Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The summer of non-sewing


Ugh. Greetings from Waddersville. Here I present my latest failure, which I like to call Not quite a tunic, not yet a nightgown: caught somewhere between the 60s and 2010.


Here it is when I pinned it on to do a quick double check. I was sitting in my apartment, getting ready to foray out into the Boston Harbor Islands when I had this massive piece of inspiration to make myself a summery dress: lengthen Simplicity 2614, throw in a pintucked waistband cuz I'm just cool like that, and do it refashion-y style with this great mens shirt that I'd thrifted and hung onto for the longest time because I didn't want to mess it up: gorgeous blue stripes, really soft and worn-in fabric, just perfect, you know? It would be all striped and blue and French and light and airy and summery and eco-friendly and perfect, you know?

Well, HA. Waddersville supreme. Check it out.


First off, there's that major ease in the back. Why, you could fit another half Jessica in there! Also, look down and notice how gracefully the side seams miss each other by oh, I don't know, a good 2.5"? The view from the front is already a good 2" shorter than I'd normally wear, but that side view?

Do they offer prizes for poorly conceived sewing projects? Seriously, I need to enter this monster into a competition!

So then I tried tinkering. Hm ... well the bust seems awfully low. What if I just raised it by a couple inches? Looks better, eh? Waistband hits at a more flattering site, too. Except now it's even more painfully short. Like I'd ever step out the house in this.


Oh and hey, check out the back. See that completely mismatched front and back waist seam? Oh yeah, DEFINITE intentional design element there!


Ugh. Talk about a major sewing mojo killer. Maybe this is why I've been soooooo much more into knitting this past year. I should just listen to the universe and stop trying to force the sewing thing. It's like I once read in somebody's writing memoir, the reason college freshmen write such painfully clumsy sex scenes is that to really write something, you have to love it so much that you almost hate it. I feel like when it comes to sewing, if I feel like I have to know my shit so well I almost hate it, in order to really, really know it, then it's time to take a break.

More handknits, anybody?

1 comment:

sigrid said...

Well, it almost worked. I actually think it looks pretty good from the front. But, sometimes a near miss is as good as a total flop when it comes to clothes.