemed like 30 minutes of deliberation, I finally decided on the ones with the plastic balls on top, figuring they’d be easy to pull out. Then, on Day 1, the instructor tells us that these prevent the fabric from laying flat, so we shouldn’t use them. Grrr…

Picking out fabric was the worst. First, I didn’t want to spend a lot, because I figured there was a good chance that I would screw up my first project. And, because we were making pants, I (wrongly) assumed that I had to use apparel fabric. If you eliminate “knits, satins, or fabric with a nap,” as well as the John Deere fabric, there isn’t much “lightweight, woven fabric” left to choose from in the apparel section of Jo-Ann. So, you’ve already seen what I ended up with.

All told, I think I spent about 2.5 hours in Jo-Ann, most of it in a state of confusion and frustration. 

But, it was all worth it, because now I own these beauties:

Go ahead and laugh, smarty.

The drawstring was extremely annoying to make.

We didn’t get a chance to finish the pants in class, so I taught myself how to make the buttonholes through which the drawstring slides. [You can't see, but, after typing that, I buffed my fingernails on my lapel.]

These pants actually made me terrified of hemming. I’ve since overcome it, but, man, I had to redo these hems about 5 times. Since we didn’t get to finish the pants during class, I didn’t learn the proper way to hem. And, to my surprise, there are a lot of improper ways to hem. I think I used at least 3 of them on these pants, and I’m sure there are more I haven’t gotten to try yet.

At one point, the legs differed in length by at least 3 inches. How does that happen?

At another point, I had about 3 rows of stitches in each leg, because I kept rolling the hem up further and sewing it again.

When I finally decided that I needed to start over from scratch, it took me at least 2 hours to pull out all of the stitches.

My advice to future me: When you get frustrated, walk away from the project and come back another day. Angrily persisting will only make things worse.

Though you can’t really tell from the picture, I eventually got the legs right (I swear, it’s just the angle of the picture that makes them look lopsided), and they are the perfect length for me. Too bad they are too ugly to wear. 

My original plan for this post was just to write about my first sewing project. But, as I thought about it, I remembered that my desire to sew came from an exceptionally dorky place, so I figured I might as well write about that first.

Each year, we have a holiday portrait taken of our dogs (for photographic evidence, please direct your attention to: Exhibit A). To keep the pictures from looking the same each year, I always try to find different holiday collars for the dogs to wear. One year (I think it was 2006), unhappy with the collars I had purchased, I decided to dig through the photographer’s trunk of dog outfits to look for something better.

What I found was one of these: 

click the image for purchasing information

Unfortunately, since the photographer only had one, and I was looking for a matched set, I had to use the crappy collars I brought with me. But, when I got home, I started searching online for where to purchase the ties for the following year’s portrait. When I found them, I was shocked to learn that they were nearly $30/each (they’re currently on sale for $15.99, by the way). I mean, I’m crazy when it comes to buying stuff for my dogs, but even I wasn’t prepared to shell out $60.00 for two collars that would be worn for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Looking back, I should have just spent the $60.00, because my first sewing class cost more than that. But, hey, at least I didn’t get ripped off on those ties.

In another dazzling display of thrift, more than a year before I even had access to a sewing machine, I made my first sewing purchase: 

click the image for purchasing information

Almost a year later, and still with no access to a sewing machine, a trip to Japan prompted me to begin looking for Japanese sewing patterns. This lead me to Sweet Lucy’s, and my second sewing purchase:

So, the story begins with a dog tie. Life is weird.