Drat, drat and double drat

I recently had a run of not so fab sewing adventures and surprising to me they have involved vintage patterns. The first drat was this vintage Butterick dress pattern. I thought an interesting high waist dress, nothing too complicated. And something different with the side ties.  

The material I used was a really nice silky type rayon blend perfect for a flowy dress. I got started on the bodice and after putting in the darts I then looked at the instructions for the facing I got mightily confused. I’d already cut out 4 pieces of the facing thinking, right the outer facing attached to the bodice and the inner facing.  However, there were supposedly 2 more facing pieces to come. The outer facing was supposed to be a border attached to the outside with facing then attached and folded to the inside.  

My main complaint was the fabric for the facing pieces were too small for the pattern. The length and width were out by at least 2cm or more. I held up the pattern pieces to the main bodice pattern and they didn’t match at all.  So I made a seams in both the front and back bodice sections to take them in the desired width as the bodice was pretty loose. Then I tried to put the facing pieces on the outside as instructed but because my fabric was a bit slippery I knew even as I was pinning it that it was going to look totally poohouse.  So I threw away the outer facing and decided just to face the darn thing like you normally would.  However, the bodice pieces were still a bit too small and some puckers formed around the front. Not so noticeable because of the pattern but still really annoying.  The end result is a nice dress but so not worth the trouble. 

I love the flutter sleeves, they worked out really well I think.  Plus I finally got to try out my tube turner kit when I made the ties. 

And to the double drat.

So I was thinking of making a nice shirt to wear with jeans and thought I’d use a 60’s dress pattern and just make a shorter version. Also wasn’t going to bother with the zip as the fabric I chose had a bit of stretch in it.  Well this was all lickety-split coming together. The pattern pieces include the sleeves already attached to the bodice.  So that’s one extra thing not to think about.  The V bit at the front didn’t really work out too well. You are supposed to break the stitch at the centre and voila when you turn the facing to the inside it should sit smooth, but it didn’t, at all. I re-did the stitches and pressed the buggery out of it and it looked passable.  I did the side seams and started to turn up the hem on the sleeves when I thankfully decided to try the top on.  Firstly it was a little snug and given that I wanted to wear it with jeans, this did not bode well.  Secondly one of the corners of the neckline kept flopping forward, even though it is interfaced.  So that was that. Fair thee well funky 60’s top.  Relegated to cupboard of disappointments.