With every success comes a failure… or something like that. Time to take a look at five of my most impressive 2017 scunners as part of Gillian’s Top 5 round-up series:

1. Cali Faye Pocket Skirt and Valley Blouse

I made both of these garments as part of the #sewmystyle challenge this year. Many people made great versions of both patterns and there was only one problem with mine. The largest size was still way too small. It’s a shame because these were some of the patterns I was looking forward to making most, but with an XL that’s sized fairly small, I guess I wouldn’t have been the only sewist who didn’t have success.

The skirt may fit me one day soon (I’m losing a little weight from my recent triathlon training) and I love the fabric, but the top is a no-hoper. My boobs will always look like a mono-boob in this style of blouse. On the bright side, my sister tried on the unfinished shirt while visiting recently and it looked great on her. She fancied it sleeveless, so I’m going to try and bind those soon, hem it and then I’ll post it off to her. Not a total waste after all!

2. Colette Moneta Version 3

I like the Colette Moneta, but this experiment didn’t quite pan out the way I hoped. I used the wrong fabric for the body piece – too light and stretchy a rayon, and my adjustment to lengthen the body didn’t work out as intended either. I think it’s good for me to try things out, but this dress probably won’t get much of an outing – except perhaps as a costume to somewhere. Less glam 30s tea dance dress and more body sausage.

3. Vintage Kwik Sew tee and Simplicity 8019 skirt

I haven’t even blogged about these guys yet (see above) – and maybe I never will. They are both makes from my #makenine list and they’re failures for different reasons. The tee is made as a wearable muslin really and the fabric is pretty horrible and cheap. I thought it would be cool to try something vintage and the fit is indeed… vintage. It’s quite roomy, but I just don’t see myself wearing it – it’s a little dated (not in a good way).

 

The skirt is perfectly fine, but I made it too small. I don’t know what I was thinking (I don’t even know how that’s possible with a Big 4 pattern), but it is several inches too small around the waist. I can’t actually lay my hands on it right now for a quick pic, but believe me that I’m not going to the bother of adding buttons or snaps until it fits! That may be when hell freezes over though.

4. Seamwork/Colette Gretta and Mabel

I wrote about these as failures on my blog earlier this year, so I won’t repeat too much about them here. I have pretty good luck with Colette and Seamwork in general actually, but the drafting on the Gretta top was way off for me. Too many adjustments for a simple tank top. The Mabel, on the other hand, was another case of dodgy fabric choice by me and an unflattering style for my figure. The idea was sound, but the result sadly unwearable.

5. Bridgetown dress

This is a nice dress, but after wearing it a few times I came to the conclusion it just doesn’t suit my figure. It’s too short in the body for me and the elasticated waist annoys me and rides up a bit as I’m busying about my daily life. I also snipped a hole in it while making it and sadly my repairs turned out to be pretty shoddy and it frayed like heck in the wash. However, once again, my sister tried it on and it worked for her perfectly, so I think I will knock her up one in a different fabric. I do love this Cotton and Steel rayon though, so am going to try and salvage the bottom half of the dress and refashion it into a skirt.

Overall: as you can see, most of my failures were from bad fabric choice, poor sizing decisions or from experiments gone wrong. I think I’m getting better at matching fabrics to patterns and also at figuring out what works for my shape, so I’ll be interested to see how this list looks next year. Will I learn my lesson(s)? Let’s see…*

 

*Unlikely