Monday, March 10, 2008

A little disappointed

I've wanted to make the "poets blouse" from BWOF 1/08 ever since I saw the picture. I worked on it all day yesterday. I added some interesting details, like a special buttonhole and embroidery on the yoke.
I had a bear of a time getting the yoke to fit the bodice correctly and ended up sewing it on by hand and the machine stitching it. This looked pretty good - no puckers. Then there was the front placket. I probably would not have known what to do had I not made one before. Well, it turned out crooked, so I had to do it over. Then I realized I had left over right and thought, "It's not worth doing over again" until I realized that the top edge did not line up, so I did do it over again. I still have a little pucker at the bottom of the placket, but this is because I did not remember to mark it carefully and had made a mistake in the cutting of the pattern. After I got everything assembled and tried it on, I realized that my yokes do not line up. I am so frustrated about this because I know the problem was when I was trying to fit the yoke to the bodice. One side kept hanging over more than the other side. I should have taken out the pleats and adjusted it, but I decided to just cut off the end of the yoke piece instead. This was a mistake because it changed the curve on the bottom of the yoke and that is why the two edges don't line up.

Lesson Learned: When to pieces don't line up, don't try to force them too. Take time to figure out WHY they are not lining up. It wasn't until this morning that I realized that the reason my yokes didn't line up with the bodice is probably because of the pleating. Also, there were not enough notches for lining things up on the yoke piece. I will add these the next time I make this. Yes, I think there will be a next time.
I still have to make the buttonholes on the front, and will post pix when finished.

7 comments:

Christina said...

How frustrating after you did that nice embroidery! Well, do try it again because I know it'll be worth it.

Tamara said...

The embroidery is lovely. What a bummer that this did not turn out right. Next time will work since you learned so much from this "muslin".

Summerset said...

What a bummer, that embroidery is beautiful! At least you know *why* it went wrong, it's very frustrating having to stop a project because there's seemingly no reason why things don't line up.

Lori said...

Frustrating, I agree, but the embroidery is beautiful. I just traced this pattern last night

LauraLo said...

The embroidery is indeed beautiful and it works so nice on this design! I know you can fix this, the blouse looks so lovely!

Marji said...

I totally sympathize.
Meanwhile, as others have said, the embroidery is wonderful, and you've got the bones of a really nice garment.
Some days it just pays to walk away from it for awhile.

Berry said...

That's a lesson I'll remember! The embroidery looks really nice though.