It's really working!
Jul. 28th, 2014 08:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocolatepotYesterday on my way back from Dad's, I want to JoAnn and bought ~$90 worth of fabric (all on sale in some way, at least) and a few patterns, and then went the rest of the way home - and washed the cotton print I bought, cut it out, and made it most of the way up. This morning I'll put the zipper in, sew down the yoke lining - it's a Vogue pattern, so it calls for finishing the lining over the zipper and so on, very nice - and hem it, and then done!
I accidentally bought too little fabric for the pattern as stated because I didn't realize that there was supposed to be a band around the hem. But it worked out totally okay! The original came to below the knee on the model, which would put it lower on me, except that my skirt is high-waisted as I am high-waisted and anyway without the band it comes to the top of my knee, which is where I would want it. I did have to put the pattern piece on the cross-grain for the one side of the skirt, but that also worked out because it's not a pattern with a very recognizable direction or repeat.
When it's done there will be a picture on my NEW IMPROVED DRESS FORM.
The next project will then be a pair of tap pants, and then a pair of actual trousers. This increases in difficulty because the skirt was fully from a pattern, the tap pants are very small and quick but from a scaled-down pattern with only my own observations for instructions, and the trousers are from a pattern but have a lot of fiddly bits to machine, fiddly machine bits being my worst sewing area.
For some reason, I always have a bad-to-terrible experience at the Joanns in Queensbury and Albany. No disrespect to my friends who work there! I'm sure not all the stores are awful and that you and the coworkers you like are pleasant and helpful.
First, I waited at the cutting counter while holding six large bolts of fabric. One cutter was slowly measuring out a ruffle to cut; the other was cutting some quilting cotton for a friend and they were chatting and chatting. I didn't bother to take a number because nobody else was around, but of course when I get to the ruffle-cutter she rebukes me for not taking a number because now there's a line built up behind me. No apology for my having to stand there with a heavy load for so long, not even a fake one, which kind of irked me. My wrist was flaring up from it and it hurt quite a lot. And of course the checkout line was equally slow and full of people having issues (fortunately mine was pretty straightforward).
Previous times I've gone for fabric, I've run into workers who don't know what different fabrics are, and when they ask what I'm making give me confused/flabbergasted reactions even when I'm not making something weird and historical. I hate going in because it always takes freaking forever to get what I need and nobody there can give me useful advice - plus the fabric is often so overpriced while being not that great quality. It's so hard to make the decision between online (FFC, usually) stores where there are decent fabrics available and Joann's where I can actually feel the hand and weight of the cloth.
Is Joann's just a terrible employer and so ends up like a reverse Trader Joe's? Is this area an anomaly? Do they primarily hire quilters, or primarily non-sewers? Wah, rant over.
I accidentally bought too little fabric for the pattern as stated because I didn't realize that there was supposed to be a band around the hem. But it worked out totally okay! The original came to below the knee on the model, which would put it lower on me, except that my skirt is high-waisted as I am high-waisted and anyway without the band it comes to the top of my knee, which is where I would want it. I did have to put the pattern piece on the cross-grain for the one side of the skirt, but that also worked out because it's not a pattern with a very recognizable direction or repeat.
When it's done there will be a picture on my NEW IMPROVED DRESS FORM.
The next project will then be a pair of tap pants, and then a pair of actual trousers. This increases in difficulty because the skirt was fully from a pattern, the tap pants are very small and quick but from a scaled-down pattern with only my own observations for instructions, and the trousers are from a pattern but have a lot of fiddly bits to machine, fiddly machine bits being my worst sewing area.
For some reason, I always have a bad-to-terrible experience at the Joanns in Queensbury and Albany. No disrespect to my friends who work there! I'm sure not all the stores are awful and that you and the coworkers you like are pleasant and helpful.
First, I waited at the cutting counter while holding six large bolts of fabric. One cutter was slowly measuring out a ruffle to cut; the other was cutting some quilting cotton for a friend and they were chatting and chatting. I didn't bother to take a number because nobody else was around, but of course when I get to the ruffle-cutter she rebukes me for not taking a number because now there's a line built up behind me. No apology for my having to stand there with a heavy load for so long, not even a fake one, which kind of irked me. My wrist was flaring up from it and it hurt quite a lot. And of course the checkout line was equally slow and full of people having issues (fortunately mine was pretty straightforward).
Previous times I've gone for fabric, I've run into workers who don't know what different fabrics are, and when they ask what I'm making give me confused/flabbergasted reactions even when I'm not making something weird and historical. I hate going in because it always takes freaking forever to get what I need and nobody there can give me useful advice - plus the fabric is often so overpriced while being not that great quality. It's so hard to make the decision between online (FFC, usually) stores where there are decent fabrics available and Joann's where I can actually feel the hand and weight of the cloth.
Is Joann's just a terrible employer and so ends up like a reverse Trader Joe's? Is this area an anomaly? Do they primarily hire quilters, or primarily non-sewers? Wah, rant over.
