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