Sunday 31 March 2013

Having A Bad Sewing Week

I'm not having a good time, my bottom lip is all wobbly and I want to throw all my toys out of my pram.

I got all excited by the launch of the new Colette pattern, Laurel this week,  I've never entered a sewing competition but I couldn't resist this one so I downloaded the pattern and got to work.  I decided that I'd attempt to make a few Laurels in a multi generational way, a top for my Mum a dress for me and also one each for my daughters each garment to reflect the style of the individual.

Mum lives 200 miles away in London but was arriving this week for a brief stay to collect the children for Easter, so I had to get on with Mum's top before she arrived. I made some adaptations, a tunic style opening, a bit of length to the hem and an increase to the bust dart.  There were just twenty minutes before she was due to arrive and I was just finishing off the bias binding on the hem when my bobbin thread ran out.  So I wound a new bobbin only to find that the bobbin winding icon on my Janome stayed on the LED screen even after I'd finished.  I tried turning the machine off and on again, flicking the bobbin thread spool backwards and forwards and nothing changed.  The machine wasn't going to sew anything, it was determined to stay in bobbin winding mode.  Argh, so frustrating and as the children were off to the Grandparents my plan was to do lots of sewing over the long weekend.

Anyway Mum arrived and tried the top on in it's almost finished state only to find it doesn't fit at all right.  Yet again I was too impatient and instead of making up a muslin I made it in the fashion fabric, it honestly didn't even cross my mind not to do this I really do wonder about myself sometimes.  At this point I was ready to throw the top away and sulk.

Mum (with offending Janome in the background)
In the meantime children and grandparents have headed down south and I worked out that if I stick my finger in the gap in my machine where the bobbin thread spool is I can get the bobbin winding icon to disappear and the machine to work.  Clearly I can't sew with my finger stuck in the top of my machine, but hooray I've fixed it with a lump of blutack, so that's that solved (temporarily).  Now all I have to do is see if this Laurel top is fixable.


I'm not sure if it's clear to see here, but there was some excess fabric around the bust darts, which I have pinned for reference.  I had already increased the bust dart a bit, but clearly not enough.  What I think is clear to see is that it's too tight across the chest, which was made worse when she moved her arms.  Do you think this is salvageable, or am I going to have to throw it in the bin afterall?  I'm wondering if I need to make the arm opening wider at this chest point and then remake the sleeves I do have enough fabric left for sleeves.  Although I'm not too sure on how to redraft the sleeve pattern, I might have to dust off my pattern cutting books.  Hmm, I'm not sure if I should just give up - help!

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