Now Playing: "Blazing Saddles"- family DVD
Current Mood : Harrumphing
I really don't learn. I'm amazed I can use a bathroom lately. (sigh) I posted a contrary opinion on a non-doll-related message board, based on a video I linked and several other sources. And I got smacked down hard. (growlmutterwhine) You'd think I'd have learned thoroughly in high school (and again on Prego a couple years back, for *&%$s sake) - if you actually went to the trouble to form your own opinion based on your own research and study, keep it to yer d@mn self if it doesn't completely match everyone else's opinion in every way. Especially if the consensus opinion means everybody read the same two-minute article thirty seconds before class as opposed to the week of research I enjoyed doing. Save it for here and nonsensical ramblings in yer own journals. At least here, no one has to deal with my crap unless they want to - and clearly, I'm a threat to harmonious thought throughout the globe, and I must be stopped, by insults if possible. Arrrgh.
I've always known there was a price to pay once ya realize it's important to be who you are, and it's highest when you're young. I just didn't realize I'd still be paying it when I advanced through my 40s. I'm beginning to realize that this particular payment is only marked ‘paid in full' on yer death certificate.
And to add to the fire, I got a ‘Nigerian heiress in dire need of help' email. I know I'm a dim bulb, but I'm not that bloody stupid !
It's just not been a good day.
Anyway...reading me whine about chat boards and Life In General isn't why anyone reads this. So, it's time to whine about Aileen's Petite Fashions # 116, the pattern I used for Sailor Moon's Bell(e) dress pictured. It made a nice enough dress, but...it's not what I wanted. In the sketch from the catalog and the image from the actual Mattel garment, you can see that there's a definite ‘y' seam up the front. This is completely absent in APF #116. Just has two side darts - it's a completely generic dress bodice. The side pleats, too, are way the heck off from where they should be, which throws off the dress's sort of tulip-like silhouette. And yes, I did mark and sew them exactly where the pattern indicated. It fit a standard TNT body the same way it fits Moon here.
Another whine is that cool front pleat. Sure, it looks OK - but it took me over an hour to get it right. Y'see, that pleat isn't at all marked on the pattern. The directions - which are again seriously lacking, we'll get to that soon - call for you to lap the skirt piece to fit the bodice and look like the picture. So, yes, you get no guidance on how to get that pleat right or centered, and are basically told ‘Play with it until you get it right. Sew.'
Um, I coulda done that without buying this &^%$ing pattern, Aileen ! Plus, doing it on my own would have allowed me to 1) use a bodice pattern that looked like what I wanted, and 2) choose any length and width of fabric I wanted for the skirt, and to 3) not waste more money on crap patterns. I can pretty much ‘play with it' to design whatever I want to. I buy patterns because I want to make something specific in a short time frame, and I like to think I've paid someone else to make that a bit easier for me.
Seriously, it's a simple dress that should have taken maybe two hours, tops. But trying to pinch the pleat with the right overlap and get it centered and try to figure out why the front pleats look like side seam pockets took forever. Sure, you can mark the center front of the skirt. You can even use the odd scallops that scoop the entire top edge of the skirt from the pattern to try. But when attempting to get that inverted V right, the pattern and any markings you've tried are darn near useless.
And, as I noticed when trying the Modern Art clone (#135) one of a few dozen times, that some of the directions were missing. Here, there's no clue to attach the lining to the back bodice pieces. Normally, I'd say, ‘Well, we should all know to do that !', but here, the lining makes the armhole seam. I hate linings to begin with, especially when directions call for ‘sew darts in tulle lining', which is a PITA all on its own. But she clearly says to sew, press, and turn the bodice and lining fronts together. Then sew the shoulder seams and then attach the tulle. Um, when does the back half of the armhole get sewn ? It doesn't, according to the directions.
In standard sewing, you sew the lining pieces together, backs and fronts, and the bodice pieces, backs and fronts...then you attach, turn, and press, then sew the shoulder seams. That way, it's all together, nice and neat, and you don't have a tulle eruption at the back half of your doll's armpit. But anyway. Moving along, the waist was also somewhat screwy. I worked the skirt piece like an origami amateur with thousands of paper cuts to attempt the inverted V front and still fit the bodice. The sewn together dress, however, had a waist that hit at the doll's upper hips. I basically kept sewing the waist seam - where skirt and bodice meet - over and over, 1/8 of an inch higher each time, until the waist hit at the waist. It's not as snug as most Barbie clothes are at the waist, but I got tired of doing it over and over.
Plus, it really affected the fit if the inside waist seam allowance was pressed up (towards the bodice) or down (towards the skirt). Again, something that most directions clue you to do, missing here. It says to sew the back seam while the waist seam is still pinned, which is odd. She also calls to use ribbon for the front bow, which isn't what it looks like in any of the photos. In the real thing, the bow is made of the same fabric as the dress. Good luck matching that green I used, huh ?
So. By the time I was done here, it was darn near a revisit to working Modern Art. I was frustrated with the finished item, and the amount of time I'd spent on it. I know these aren't supposed to be exact duplicates, just an approximation. But why call it ‘Belle Dress' if it's missing the key design element ? My pattern copies came with lavish photos of the garments. When I got them, I assumed these were made from the pattern. Now I know they're cribbed from doll fashion ID books and they're images of the Mattel originals. Where's a photo of what this pattern makes ? Unless it's an original design, there isn't one. There's a 3.5-inch line drawing of the outfit, but that's it. I really, really hate it when there's no picture of the actual finished garment. I don't buy patterns that don't have one. If the pattern maker can't be bothered to show me that he/she actually made this dress with that pattern, I don't need it.
And so far, it seems that I don't need Aileen's Petite Fashions' patterns. Especially when I have to guess at directions and figure things out on my own. I have too many patterns that take a lot less time, are a lot more fun, and don't require headache medicine to complete.
Harumph.
