Mood:
on fireNow Playing: XM 150 - Uncensored Comedy (so I can hear somebody swear besides me !)
I know I'm rather early writing today's before noon, but I had such a great experience last night, I just had to share...as soon as I got photos, that is !
Finally had time to sew another of the Fashion Doll Clothing dresses late last night. Well, around here, 8pm is kinda late to be starting a doll project ! One of the main reasons I bought the book is because it had some new-to-me techniques I wanted to try, and while it's fine they were on dresses, it wasn't really the dresses I was after. It was the skill I wanted to learn ! I honestly thought there'd be more directions than zipper history discussions, but now that we've discarded that little notion in the harsh, broad light of truth, we can continue on. There's no education like hands-on fumbling around, so that's what last night was.
I used out-of-scale but good quality cotton weave fabric that originated from a thrift store grab-bag marked to half-price. Didn't bother to center the design, and demonstrated a parallel lack of caring about changing the thread from where I repaired Dearest Son's jacket a few hours prior. I knew darn good and well this'd be a 'how in the h#ll do I do this ?' effort, no way was I keeping it. So I could be slapdash and careless.
I had the most fun sewing this ugly thing than I've had in months ! True, I was frustrated and confused at first, because the pattern has no directions and is fairly confusing to look at, but once I got a better handle on things, it was a gas. It was so nice to just not care about everything matching, being even, measuring precisely, on and on. I swear, I must approach every project as though it was going into a museum, which is a really laughable notion. I wish I could show you the pattern I used for Elphie's Ugliest Dress Ever, but I think I'm already stretching 'fair use' by using their photo of it here, for comparison.
Oh, what the heck. I want you to see what I had to work with. Imagine finding this pattern - with a gray cut-up sloper scanned under it, which I removed from my scan, I'm even parsimonious with printer ink - and no directions at all. Frankly, while the finished item is a trainwreck, I'm amazed it looks as good as it does. So, in a tiny square at the bottom is a representation of the pattern. Can you figure it out ? Could be that I'm dense, it took me fifteen minutes to figure out how she got the yellow dress out of that pattern ! Here 'tis :
Yeah, in comparison, Elphie's dress doesn't look near as good as the author's. But I used a muslin, looks like she used a knit or wool. And I ended up with 'points' on each end of that curve that I ended up matching by folding 'em to meet and sewing a dinky button on top, to cover it up. I still haven't completely figured out how Mrs. Ionker did hers, but I guess that's why she's haute couture author and I'm a McRib and sweatpants.
I think that's what's ticking me off the most about this book. Of the info Amazon.com has on it, 90% is what I wrote, and it's hard for anyone to justify whether or not to spend $17. plus shipping when they have no idea what they're getting. Mrs. Ionker takes two pages to reassure us of her couture pedigree, but I could have used some directions on some of the more detailed, involved outfits. I got more directions on how to sew pants, and anyone who's sewn more than one pair of doll slacks has about got that challenge met already. I know she's high-class sewing. I know I'm probably still a beginner compared to her. But I can't really recommend this book when she's left me hangin' in the breeze, trying to figure out stuff when she doesn't even have her own d@mn pattern marked correctly.
Am I supposed to gather that front seam ? I did, didn't know how else to do it. Her special 'gather here' mark's nowhere on this pattern. Of course, she doesn't have even a 'this means gather from here to here' key, but I guess the couture don't need amateur hour stuff like that.
Of course, what I'm trying to figure out is this : If you have to be 'this skilled' to use this book, then you're skilled enough to not need it. The advanced among us could do this pattern drafting stuff themselves without Mrs. Ionker laying it out for 'em. Fashion Doll Clothing is simply too advanced for beginners to understand, and too basic for the truly advanced. And it leaves everyone else out, too, if you fall in between these extremes. Mrs. Ionker seems to believe that everyone either has her skill level or hasn't sewn a seam in their lives. So I have no idea who the h#ll this book is for.
Probably me, as I like to get good and frustrated every so often. Something tells me I'm in for a wild ride as I try the next pattern !
PS - the photo of Elphie was taken with our new camera ! First image I've posted from it -doesn't she look amazing, even in her cruddy dress ? I love our camera.....
