I fell in love with this beautiful rust colored rayon/viscose from Melanated Fabrics and couldn’t figure out what pattern would do it justice. My mind was going in circles and no patterns spoke to me so I *hastily* decided I’d just do an ogden cami dress hack. If you read my post on the Elodie Wrap Dress you’ll remember that the viscose fabric gave me so. much. trouble. I wasn’t used working with it and didn’t realize how slippery and hard it was to work with. Well, I purchased this fabric around the same time as the viscose I used for the Elodie- meaning before I knew what a pain it was. The dress was supposed to have two gathered tiers for the skirt portion but I didn’t have enough fabric. After I completed one tier I realized the hem was looking uneven. After fits and starts I ended up resorting to fabric glue to help keep the straps from shifting as I sewed and that was very helpful. Outside of that I just kind of gave up and was like I should finish it just to finish it.
TBQH, I didn’t cut my fabric wisely and didn’t have enough to create the volume of gathers or tiers that I wanted. I also overlooked pattern matching at the seam even though it’s a pretty all over print. I ended up with a repeated print in the back seam that irritated me. The result was a “meh” dress that I was unimpressed with. I was mad at myself for not taking time to figure out a pattern that would make this gorgeous print shine. I considered taking it apart but it was constructed with french seams and the thought of pulling all that out was truly unappealing. I thought I’d wear it as a babydoll top because it’s a bit short for my comfort as a dress but I may be able to get away with it after all. After taking photos (reluctantly) I came away with several lessons, some which are repeat lessons for me:
- I am not a great pattern hacker. I should either hack more to get proficient or be more intentional in working out the logistics of my hacks
- I need to take my time in finding the right pattern for the fabric or looking at yardage before deciding what to make
- No fabric should be so “precious” that I can’t make a mistake or that I end up super upset at making something I don’t love ( def still working on this one)
- It really is an all learning/growing process/no mistakes are truly wasted ( I keep coming across this lesson so clearly I haven’t learned it yet, ha!)
Wouldn’t you know that on the day these pics were taken it was a sauna outside and this little dress had me cool as a cucumber. After looking at the pics I realized that even if it’s not my favorite, it will be very useful as a quick, cool, loose summer or vacay dress. I also decided that she’s kinda cute and I’m keeping her. Who’d have thunk after all that!?
Have you ever had any hacks that just did NOT work? Feel free to share in the comments or on my ig page @sewplaysew.
~Michelle