So I'm nearly done with dress number two for the week. It's made out of this blue patterned crinkled fabric, not the ordinary crinkled cotton, but...well, it's hard to describe. It's a bit heavy, sort of like that material you see demi-pleated satiny pillow cases made out of. I had a very hard time trying to figure out how on earth to cut it and sew it, and selected a pattern I thought I could work with only to decide another was better and cut out pattern pieces twice.
After discovering that this fabric would NOT sew as is, I decided to treat it sort of like a knit, so have produced stretch seams with a ball-point needle. Thing of that is, the dress would then be slightly too big (and it is), but oddly enough that problem can be mostly fixed by eliminating the zipper and just stitching a tighter seam in the back. The fabric and seams will give enough for me to get it on without a zipper, which actually eliminates some work. It also may give me enough fabric to make straps out of, because I'll be able to cut off some of the extra (I bought all of the fabric of this type there was, which wasn't much. Straps were going to have to be ribbon).
Sewing this stuff is insanely hard, though, because the machine skips stitches, or makes really long stitches intermixed with normal knit-style stitches. Basically, the machine hates, hates, hates this fabric. I've gone over seams multiple times (which you ordinarily do with knits anyway, just not because of stitch gaps) and hand-stitched a few stubborn spots.
Basically, I'm winging it. Probably Tim Gunn is rolling over in his Parsons School desk chair, but I think I'm doing pretty well for fabric I have no idea how to use and a pattern that really doesn't go with the fabric. I think it will look pretty good once I get that back seam in and some adjustments made. Really, I am actually sort of enjoying the obstacles...I'm frustrated, but it's keeping my mind and hands busy. My knee isn't really enjoying the sewing positions on the floor, but the rest of me is enjoying the design challenge.
Speaking of which, Project Runway 3 starts JULY 12! MARK YOUR CALENDARS! I think that's the date. Maybe don't rely on me to mark your calendars.
1 comment:
I'm excited about Project Runway! Woohoo!
This reminds me- Paul and I might be in need of your seamstress skills sometime soon. Nothing too hard, just some hems that need fixing. We just lack the required machine. We'll talk about it. I'm sure we can come up with some type of barter/payment system...
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