Thursday, April 14, 2011

Fatina Fatigue

I think I may be suffering from a strange malady that I heretofore did not know existed. This would be a strange, wasting illness brought on by repeated sewing of a favorite pattern, something ostensibly a TNT and therefore a pattern that should not cause strange symptoms like multiple UFOs in the sewing room.

I have two unfinished Fatinas right now. One is the dress with the holes, to be explained fully whenever I finish it, and the other is my most recent UFO, a Fatina made from a charcoal gray and yellow windowpane plaid with bias accents. On the first, I misplaced my silk organza that I needed to make the holes, and by the time I found it, I'd lost something else - my interest in the dress. It'll come back, just not sure when.

For the second one, I had originally planned a cut-on kimono-style sleeve. This involved a minor change in the cutting out of the bodice, a change that failed to happen because I was cutting fabric at 10:00 p.m. and I was being very, very careful not to screw up and so I cut exactly around the pattern pieces. Thereby screwing up, since I needed to cut outward.

No biggie, I decided. I'll add sleeves instead. I had a perfectly good sleeve from my wedding dress that fit the Fatina bodice. I dug out the sleeve, I adapted it to the length I wanted, I cut. To make it interesting, and to match the bias band on the skirt, I cut the sleeves on the bias. I'm not sure if this was my mistake, or if simply adding a sleeve to have a sleeve was the mistake. The bias sleeves looked wonky. They fit perfectly fine, but I didn't like them. At all. So I cut them off, and bound the armholes with bias strips. That worked. And binding the neckline with bias worked. Right now, I'm not happy with the bias at the bottom. I think it may not be wide enough, but I'm letting that idea percolate for a while because I really don't want to recut the bias band and waste a ginormous amount of my remaining fabric, which has since informed me it would like to be a skirt.

I'm on the verge of making a quick knit dress to get over myself and see if that makes it better.

Have you had that happen before? A perfectly good pattern that you've made multiple times just suddenly up and misbehaves? Or worse yet, threatens to bore you?

4 comments:

Little Hunting Creek said...

it happens all the time -I think because my sewing self gets bored with the pattern and wants to do new things, so it sabotages this kind of project

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Yeap - my TNT has left me high and dry - remember the Cheerleading Dress or how about the all time amazing wadder of the Gray Linen Pleated Dress. So yes occassionally they do go on vacation. Make the knit dress and make it fantastic...the TNT pattern will behave when it has some competition.

BeckyMc said...

Maybe instead of binding the bottom you could do a faced hem? (if the binding at the bottom is for the hem?)Facing the hem would not use as much fabric as a wide bias binding and your fabric would still get to be the skirt it longs to be. I have fabric that is just dying to be a new pair of pants calling my name right now!

Anonymous said...

This post makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time, because we have ALL been there. Go with the easy knit dress to get your confidence back.