Sweater Girl

Imagine my dismay that these photos, perfect on the camera and once downloaded, seem so grainy and weird on the blog. I have no idea what's going on...

Nonetheless, they're photos of me wearing - not one - but 2 of my handmade items! I think that's a record.

I should mention it's about 5000 degrees Celsius today, so wearing a wool sweater outside, albeit one with short sleeves and holes?!, was sheer torture. The things I do for my art...

The skirt is the one I sewed for my sister - the one that didn't work on her. My gain, in retrospect. It's a versatile wardrobe piece.

This shot captures the trademarked WendyB pose - legs crossed and hands on hips. I've been meaning to do it forever...

The glare was outrageous. Practically every shot without the sunglasses shows me squinting, or with my eyes closed!

The sweater is, of course, the Jan, a vintage splendor which will soon be available in A Stitch in Time: Volume 2.

My final thoughts on the garment are these:

• Tits ahoy! It's a beautiful design, but not one that's perfectly suited to my shape. It really emphasizes my short waist and blouses at just the area I try to nip in, to highlight my hourglass silhouette. The boatneck is also a challenge given the width of my shoulders combined with a large chest. I knew this going in and I was inspired to knit the sweater nonetheless.

• Um, it's a short sleeved sweater with holes. Not the most practical design. But you can't see a nude bra underneath, for what it's worth.

• It fits large, especially in the shoulders. I actually had to take in the boatneck by 2.5 inches on each side. At first, it just fell off my shoulders. Admittedly, mine are narrow.

• I have long arms and I usually avoid sleeves that end right at the bust height, or it simply emphasizes the width and depth of the chest zone. As such, I lengthened the sleeves by 1 inch on each side. In retrospect, adding another .5 - 1 inch would have been better, but this length is fine.

• Talk about a painful learning experience. I came close to giving up, which is not something I do. But I'm so grateful for all the help I received from you, my wonderful knitting friends, and for everyone's ongoing support. It made all the difference.

• I used 5 skeins of wool exactly - the amount the pattern instructed. Seriously, I didn't have more than one 6 inch string at the end. Very satisfying. Of course, I bought an extra skein and now I have no idea what to do with it.
  

• It's well-knit, if I do say so myself. I am unreservedly proud of how it looks, inside and out. Which means, 2 for 2, I have been pleased with my knitting results. On balance, I am much happier with my knitting than my sewing. I wonder if that's because I'm delusional, knitting is easier or if I actually have more natural aptitude for it than sewing.

So, whatcha think?? PS: Unless you love it, lie. :-)

Winsome / Lose Some

No doubt you've been losing sleep in anticipation of the post that apprises you about how these items were received.

Quick reminder: The legendary skirt of the horned bum...:

...was painstakingly (and not outrageously successfully) created for my sister. I was able to rework the back pleats - which is to say I largely steamed them out - and which improved the drape of the back of the garment. But, understandably, I do not recommend V8602, (seems almost no info about it on the net, intriguingly) and I'd never make it again.

The seafoam confection, for my mother, was drafted from my TNT Vogue V8634, modified slightly by me, and it came out as I had hoped - pretty and looking like an actual top with no buttressing weird bits (hahaha, get it, buttressing?)

The good news is that the top fit my mother very nicely - and she really loves both the colour and the style.

The less good news is that my sister did not like the skirt - on the basis that she felt it was unflattering - and she returned it to me promptly. To give credibility to her claim, the skirt did not look outrageously flattering but it wasn't styled (she was wearing socks and the wrong top). It fit in the waist, which is great - remember I had no measurements to work from. What did surprise me is that the hem hit dowdily below the knee on her while, on me it has an attractive above-knee skim. How could this be, I wondered, since she's taller than me?

It turns out that one person can be taller than another and, still, a skirt will fit her "longer" if:

• the taller person has a longer waist than the shorter
  
• the taller person has slightly shorter upper legs and
• the taller person is slightly broader in the pelvis

Go figure.

Of course, I could have redone the hem - I didn't top stitch it, remember, I cross stitched in anticipation that the length might need revisiting. But, my sister couldn't wait to get it off and hand it back, albeit politely. For the record, I believe - with a cami, a waist skimming cardigan or unstructured over top (like this - scroll down) and a cute pair of wedge sandals, this skirt will be adorable and chic.

She suggested I might like to make her a bag, next time.

Um, ok. I'll keep that in mind. Can't say I'm totally on board with that.

Update in response to comments: In defense of my good-natured sister, who's graciously agreed to take my child for 6 weeks this summer, she wasn't impolite and she doesn't sew. I don't think she understands how much effort I put into making the skirt. Having said that, sewing friends, I appreciate your commiseration as we all know the craziness of making a garment from scratch.

It Takes a Village

I don't know about you, but I definitely think that this:

is a significant improvement on this:


It may not be enough to render this thing wearable (I haven't yet had the nerve to try it on), but it's a step in the right direction.

I have to thank all of you who have spent the time and effort to give me your feedback. I took the advice - posed by many of you - to steam out the pleats to the best of my ability. I may still go a step further and take Debbie's advice about using a ham to reshape the pleats like darts...

This exercise would have been extremely difficult without the dress form, fyi. Yet another useful feature makes itself known!

I should also mention that this fabric looks much worse in photos than up close. The pulling you see in the shot is in no way observable to the naked eye. I know, I'm scrutinizing it all to hell. I do wonder why this is. Have any of you noticed a similar phenomenon with any of the fabrics you've photographed?

Pleatitudes

The problem with sewing for someone else is that it's as likely to fail as it is when you sew for yourself. Only, now you've raised someone else's expectations and the failure (such as it may be) is squarely on you.

I suspect this skirt will fall into the wadder catgory, despite the fact that I have worked very carefully on it and it looks really nice from the front:



My label was sewn into the inner waistband before assembly, so it doesn't show from the outside. And while I don't love these labels - neither the name (which will not stick) nor the quality - I'm still pleased to have sewn it in in this fashion.


I really tried to make the inside lovely. I catch stitched the hem because I didn't want it to show from the front and because I want to have the latitude to change the length without ripping out a row of top stitches.

See the slip stitched inner waistband:


Alas, this is the craziness that persists in the back - despite the fact that I've re-reviewed the instructions 4 times, to confirm that I didn't misread them:


WTF??? I've decided to leave the garment on my dress form, to see if the pleat will settle. I also think that maybe I've been to literal in my pressing. Perhaps I should have let it fall on its own. I'm afraid to do any more pressing than I've already done. You can see how the fabric is getting close to overworked.

One other thing you probably won't be able to focus on in light of the pleat horror: I am so addicted to my snap setter and pearl snaps. They are so much more fun to insert than buttons. And I think they're sturdier.