In Which I Tell It Like I See It

It's not with any pleasure that I inform you (as if anyone could be in any doubt) that my suit jacket experience was undertaken, well, without pleasure. Regular readers know that I have blogged positively - and frequently - about (designer/instructor) Gretchen and her blog, and about Craftsy.

In case you're not familiar with those posts, I can recap in advising that some of my most seminal sewing experiences to date have occurred while participating in the Lady Grey Sew Along, which Gretchen so expertly instructed. I continue to assert that this sew along is a veritable public service. Craftsy courses, and a workshop, have facilitated my skill development in knitting through an innovative, modern community and instructive platform. I remain very grateful for these resources.

However, in the last 6 weeks I have been on a frustrating journey - one in which the Craftsy/Gretchen collaboration has fundamentally let me down.  You should know that I didn't pay for the Starlet Suit Jacket course. I was comped a course of my choice, by Craftsy, and I spent my credit on the suit jacket. It aligns with my current interests.

Having now completed the project, I have to advise you of the following:

• The Craftsy platform routinely crashed - like way too often. I have to assume it was a bandwidth issue. Note: I accessed the course using a variety of computers and networks and the problem persisted in all locations. It was incredibly frustrating to have to close and reopen the program numerous times, just to rewatch a key piece of instruction. This happened with my other Craftsy courses, but not to this extent.

• The instruction, while clear, detoured into unnecessary banter on several occasions. This course contains hours of instruction. Hours which I have rewatched over still more hours. Given the issue identified in the bullet above, I cannot tell you how irritating I came to find the "conversational" parts of the video.

• Alas, I am not the only one to note this: Craftsy purports that you will receive regular teacher feedback through its platform for as long as you need it, once you purchase the course. In truth, I don't see how this practice is sustainable. As a prospective instructor, there is no way it would be profitable for me to continue to answer questions indefinitely. Nevertheless, in this process - a mere month or two into the life cycle of this course - there has been practically no feedback (and, as far as I can tell, little meaningful feedback) from the teacher. On this topic, I'm conflicted. I have learned so much, at no cost, from Gretchen through her blog-based sew alongs, which are all still available and free of charge. The thing is, once you charge a fee, in my opinion, the professional onus is on you to respond - especially if that's the dictum of the production platform.

• Finally, and most disappointingly, it is my perspective (corroborated, correctly or incorrectly, by various comments in the course and via other feedback I've received from readers) that the pattern is provided with errors. I am by no means a professional, but I've been sewing long enough - and seriously enough - to recognize issues where I find them. When I undertook this project, I did not do so as a pattern-tester. I have to assume that most everyone else who has taken the course, or queued it, has done so at the regular list cost of $89.99 (or on sale). This is not a weekend project. I spent more than 140 hours creating my jacket - and many of those hours could have been spent otherwise if I hadn't, as I see it, been forced to resolve problems caused by suboptimal drafting. By this, I am not speaking about the sleeves (though I suspect they could have been drafted asymmetrically to better effect), but about pattern pieces that appear to have been mismarked and the lining, which was all over the map. Of course, regular and detailed feedback from the instructor may have ameliorated, by clarifying, this. 

In the final analysis, I can only recommend that you buy this course on sale and that you use the good instruction it provides with a tried and true pattern. Despite this criticism, I do wish Gertie future success. She has written an inspirational and instructional blog and speaks passionately about - and in so doing perpetuates - an art form of great value. I only wish I could endorse this Craftsy experience whole-heartedly.

The Tailored Suit: Getting Started

As you know, next up on my list is the Tailored Suit Challenge:



I figure, this is a good time to recap the concept behind my recent sewing projects...

It's worth restating that these are "my" challenges; I am not participating in a group project. Natch, everything I'm doing here has been done before, many times, by great bloggers and sewists - many of whom have led others in their sew alongs or challenges. No doubt, that's how I came up with my ideas :-) I am particularly grateful for the work of Collette Patterns, Gertie, Peter, Sunni - and probably many others I'm neglecting to mention right now (in my fog of spring cold sickness). Point is, there's a lot of context in "good sewing".

Why have I, at this juncture in my sewing journey, decided to take this approach?

• I love methodology. This kind of process-driven project is how I get my kicks.
• It's a skill-improvement extravaganza!
• It's practical: a way to make something in the most streamlined, and probably cost-effective, fashion.
• This may be totally inaccurate, but from palette-to-garment seems very "industry-plus" to me. It allows me to pretend I'm at my own College of Fashion Design where the curriculum is dicey but the grades really mean something.
• It's a marketing gimmick. (What?!, you say. What need of marketing have you?) My friends, while I may not monetize this blog in any way, I greatly value your readership! Your comments, your advice, your innumerable experiences make this a community I want to live in. I'm always trying to come up with new ways to entice you to play along. This format seems to be popular - at least so far :-)
  
• It's a community learning platform. While I'm not leading anything but my own process, I am committed to sharing what I learn and presenting it in a way that may be useful to someone like you or me at some point in the future. To wit: How I wish I'd seen a collation of posts about inserting zippers into bias cut skirts before I started my Ginger...
  

I always welcome your participation. Maybe you've been thinking of using the Craftsy online course, The Starlet Suit Jacket, to tailor your first suit. That can take you all the way to a beautiful finished garment, while you interact with an instructor and like-minded sewists. But I'm going to bitch about this thing in ways and at lengths that only I can. It's a skill, people.

Just think of it as my value-add.

Furthermore, I'm going to talk about my end-to-end process - from planning, to purchasing, to muslining and on. Having watched the Craftsy course once now, it doesn't really speak to all of those things in depth because it can't. Its job is to give you the optimal amount of information about the very-involved tailoring process, and it's awesome at that.

Now, onto the Tailored Suit Challenge itself, this version of which would not be possible without Gertie's latest Craftsy online course (The Starlet Suit Jacket).

To my friends who could care less about sewing: I promise to write about all kinds of other things too, so keep reading, ok?

Basically...

Let's take stock of progress on the Spring Basics Palette:


Recall that the mandate is to make 6 "basics" in 12 weeks, using a spring colour-scheme (whatever that means), wearable throughout that season.

Well, so far I've been doing pretty well. I can check off:

Kwik Sew 3115 Lounge Pants:

They may not be exciting, but they sure are practical. To wit: I'm wearing them as I type this...

Jalie 2921 Scarf Collar Top:

I liked this pattern so much I used a remnant of a cheery orange to make a second, sleeveless version:


T Shirt "from TNT":

Needless to say, as this is the Magic Blouse and not my T shirt sloper, it's not the garment I originally planned on making - nor is it in the originally planned colour-scheme. Nonetheless, it counts!

Butterick 5681 Culottes:

No photo yet, peeps. Still coming to terms with this garment, though I did wear it to work last week - with the vintage Magic Blouse, of all things - and I actually got some unprompted compliments.

Technically I have but two items left to construct before April 1, in order to meet my target timeline: one bias cut Ginger Skirt, in a gorgeous cerise fabric, and the orange, double knit, Vogue 8413 cowl neck dress (sleeves tbd).

How I've Gone "Off Road" Sewing:

The sewing journey is rarely straight, though, and I've taken a fair number of detours already (which, objectively, in no way compromise the integrity of this adventure - even as I am the arbiter of said integrity). How have things gone other than planned?

• The lounge pants were to be made in the grey cotton jersey but, in the absence of enough of that fabric, I used the aubergine bamboo jersey (chosen for the T shirt) instead.

• The idea then, was to make the T shirt in the grey cotton jersey (check) but I opted not to use that pattern in the end. Instead I used it to make the Magic Blouse (see above), embellished with pretty, pink flowers. It's totally wearable and it's made of T shirt material, so it counts.

• I loved the Jalie scarf top so much in the floral rayon jersey that I made it again, but without sleeves, using a remnant of orange rayon jersey in my stash (see both versions above). This was an unexpected but great use of stash fabric that I couldn't in good conscience trash, but that was not quite ample enough to make much of anything.

• The culottes project turned into a whole side-adventure: an experiment comparing a modern version against a vintage version to determine which would work better on me. While the culottes are wearable (see blurb above), and while they have taught me a variety of valuable sewing lessons, I feel that these (which I sensed from the get-go would be the outliers) are still in wearable muslin format. The other 4 garments, however, are well-made, durable and highly-wearable staples.

Next on the list is likely to be the Ginger Skirt. After that, I'm going to start tailoring a suit jacket, using Gertie's new tailoring Craftsy course as a complement to pattern instructions. Still determining whether I'll make this one:

this one:

or the princess seam, peplumed 40s-style suit jacket that Gertie herself designed and teaches in the Craftsy course, inspired by Dior's mid-century New Look.

I will write more about her interactive tailoring course soon but, have to say, I have rarely learned as much about sewing as I did when I followed Gertie's Lady Gray Coat sew along in Fall 2010. Gretchen brings a passion to tailoring that is utterly infectious. And she's incredibly organized in her teaching style.

So, any thoughts about where I'm at with the Spring Palette? Have you signed up for the Craftsy course? Done any suit tailoring lately - or intend to do some soon? Do tell.

Updated:Craftsy

Y'all have heard of Craftsy, no doubt, as Gertie has recently debuted her first session. It's an interactive, online learning environment. You take courses. Kind of like correspondence school for the hipster crowd.

While I haven't signed up to make the Bombshell (the dress just isn't practical for me given my lifestyle and body type), I know that Gertie's course will be the bomb. I have already done her Lady Gray sew along and it changed the trajectory of my sewing experience. Point is, go sign up.

On a related note, today the talented Myrna kindly sent me a link, for another Craftsy course on customizing knits called Fit Your Knit. Um, hello, who doesn't want to learn how to dart her knit sweaters for extra waist definition (the subject of one of my comments yesterday by Anon)??

I didn't even watch the preview before signing up. (The course is on sale from $60.00 to $35.00.) I've since watched the preview and it looks great. You know, the way I learn is by watching and reading and thinking and then asking questions once I've thought on things for a while. This learning forum is SO made for immersive, interactive learners such as me.

Has anyone here taken either of these courses yet, or any other on Craftsy? What do you think of the site and the offerings? Let's chat...

Update: If you follow this link, you can get the course for 30 bucks...