Hot Patterns DISASTER - Weekender Cargo Pants

I don’t enjoy writing bad reviews. In fact, I would much rather just pretend nothing happened and never write about this. But then, I would feel bad about other people buying this pattern. I had such high hopes. I love the casual styling, I love the topstitching, the pockets are fun, I love the pockets that form the belt casing. It could have been a great pattern. I would have enjoyed the topstitching and the pockets. Alas, it was not meant to be.

 

 

First, the crotch height is um, high. Like, the highest draft I’ve ever seen. This almost reached to the bottom of my bra. I don’t understand it. At all. How can the draft be this high? Can you see the faint white chalk marks where the rear pockets go? The pocket flap would start on my back!!

 

Look, you can actually see the bottom of my black and white sports bra. The top of the pants go way above my ribs. And the seam allowances are 3/8” on this pattern. Even if you took that into account, the height on these is crazy.

 

So then I had an ah-ha moment. Maybe it’s NOT the pattern. Maybe I need to make a larger size? And pull them down more?? Maybe my hips are not letting the fabric settle down where it should be? So I loosened the pins holding the CF together and ended up with the weirdest low, pointy crotch ever. No, it’s not me. It’s definitely the pattern. When it is pulled up to rib-ville, the crotch curve actually fits okay. At least, it really felt like that is where it is supposed to be.

 

On the plus side, I used crappy muslin fabric and didn’t spend too much time on this.

Anyone want to buy a pattern? I won’t be using it. I bought it because I love my Jalie Vanessa pants (which I’m wearing right now) and thought these might be similar. Hahahhahahahahhaa. Maybe, instead, I will add the details I like (the pieced and topstitched legs and the large pockets) to my Jalie pants instead. They never let me down. The Hot Patterns tally is 1 for 2 now. I have one more pattern to try out. Oh, and I did email Hot Patterns last week about the missing pattern piece on my HP t-shirt. No response. It’s been a week.

Fabric Mart Challenge #1

The Fabric Mart Challenge was to take a garment that was a FAIL and make it into something better. You could modify it to make it fit better, you you could just create a whole new garment. Remember the pirate outfit from April? Well, I took that and turned it into a skirt.





I cut the arms off, turned it upside down and added a casing for elastic and a double-thick hem to the bottom.





Here you can see what I did. I pieced the double hem from the voluminous sleeves.




It's bordering on too short, but that's also my jam. I will totally wear this with tights and chunky boots. I think it's really cute and it's SO MUCH BETTER than what it was before.





I left the original hems but turned them into flat felled hems to make them nicer on the inside.






The thick hem is my favorite part of this skirt.





This is all that was left at the end!!!!



Click here to see what everyone made. Some of the re-makes are pretty awesome. I would tell you to click here to vote for me, but I actually think Kristen's is the best. She turned a frumpy skirt (her words, not mine!) into a super cute sundress.

April Burda Challenge - Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Matey!!

This was one of those Burda moments where I couldn’t find anything I loved in the magazine. I looked and looked and looked. I drank wine and looked. I asked my kids and we all looked. I asked my husband and we looked again. Nothing really called out to me. Most were a little weird, some were just fugly, and a few were okay. I chose one of the okay ones thinking I had the perfect fabric for it. Behold, Dawn the Pirate. ETA: I should have added this is Burda 04-2015 #112. I graded down to a size 34, my typical Burda size.

I should have known better. You see, I’ve tried shirts like this before. They never seem to work out.



Doesn’t see look cute in her top though?? Doesn’t she? I think it might be the 3/4 angle.


This top looks okay, even from the front.


Me though, not good. Kind of like a sack of potatoes. Granted, the sack is made of nice, border-print, snake-skinish fabric. Not even that can save it.


It does have cool arm vents though. Rad. Or not.


I tried it with a belt and without. The sleeves seem too short too. Not only does this thing have big arms and extra fabric, it has four, yes FOUR, large pleats sewn into the shoulders to make it even more voluminous. YAY!


Pulled down on the shoulders like the Burda model just makes it look like I’m a toddler trying to be sexy or something weird.


My camera doesn’t even like it.


I should have known here. This is the neckline before the elastic. This baby is 54” around at the neck. This baby is billowy to say the least.


Arrrrrrrrrrrrr, you win some, you lose some. I DO love this fabric though, so I may try to refashion it into something. I got it from FabricMart a while back. It’s a poly blend something. I really do like the colors.


I will need a palate cleanser after this one.

Ottobre 01-2014 #20 Relaxed Fit Sweatpants

I love Ottobre magazines for their kids’ clothing. I love all the little touches and the cute details. I loved these pants in the magazine. I’m not loving them on my daughter. It may just be that I’ve been around too many kids with poopy diapers, but these look like a kid that has a full diaper. And ewww, that’s not my thing.

 

They are cute, I guess. I spent a load of time on them. There is a LOT of coverstitching-as-decoration on these.

 

See? All I can see are poopy diapers.

 

She likes them, and they are really comfortable. She can wear them at home, just not out. I won’t allow that madness. She loves the pink topstitching, and the multiple floral prints. I used a gray sweatshirt material, a floral rib knit, and a beefy cotton knit for the knee section.

 

See? Very cute. On the floor. I do love this way of doing pockets though.

 

I used the wrong side of my three-thread coverstitch for the pockets and the other decorative stitching.

 

Here I started using the two-thread coverstitch, because the three-thread coverstitch kept breaking one thread. It was annoying.

 

Here you can see the correct side on the inside of the pants, and the “wrong” side on the outside. These have elastic in the waistband and also velvet ribbon.

 

For these, I made a size 110 and it’s about perfect. The girl measures 109cm, so I’d say the sizing is pretty spot on!

November Burda Challenge 11-2014-113 Knit Top

First off, let’s pretend it’s still November, shall we? Secondly, let’s pretend I don’t have strange expressions on my face. Thirdly, let’s all ignore the fact that this shirt is not the most flattering.

 

When I first saw this top, I thought it had possibilities. I liked it and Burda is very strong in the knit-top-with-variations category. For me, it’s a miss. I don’t like the fabric I chose, and I don’t like the way they have you put together the sleeve. Another objection from me is the odd blouson/non-blouson effect. Is that girl chunky around the middle? Or is it just her top?

 

So forgive me for my face. My husband was taking the pictures today, and for some reason, I can’t do serious poses when he is behind the camera. Or even vampy poses. Or even a normal smile. See the saggy stomach portion? It would be better, I think, if the top was a little longer so you could pull the shirt up and make it more of a blouson effect. But, the length is so short, you sort of have to keep it pulled down.

 

This material was hard to work with. It is a thin jersey knit that curls like the dickens. It’s also off grain which made it nearly impossible to match the stripes.

 

When I originally looked at this line drawing, I thought that the sleeve was two sleeves with the top one gathered, and sewn on top of the bottom sleeve. Instead, the top one (rainbow) is gathered, but attached to the bottom (pink) sleeve. The results are iffy. For me, this is a miss, but I’m sure there are beautiful versions on the web. I actually did make this in November, but just haven’t done anything with it for a long time!

 

Up next: Several posts of clothing for me! I did all my photos of clothing today (be ready for all the weird faces). The sun is rising at around 1am and setting around 3:30pm, so I did all the photos on Saturday. During the work week, I don’t even get home until after 4pm!

November Burda Challenge 11/2013 #105 Skirt

Dud.

 

I’ve had so many of these lately that I’m starting to get discouraged. Is it me? Is it the pattern? Is it my ability to pair the fabric and pattern? Am I distracted? Gah. Whatever. Here’s the nitty gritty.

 

Love the skirt pattern in the magazine.

It’s the one on the right. Yada yada.

 

It looks okay, right?

 

The back looks okay too. It has some weird butt stuff going on, maybe, but not bad.

 

Nice topstitching? Check.

 

Skirt in action? Blech. The skirt is on the bias. I interfaced the back zipper portion. The more I messed with it, the more wonky it got. See the butt-bump? This is the best I could get it. Trust me, I put the zipper in a few times, I added space and took away space, I interfaced more of the back. These pictures are all lighten so you all can see the hideous wrinkles and lumps.

 

This is the best I could get. This is probably tighter than it needs to be at this point. It was, at one point looser, but then my butt just looked saggy. This is like the 5th version of this skirt. Let it out, take it in, let it out a little, take it in a titch. I think the seams that point away from the butt make it look wider too. That’s not where I want visual widening. Of course, I decided to emphasize it with bright white topstitching. Go, me!

 

I don’t know what happened. I’m an experienced sew-ist. I interface things. I staystitch when needed so things don’t stretch out. I am gentle. I know how to put in zippers. Sigh. Again, whatever.

 

Thoughts:
1) The front darts are widely spaced and are almost at my hips means the dart end pops out a little strangely.

2) I think I should have made the back piece on grain here. I think I would have avoided the stretching out and the pulls. I think that’s the main issue with the back. That, and me playing with it (hours of unpicking black thread on dark gray wool, fun!).

3) I started by interfacing just the zipper area plus a few inches. When the area below the zipper was sewn, the entire seam looks wavy like this. By the time it was done, the whole top to bottom was interfaced about 3” in. This helped the bottom immensely but not the area around the zipper.

 

 

 

Water off a duck’s back, right? Fucking ducks.