In the last two or three days the weather started to go back to normal again so I have something to show at last although it is not about Home Sweet Home (no way I touch that project with sweaty fingers!)
I tried to make some clothes, two pieces are finished, one still needs hemming. The three are Colette's Crepe, Megan Nielsen's Tankia Culottes and a self drafted Pippi Longstocking apron.
Let me first talk about Crepe. I loved the design from the beginning. I bought the pattern in a Belgian online-shop (Bambiblauw) because this was one of the few that stocked it (and I was not smart enough to realize that you can download the pattern from the Colette website - hrmph).
I ordered some cheap-ish fabric (100% cotton black and white gingham and some red) from an online shop to make a wearable muslin but still also made a real muslin for the top. I am more on the tall side (177cm) so I usually have to make the bodice a bit longer, which I did, but else the first muslin looked fine.
Then I started to work on "the real thing". I must say, I would not would not quite agree that this pattern is ever so easy. I have already made a lot of projects, including a wedding dress (for a ball) and some business suits, but I still had some problems with this dress. One of the biggest problems was a stupid one though: I am used to the European seam allowance of about 5-7mm. This dress has a seam allowance (included in the pattern) of ca 1,5cm! the usual 5-7mm are about the width of one half of my sewing machine foot so I have a nice guide there. With the 1,5cm I had to measure everything constantly which I found annoying. I ended up making french seams a lot which helped. Another problem was already mentioned by a lot of other people: the floppy facings. Well, that could be fixed by manually attaching them. As I stitcher I actually like to do manual sewing.
sorry for the horrible photo
we currently have no daylight in the room with the full length mirror
But the worst part was how the thing looked when I put it on. It was really baggy at the bodice and very tight at the waist. I have no idea how this could happen after I had made a muslin but it did. I had to make some big changes, like take out ca 4cm at each side and install curved darts at the front. Also I had to take out 5cm (!!!) at the shoulders which of course let me end up with too small armholes. The top front still is WAY too big and thus floppy. I have no idea where the problem is and how to fix it more easily. Maybe I should try to make the top part several sizes smaller but longer but this would nevertheless need some serious redrafting of the pattern. It is probably easier to use another pattern altogether.
I had such high hopes for this pattern, already planning to make several Crepes. Now I am badly disappointed. *sigh*
