Contest Failure

In my last post, I told you about a contest at PatternReview.com that ran from September 1 - September 30.  It was the Mini Wardrobe Contest and required all entrants to make two bottom garments and three tops within the month of September.   As I wrote my Sept. 26^th post, I had completed one garment and partially finished three others.  That left me with one garment to cut out and complete in addition to finishing the other three.  I knew that completing all that within four days would be difficult, but I set about doing it.

My husband provided support for me by making the meals and doing the dishes.  He also encouraged me by assuring me I could do it.  This was definitely a race to the finish line.

With that kind of pressure, you know what always happens.  Everything that can go wrong goes wrong!  That is exactly what happened.  When I put the fly front zipper in the jeans, it looked great until I did the two rows of top stitching around it.  Then I could see how really ugly it was!  The orange jeans thread I used for the top stitching really called attention to the too long fly.  It had to go.  I had to rip out all the top stitching, the fly guard, and the zipper.  I shortened the zipper and started over. 

When I went to cut out the sweater knit fabric for the third top, I could not convince myself it was navy striped; instead, it looked like black to me and I knew that would not look good with navy pants or navy jeans.  I used another grape sweater knit instead.  It was thin and difficult to cut.  It was even more difficult to sew.    The edges curled under as I tried to put seams together.  Ripping out stitches was almost impossible.  I finally completed the fifth and final item on September 28th.

I was exhausted, but my work was not done yet.  On September 29 my husband took the pictures of each outfit as required by the contest and I spent most of the day writing the required pattern reviews and posting the pictures. 

I had just one more item to complete.  I had to write an overall review of my process and post a composite picture of each top with each bottom garment. 

Today, September 30th, I threw in the towel!  I just could not do it.  I spent hours teaching myself how to use Windows Paint to stack six photos into one. I am done with it.  I deleted all the reviews and pictures I posted. 

I do not like to admit defeat, but I did complete all five garments within the timeframe before I gave up.  Now I need to move on.  I do not want to burn out on sewing.  I want sewing to be something I really enjoy.  I may enter another contest in the future, but it will not be anytime soon. 

Pictures of the three tops are shown below with the jeans.

A picture of the navy pants is shown below.

I hope you are having fun sewing!

Judy

My Experience as a Sewing Contestant

September is National Sewing Month.  Sewing is what I have been doing all month and a lot of it!  On September 4^th, I entered a contest at PatternReview.com.    It required the sewing of two bottom garments and three tops.  All the tops must be able to be worn with both bottom items.  The contest sounded easy enough.  After all, I just sewed four tops in three days at a sewing retreat in Shipshewana, Indiana.

I soon discovered it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.  When I made the four tops, I was away from home where I had no reason to do anything but sew.  That was not the case when I was at home.  There I had other responsibilities such as cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, going to appointments, attending church, preparing home-grown produce and fruits for the freezer and many other real-life activities.    All these things drew me away from sewing, but I gave the contest my best shot anyway!

I decided to make pants, jeans, a long-sleeved button down the front blouse, and two tee shirts.  My stash yielded fabric for each item.  The only things that required a trip to the fabric store were buttons and top-stitch thread.  I used patterns I had used in the past, so I foolishly expected things to go quickly with no problems.

For the pants I used a navy twill fabric and the “Fit for Art Eureka! Pants that Fit” pattern.  I have used this pattern many times so I was not surprised the pants went together without any problems.  However, the pants are not quite finished.  I still need to hem them and put the button and buttonhole in the waistband. 

The second item also went together well.  It was a long-sleeved tee shirt made with a blue printed cotton knit.  I used another pattern I have used many times, McCall’s M6964.  I felt I was on a roll!

The third item was a long-sleeved blouse with cuffs and buttons down the front.  The pattern was McCall’s M6750.  This is when my roll became a crawl!  Although I fit the pattern to me several years ago, I never actually made a garment using the pattern. 

I checked to see if the top still fit.  It did not!  I had gotten a little rounder, so the first adjustment I made was to eliminate the vertical darts in both the front and back pieces.  That gave me the additional room I needed for the blouse to go around me.  The next adjustment was to lower the bust darts.  Time made that adjustment necessary on this old body.   

Then I noticed a drag line on the back under the right shoulder.  It was caused because my right shoulder slopes more than my left one.  I was able to adjust the right shoulder seam and move on to next problem.

After making that adjustment, I really thought the sewing process would begin to speed along, but it did not.  I ran into a serious issue.  The sleeves would not fit into the armscyes no matter what I did!  I tried everything.  I put each sleeve in three times before I had to admit something was wrong with the pattern pieces.  I suspected that when I originally fit the pattern several years ago, I made an alteration on either the sleeve or bodice that I did not carry over to the other piece.  I did not have enough fabric left to re-cut the sleeves, so I had to improvise.  I was not going to throw the blouse away and start over with a different fabric.  There simply was not enough time to sew another blouse.  I ripped each sleeve out for the final time and sewed a dart in the sleeves that lined up with the shoulder line.  The sleeve caps still fit my arms and the darts are hardly noticeable. 

Here it is about 9 p.m. Sept. 26^th and I have one finished garment, three partially finished garments, and one garment that isn’t even cut out yet.   Will I be able to finish the garments within the timeframe of the contest?  I really do not know, but I am not giving up yet.  I will keep at it and let you know September 30^th.  In that post I will also tell you about my experience making jeans.  

In the meantime, I hope you are having fun sewing!

Judy