I’ve been hard at work on my slow-moving self-drafted shirtdress, creating bound buttonholes for the spaces the collar passes through before tying, making french seams everywhere, double checking all the darts so they all line up, and finally I tried it on last night to check the hem and button placement.
And it’s horrible. Dumpy, unflattering, and just bad.
All I could think of was Trena’s “prison matron” dress, and like hers, mine’s got pockets, but that’s about it. I don’t even know if I can bring myself to finish it, but it’s sitting on my dressform for a while so I can mull over whether any of it is even salvageable. I just know there’s no way in hell I’m ripping out a million french seams! It’s got nothing to do with the Pattern Magic directions, as the collar is okay, it’s all down to the fit of the rest of the dress…
And the shirting is Prada, too! *whinge* And I made three muslins! *whinge* I did everything right, and the dress is just so very wrong. Which mostly discourages me from pattern drafting altogether. I mean, what’s the point in pattern drafting if the fit is worse than what I get straight off a pattern sheet? Because, really, Burda, Knip, and even Manequim fit me straight off the sheet, no alterations needed. Do I really need the extra hassle in my life to end up with a sub-par result even with all my designer finishing techniques? Am I happy to never be a pattern designer? These are the sort of questions I’m asking myself right now anyway.
In the meantime, I cracked and bought some patterns in Vogue’s $5 sale. I kept myself to only my absolute favourite three because the international shipping jumps from an extortionate $15 for 1-3 patterns to an insulting $25 for 4-7 patterns. Initially I baulked, but then I did some sums and even $5 + $5 shipping is still less than half than the cheapest UK sale price for a Vogue pattern.
So I bought myself the new DKNY top & skirt pattern, the new Tracy Reese longer-sleeved dress pattern (I was sorely tempted by 1253 but then had to be ruthless and discounted it for lack of sleeves coming into Fall), and this Vogue wardrobe pattern because I utterly adore the lines on the sheath dress and the jacket. Really, I recognise that I was comfort shopping, but I’ve been extremely good all year and only bought one piece of fabric since January (the cotton/silk in Paris) and have been sewing through my pattern and fabric stashes as a matter of priority. These are the first Vogue patterns that have interested me in the past few years (at least, interested me enough to want to wade through tracing their giant and awkward tissue sheets and high prices!), too, so I figured I should jump while I can.
So while I await my new patterns (they’d better be shipped in a solid gold jiffy bag at that price!) and my self-drafted shirt dress taunts me, I’m sewing up this Manequim top in some grey marl viscose jersey:
And hopefully the August Burda magazine should arrive any day now. The previews look amazing and totally back on form, so that should cheer me up!