I have had it for two years, but could never get up the guts to make anything from it. I was mostly worried about not having any written instructions I could understand and having to rely on drawings alone. But recently I made a bunch of things from a Japanese children's pattern magazine called Cucito; and that went so well, it bolstered my confidence. You can see my post about the Cucito patterns here.
The Pattern Stash Contest on Pattern Review gave me the little extra push I needed to finally leap. So, I decided to make the dress that is on the cover because it is just so cute and looks so comfy, especially for how hot it is here in Angola. I decided to use a lovely and soft quilting cotton by Kaffe Fassett for it because it reminded me of two vintage light blue cotton dresses I used to wear all the time in the 1990s. I did a full bust adjustment on this pattern, my first, and that seemed to turn out just fine. The rest of the fit, however, was a bit of a nightmare.....
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| Don't I look sad? I am very disappointed..... |
It turns out if you're not all svelte, then you look like you are wearing a tent! I tried it with a belt too, but then it was too short on the sides. What a let down! I have received a few suggestions on how to fix it, perhaps by lowering the neckline and shortening it to tunic length. I may try something like that.
I decided to try one more, this time a top. and in a drapey knit fabric to reduce the tent probability. I used a smaller size (because the dress was too wide and I had to reduce the width of that) and did the FBA again. With this one I actually think some translation of the instructions might have made a difference. I didn't study the drawings well enough, I guess, and I sewed the pintucks on the outside (as they usually are done); but they were meant to be on the inside! So, I just made the inside the outside and vice versa. I used a soft bamboo jersey for this top, and that stuff is not easy to sew!
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| Great. And this one makes me look pregnant...... |
Alas, this ended up too wide also, even with a bunch more pintucks to try to decrease the width of that panel a bit more. So, I had to do a weird tuck thing on each side, and then I decided to add some flowers. At first, I added them in accidentally obscene places (pasties anyone?), so I relocated two of them and ended up with a semi-tent-like jersey top. I am coming to the conclusion that these patterns just won't work for me because they are designed for a different body shape. Such a pity! I wonder if all Japanese pattern books would be equally unsuitable. Probably. What a bummer! I was thinking of getting one of these next:
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| On left: Sweet Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori (same author as Stylish Dress Book) On right: I Love to Make Now DRESS and TUNIC |
Or maybe I should just stick with Japanese children's patterns..................
* You know, now that I look at the pics together, if I just lower the neckline a bit and shorten that blue dress, I would approximate the top on the cover of the book here on the left, wouldn't I? The sleeves are a bit shorter and looser, but I don't know if I could change that. Maybe there is hope for a wearable item yet.....
** And, you should ask me if I finally remembered to add seam allowances before cutting these out of fabric....... I DID! So, perhaps, lesson learned?
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