Friday 24 July 2015

Emmeline Tee by Little Tailoress

I made versions 3 and 2 as muslins using scraps from my scrap bag.  I also tried a new technique for tracing and I have to report it was a bad idea.  I traced each page one at a time without taping them...I think this leads to serious distortion.  Size S, both in woven fabric.

Version 2 has raglan sleeves. I cut one out backwards and had to sort of match scraps to get it to work, because I had decided I wanted it to be a wearable muslin. Overall I feel like the sleeves are both too long, and funny at the shoulder points.  To sew this shirt together, you basically sew a single 90 degree angle, and that to me is just wrong at the underarm seam.  I'm not sure how to improve it, or whether it was because my pattern piece was distorted by tracing.  I suspect this version would work out in a knit somewhat better. It pulls across my back as well, although it doesn't limit my range of motion like the Scout does.





Version 3, the sleeveless one, is somewhat better.  I french seamed it, despite knowing ahead of time how that would cause trouble with finishing the arm holes. Then I tried out a bunch of things with bias and hem tape and they all look really bad.  Don't use bias tape on rayon!! It just doesn't have the same texture and ruins the neckline.  I can imagine doing a repeat version of this in silk though. With such a simple shell, it's tempting to think of how you can push your comfort limit with perfection, right?  I will probably repeat this (and although I do very dislike making bias tape, I would probably make bias tape for a silk version.)






Overall I think that this pattern is still a work in progress from a new company.  The PDF could have been more densely packed and I was grumpy with it, hence not wanting to tape.  I wouldn't print out the instructions anyway but I feel like they treated beginning sewists a bit like idiots.  I suspect the info could be seriously shortened and simplified.  However, having lots of binding treatment options is great for a newbie and is totally what I would have liked two years ago (well, probably would have helped now if I had read it.) It would be nice to have that info on just a few pages, or maybe a short sewing instruction, and a long sewing instruction, so you can choose which you need. (The Lady Skater had dual options like that and was great.)

Also this pattern is basically not available if you live in Europe.  I had my friend in the US buy it for me...

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