Sewing Sunday: C+

I had big hopes for Sunday. Big hopes. And, there were signs of doom. I chose to simply ignore them, so it is my own fault. I spent about four and a half hours working on the top. I always underestimate how long it takes to cut out my fabric. There was also grocery shopping to do and a visit from an old friend, but those distractions at least kept me sane.


It started on Friday night when I went to pre-wash my fabric. I pulled the two fabrics out of my stash to discover some interesting things. First, only a minor glitch, my "black" pinstripe fabric turned out to be navy. Well, I don't have a lot of navy in my closet, and I wasn't getting more fabric, so fine. Navy it was going to be. Then, when I went to get the cream colored whatever-it-was out, I noticed something horrible. Stretch. It was a stretch fabric. Not that there is anything wrong with stretch fabric, I personally have never sewed with it. So, needless to say, it was concerning. Remember when I described it as a silky floating dream of a fabric (I know a slight exaggeration), it was...not so much. The texture was, for lack of better term, toothy or almost sandy and again, stretch(!). In my mind, my fabric was wonderful and it would be a breeze to pull off these patterns. In reality, this was going to be tricky. I am stubborn, and besides lacked any budget for more fabric, so I kept going. As a side note to my stubbornness, all day Saturday and even Sunday morning when I was away from the fabric, I refused to believe it was stretch. I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn't and it was just in my mind. When I started cutting, it was real alright. I was stuck with stretch.

Still, I persevered. I did not get as far as I wanted with the top or the skirt. The skirt still remains untouched.  But, tonight I will sew the facings on the neck and the sleeves of the top, so soon we will see what the final product looks like. Worse comes to worse, it will be my "muslin" of the top.  Then I get to purchase some "real fabric", but the pattern and the purchase will have to go to the end of the queue, when I use the fabric and patterns I already have. Sigh.

I did try a few techniques that I have not done before, like tailor tacks and tissue fitting (a great online tutorial here by Gertie). Both of these I will go into more detail, when the top is done, to give them a full review. At least it was a somewhat productive sewing day as I learned some new tricks and how to (or how not to) sew with stretch fabric. Hence the C+.