Mood:
celebratoryNow Playing: "Robots" - DVD son recently rediscovered in his room
And it was a comedy of errors ! But it was fun, and even the inevitable mistakes and problems were just something else to laugh at and get around. Man, have I missed this ! I'm not finished yet - if you look, you can see the pins holding things together until I can get snaps sewn - but I wanted to share what I did get done with you !
I wanted to make a complete outfit - shirt and pants - for Rick Hunter, like I planned yesterday. So I started on the pants, using a pair of Beloved Hubby's old...umm, one of his discarded garments, let's put it that way. Ahem.
Sometimes, the main problem with 'kitchen-table' patterns is that details are left off. On today's set, the author didn't say whether the dart in the pants should be cut out during the fabric cutting, or marked on the fabric and sewn directly on the marked lines. As you can imagine, there's a huge difference. And I chose wrong. No way would those pants fit a doll if the dart wedge was cut. So I took 'em apart and cut new pieces, drawing the wedge. Much better ! Fit is a bit snug, and the pants are shorter than I like (why are Ken pants always high-water ?!), but I can make adjustments to the next pair. While you can't see, these open to the front, not a real fly, but an overlap. I'd never done that kind before, so for a first attempt, I'm happy with 'em.
The shirt...(sigh) It's a shame it doesn't fit a single Ken I own, because it's fairly simple (except for the collar, more on that later) and went together easily. It was shown on a Mod Hair Ken in the directions, but it didn't fit Rick, Malibu Ken, Cali Guy Ken, or Painted Hair #2 Ken. It did, however, fit a member of the Jem doll family. Modeling the shirt for us today is 'Synergy', the manifestation of Jem's supercomputer. I found her nude at a thrift store several years ago, and just loved her unusual skin tone. As you can see, the shirt fits her fairly well, so I'll just erase 'Ken' from the pattern and add 'Jem'. The dropped sleeve seam also screams "80'S !!", so it's an added bonus.
Mostly it didn't fit the Kens because the sleeves were not only too tight, but they were too short. And I'd gone short on the sleeve hems (about half the 1/4" allowance) because Rick's arms looked long. I knew as soon as I sewed that first underarm seam, but decided to keep going anyway. Practice is always good - and I still suck at collars, that's coming up - and there was a chance some doll could use it. It was made from the non-wrecked part of a shirt I got at a yard sale, so it wasn't a big loss if I ended up tossing it.
Again, non-commercial patterns often leave steps off. Sewing the collar sides, then turning it to the right side got left off here, and I'm not sure how the collar and neck is supposed to fit. The directions were pretty good, but I seem to always have problems with one-piece collars. Not sure what I did right or wrong here, but it looks good enough to save. Until I get better ! One fine day, I'll find collar directions that make sense to me, and angelic choirs will sing. Until then, I'll just keep trying !
So that was this evening. Beloved Hubby went back to the doctor this morning, only to find out that the earlier prescriptions given by two different doctors didn't really work on what he has. (heaving, slightly angry sigh) He got three new ones - thank Everything for Mal-Wart's $4. generic scripts !- and here's hoping for his health.
I hope for yours, too ! Hope your Monday was happy and productive !
