Stream-of-consciousness on pattern disaster

[nineveh_uk]

It has been raining since eight o'clock this morning. I have therefore used the day to do something useful. Unfortunately, "something useful" has been the discovery that the Decades of Style Girl Friday blouse (with simplified collar) is a fitting disaster. The waist is OK, the neck is OK, the shoulders and chest - in the thorax sense of the term - are a disaster. It utterly swamps me, and short of covering the thing with random darts I can't see how to salvage it. At least the fabric was only about £2.50, so I don't feel I have to throw any more time at it. I'll see if I can fiddle with the pattern and get anything out of it as an interesting variation on a T-shirt to salvage my £20 (pattern plus outrageous international shipping). I think that the problem is the combination of a shoulder dart and sleeves that are an extension of the body, which results in a lot of fabric around the back and front. I like the principle of the shoulder dart, but I haven't got the ribcage to take up the space created - it would work if there were a proper fitted sleeve, but not as is.

In short, I don't think I'll bother with Decades of Style again - that's the second pattern I haven't been impressed with, the sizing is inconsistent, and the instructions are rubbish. Next up, a bog-standard McCalls skirt that can't go wrong.

And now I'm going to make bookwormsarah's Amazing Aubergine for dinner, in the hope that it will warm me up against the rain.

ETA: No I'm not, the damn aubergine has gone off.

Comments

Covering the whole thing with random darts

[legionseagle]

And there, in a nutshell, we have the story of St Sebastian.

Re: Covering the whole thing with random darts

[nineveh_uk]

Except that St Sebastian looks like a fit young man covered with random dart, and sodding blouse makes me look like I am wearing a vest made of potatoes.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Karmically speaking, this means you are due a really fantastic day tomorrow. Possibly you should get an early night so as to be ready for it (and to avoid any further disappointments today might have been planning to inflict on you).

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Yesterday was excellent, so I am probably paying for it. I will settle for tomorrow being average, or at least for getting up in time for the video-conference with Wales.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

The non-overlapping envelopes business is very tedious. I wish they didn't do it. I am fortunate that I am more-or-less (generally meaning a 1/2" seam rather than 5/8") a Big Four 12, despite measurements not being quite right, but at least consistent. This makes me even less inclined to spend a lot of money on patterns that do not work. Look, if you give the standard teeny bust and big hips, then it should not be too tight on my teeny hips and big on the bust.

I am so with you on Burda instructions, though I've never actually bought a pattern in an envelope as opposed to online or in the magazine. Oh! that they actually employed an English native-speaker translator...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

A good diagram covers a multitude of sins... What is the Japanese pattern company (though are they designed for people shorter than the average Westerner)?

I learnt through going through a A-line skirt with my mother. Followed by the Reader's Digest book and Google.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I spent Friday afternoon looking at patterns on the internet and then discovering that I can't get my 3 sizes on one envelope, and as I was looking at dresses, this matters rather. It is infuriating. My sewing teacher [1] told us not to use Burda patterns because they didn't give seam allowances and we wouldn't be able to cope, but I probably don't need to obey this advice now that I am not 15 any more and should have a look.

[1] You had to do a practical O-level at my comprehensive and music wasn't considered practical so I ended up with sewing as the lesser of the evils of art and cookery. It turned out to be the most useful thing they taught me.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

You'd think in this modern era you would be able to order a pattern in the 3/4 sizes you specifically wanted, not be stuck with the arbitrary divide. Very annoying.

My mother likewise warned against evil Burda and its lack of seam allowances, but it seems they have changed.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

It was probably wise advice to prevent a whole class accidentally cutting out something with no seam allowances. I doubt they would have given us a Burda pattern in the exam though.

You would think in this modern era there would be somewhere you could type in your measurements and a computer would automatically produce a pattern that would fit you.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

and a computer would automatically produce a pattern that would fit you

This is obviously far too sensible an idea ever to be allowed to happen.

In the meantime I'd settle for them just printing garment measurements on the outside of pattern envelopes.