Adventures in Pattern Sewing - My first pattern project.

Up until this point I have never sewn with a pattern. I felt patterns were kind of expensive, the tissue is flimsy it takes more time to cut them out... blah blah blah. I had all kinds of reasons (excuses). But then Joann's had a sale on McCall's which are PRICEY! Printed on the pkg they are anywhere from $15-$20 (which Joanns always has 40% off) or so and even online can run pretty high if not on sale. On this particular day I walked into the store not even looking for patterns, but when I saw they were only 99 CENTS! OH MAN I just had to get at least a couple (which turned into ten cause that was the limit) 

So this is the first pattern I decided to try M6844. I saw a blog post by my fav diy blogger, mimig who made this pattern so I figured I'd give it a shot. You can find her blog post and mini tut HERE.  It looked pretty simple and I had already made myself another simple little cardigan so I was confident I could handle this. 

And it was pretty easy. However I was not thrilled with my results. I cut the Medium w/ the petite adjustments. And based on the sizing chart I was actually afraid it might be too small  because my waist and hip measurents were outside of the size range. But when I finished the shoulder seams were low on my arms, it was big in the armpit, bust and waist area and just did not fit nicely at all. I ended up taking it in at the shoulder and that helped. I think my fabric was just a little too stretchy though. Here is a pic before I took the shoulders up

 

Overall though it was a good experience. I would definitely try this pattern again, only next time I will cut a smaller size using a slightly stiffer fabric with a little less stretch. 

In the beginning

I have never been the most creative person, but I have always been very crafty. I absolutely LOVE making things with my hands. When I was a kid I used to make bracelets out of embroidery floss and the plastic lanyard stuff (we called it gimp...go figure) I learned how to crochet and cross stitch at a very early age and I even got into origami at one point. I loved wood shop and metal shop, sewing and cooking classes when I was in middle school and that is actually the only sewing lesson I ever had. I even still to this day have the football that I made in that class.

Now that I'm older I have found myself exploring things like cake decorating, nail art and sewing. I'm currently teaching myself to sew and decided to start this blog to document my progress.. both successes and failures just to see where it goes. Perhaps some of the mistakes I make others can learn from. Or maybe no one will read this at all, who knows.

For anyone looking to get started sewing, here is one the first skirt tutorials I ever used. It is by Mimi G. Who is my far one of my favorite diy bloggers. (the other is her maxi skirt tutorial)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EorQlWRz6O0

As awesome as her tutorial is, my first skirt was an abysmal failure. Not because I did anything wrong, but because I did not have all the right tools. I think I will do a blog on that later.

Happy sewing!!