Well, I finally finished my shirt (for a sane explanation on the pose please see previous post).
First Impressions of Sewing With A Vintage Pattern/ Sewing My First Piece of Clothing:
1) You are expected to have some modicum of common sense. Unfortunately, when it comes to sewing I seem to lose all mine. I had to recut the tie collar because I thought it would be best to sew the two pieces together after I'd stitched around the outsides. I know, I know, don't ask me what I was thinking, I obviously wasn't. Thankfully, the recut version went together perfectly.
2) Do not put anything with TV boyfriend David (Tennant) in it on the box to keep you company whilst sewing. This Does Not Help with concentration. Nor does anything to do with the Twilight Universe. Or Callum (Keith Rennie). In fact, steer clear of anything to do with brooding vampires or TV boyfriends (especially TV boyfriends with exciting clavicles and tantalising glimpses of chest hair*) whilst sewing. This should mean that you'll remember to sew the two collar pieces together before having to turn in the right way.
3) Follow the gorram instructions! That way maybe you won't have to recut the collar. Oh, and learn the difference between interfacing and facing please.
4) Listen to your Mother. She's usually right, you know this, why do you constantly fail to remember this?
5) Strangely, despite having made clothes before (albeit a long time ago) I think I was expecting to just go whizz whizz whizz, hey presto a piece of clothing that looks like something you could buy in a store but more to my taste. What I've got is a shirt that looks okay, I don't think you can tell it's handmade - which, frankly, is a miracle! - but to me it's obviously not store bought not because it's badly put together but because the size of the facing in the front that's clearly visible through the thin polycotton I used. Either I wasn't supposed to use such a thin material or the 50's had different ideas over facing sizes in comparison to today's cheapskate clothing companies.
6) Shirt's from the 50's appear to be a lot shorter than contemporary shirts, probably because they were more often than not going to be tucked into a higher waistband than today's bottoms. If I'm going to make any shirts that may not be tucked in on every wear then I'll have to remember to lengthen the pattern to accomodate that.
All in all I count this one as a win, despite the bad hemming, help from Mum, the too ripped top buttonhole (I got a little rip happy) and the neck facing I can't sew down. I don't think any of those things are really visible and I'm chalking this one up as a yay to me as a result.
* Mmmmmmmmmm
Thanks for stopping by,
Ha ha, you're so funny. This looks fabulous! Definitely a win :)
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the vintage-pattern-common-sense thing. I've been avoiding them for this same reason (though goodness knows I've got enough in my stash) but I'll be diving in with a similar vintage top soon :)
Thank you! :)
ReplyDeleteOoh, really? Should I expect to be suitably jealous over how well your version's going to turn out? Good luck with it, I can't wait to see it!
I'll totally fight you for David. Or we can share him, really, I'm not picky.
ReplyDeleteSandra
Hahaha, Sandra! Maybe we could set up a rota? I have plenty of other TV boyfriends to keep me occupied once or twice a week whilst you have David ;)
ReplyDeleteI love your shirt. I have just sewed the waist band to a skirt and its 2 inches to small?? I was watching New Moon at the time!
ReplyDeleteSee, the Twilight Universe is dangerous to sewers! Mind you, I can't blame you for the distraction, Jacob Black is yummy (and I feel like a dirty old woman for saying that!).
ReplyDeleteI hope you manage to fix your waist band. Maybe we should all get together and come up with a 'safe list' of things to put on the telly whilst sewing that don't cause momentous distractions with disastrous results ;)