New project... Simplicity 3893

I started cutting out a new pattern this evening.  Cutting out patterns is my absolute least favorite part of sewing.  I would happily iron all the live long day, if it would get me out of pattern cutting.  So many silly, yet costly,  mistakes can be have been made at this point in my sewing process. 

This Easter season, as I made dresses for my girls, there was the infamous butterfly incident.  Said incident involved the almost total ruination of four yards of fabric.  Anyone only I could have botched so much innocent fabric with a total newbie-style error.  Let's just say that I couldn't let my youngest child out of the house in a dress that made it appear as if she were being attacked by rabid butterflies.  Directionality of fabric has never really been kind to me.

My oldest spent her first birthday (which happens to be Halloween) in a badly done lamb costume.  It was badly done for two reasons: 1. My local fabric store didn't carry the proper kind of curly fur to make a lamb costume (so I used a straight white fur), and 2. In my never-ending mission to save fabric, I cut the wrong corner (so to speak) and caused the fur's nap to run up one side of my daughter's body and down the other side.  So the whole time she wore this costume I was bothered by the mis-matched nap, and, thanks to the wrong type of fur, at least 50% of candygivers guessed that she was a bunny.  Do bunnies wear bells around their necks?  *sigh*

So cutting out patterns is a chore to me.  There is no excitement about the project at hand, only the dread that I will muck this up somehow.  And this project is no different.  I also lay some of this blame on the big 4 pattern makers.  If they used real sizes and measurements, it would really eliminate a lot of the trepidation.  Instead you are left measuring your body parts and wondering where in the world they find people with those proportions.  This is a big part of why I mostly sew for my girls.  Kids' clothing is more forgiving in general.

Someday I will learn how to draft patterns...  but until then, I have Simplicity 3893.  Luck be a lady!

Purple + Tinkerbelle = McCall's 6022 view A

Ah, summer!  My girly girl loves to wear dresses and skirts.  She found the Tinkerbelle fabric at JoAnn's in the red tag section.  I found the purple fabric in the remnant bin on another visit.  You can't quite tell from these pictures, but the purple fabric has a glitter finish.  It's low-key as far as glitter goes.  And thanks to the sales at JoAnn's this dress cost about $5 (including the pattern).

As for the pattern, I feel confident that I will use it again.  It was quick to put together, and the directions made sense.  The tweaks I utilized include the bow.  The pattern calls for the bow to be made of the main fabric.  I thought this would be too busy, so I used some ribbon from my stash.  I also assembled the contrast fabric differently.  The directions call for you to sew the front and lining together, the back and lining together, and then join them at the shoulders.  I'm not a fan of this technique.  Instead I sewed front to back at the shoulders, then stitched the neck opening.  I next top-stitched the neck, then pressed the arm openings and top-stitched them together.  Easy peasy.  I may well have to alter my method if I include sleeves in any future versions.

The most important thing?  Sister Goldenhair loves it!  Look at those eyes...  She is definitely working her Tinkerbelle mischief.