Current Notes : My first fails are always so tight ! Wonder why...
Got an early start on my
first failure with the jumpsuit, and it was a big one ! I borrowed heavily from
Barbie patterns and CATzi’s awesome ‘Rogue’s
Gallery’ of Batman villains, as
interpreted by MH dolls. She had to
create a sort of catsuit version from scratch, and she kindly shared both her
pattern creating technique and design, which I studied thoroughly. I wanted to
make one big difference - she used stretch knit / Lycra ™ fabrics, I want to
use wovens. Thing about knits and stretch material, is that it has a lot of ‘give’,
so it doesn’t need to be quite so tailored. Of course, sewing stretchy fabrics
also requires real skill, so it’s sort of a trade-off.
Wish I possessed both ! I
can sew some knits and Lycras ™, but I have many, many more yards of cottons,
so I prefer to use those. Today’s first effort was, frankly, a disaster. Can’t
salvage it. Don’t want to. You’re gonna see a lot of this Barbie fabric until I
get it right – I hate it, it’s too big for 95% of what I sew, and it has
glitter in it. Admittedly, it’s good glitter that doesn’t shed anywhere at all,
but it’s just too lurid, too big, too random, and just too Barbie for me to
really enjoy using. But it’s too good a fabric to just toss, there’s not really
enough to even donate, which makes it great for sewing and fitting trials.
Anyway. Back to the fail.
This one really was bad. It had armholes, but I somehow got the body length
waaay too long, so they were up around the chin when I fitted it on a doll. The
legs were so narrow, I had to split the seam to get them on, and it’s much too
tight at the inseam and front crotch curve. Folded the front down to see if
that’d sort-of work for now, and it did – it’ll close in the back just fine.
Only problem is… that makes
the jumpsuit strapless, and I hate that because of tubes. Yes, I’ll explain
that. First doll clothes most of us make are either rectangle-with-hole-for-the-head
dress / shirts, or tubes. Now, there’s nothing wrong with tube tops or tube
dresses. They can be quite nice. Goss knows how many I’ve made over the years !
But… I see so many that are for sale, dripping with lace and glitter and
ribbons, mostly to hide the fact that it’s just an untailored tube, no darts,
no fit, no hems, no skill. I’ve gotten so I hate almost anything that doesn’t
have at least one shoulder, because of all the crappy tubes that have crystals
but no skills. I have no idea why half the crafters out there seem to think
Fray-Check doubles as hemming. If they even bother with Fray-check !
So I’m glad I made bunches
of that sheath dress, to test out the pattern. I think that, once I get the
(grrr !) strapless jumpsuit pattern right, I can adapt it further with a
neckine and armholes – even sleeves ! – later. But it does me no good to have a
great collar when the crotch doesn’t fit.
Back to the Arena…
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