Surviving the Blizzard of 2011

Geez, it's as if it's never snowed a lot before.  But we are about to get good and buried.  I want you to know I just had a string of witty yet dad-like puns and jokes about snowing and sewing right here, but I did the bigger thing and I deleted them.  Don't say I never do anything for you.


So I tried my first real garment from pattern the other day that I bought from Heidi & Finn.  It's lined, even!  I botched modified the pattern to suit my own irrepressible habit of using other garments to build from.  Some might call it a laziness in not wanting to work on finishing details like, oh, say, a hem.  I call it me saving the earth one ugly sweater at a time.

First, here it is and you can say it's cute.  Then I'll go on a self-flagellating bender about all that I did wrong.

Okay.  It's totally slick, right?  Supes cozy with a fine gauge sweater on the outside, soft jersey layer lining.  Noice.

But because I got all cocky about modifying the pattern and going all renegade on fabric choices, things didn't go as perfectly as I thought they would.  Too small because the fabric is too thick.  Also, I thought maybe I would not use my serger and be "down with the people" and their zig-zag stitch.  I clearly do not understand how it is done, because that too, I think contributed to the too-small final product. 

And also this freakish separating of the seams.  Oh, how I wish I knew how to sew.

And last, the proportions are wrong because I used the features of a pre-existing sweater and forgot to account for that, you know, mathwise.  Sleeves too long, waist too short.  OH, and I almost forgot.  I made the button holes too big.  Crap.  But that's Singer's fault because the buttonhole foot DOES NOT WORK.  Or at least it never does with the fabrics I use.  So I have to draw a perfect little slot border out of a tight, narrow satin stitch and then surgically slice it open with an X-Acto knife.  I mean, honestly.  The indignity.