Again, in keeping with the theme of sewing for clients I got to thinking about my most memorable mistakes when sewing for a client. And the one that pops to mind is the one I always think about when I think about my sewing mistakes in general. Believe me, I've definitely made my share, but this one takes the cake.
A few year ago I was asked to make a gown for a friend who was celebrating her 10th Wedding Anniversary. I did it as a gift since I was new at sewing for others and wanted to get my work out there. So we found this pattern Butterick 6533.
And made this dress.....
As you can see the dress turned out quite well, her ceremony was beautiful, and my friend was so delighted that she paid me a nice sum for the dress. In addition I picked up 3 more clients just from the advertisement. Trust me a little Pro-Bono work goes a long way!!!
Ok, back to the point of this post. Although all ended well with this dress, it's thoughts of this dress that always remind me of one of my biggest, almost irreparable snafus. It all started when I was preparing to cut the dress out. I had the pattern pieces perfectly aligned and everything was ready to go. Well for some reason I had to mark something on the fabric. The fabric was a champagne colored crepe back satin. It was so beautiful. Well I grabbed my trusty blue chalk wheel, you know one of these things,
(I had/have a chalk wheel like the one on the right)
and make my mark. From what I remember, before I went into panic mode, is that I made a rather long mark and realized that I did so in the wrong place. When I proceeded to wipe the chalk away I noticed that it would not rub out. It was then that I realized the satin side of the crepe back satin (which was the right side of the garment I was working with) locked in the chalk and it wasn't coming out that easy. In hindsight I should have marked the wrong side of the fabric as I normally do. But I figured the chalk would easily brush out of any fabric. Which of course wasn't the case. So I thought I'd just rub a little more to get rid of the mark. And still, it didn't even show signs of lifting. So that's when I began to panic!!!! I washed the fabric only to find that the 4" long chalk blue line had faded just a little but still was somewhat evident. I washed it again and it faded out to almost barely noticeable. I think I ran in circles for about an hour frantically trying to figure out what to do. I didn't have any extra fabric---I think I bought all that was on the bolt. There was no going back, I had to make this work and move forward. So as a final solution and after all of that washing, I did a mad dash to rearrange all of the pattern pieces so that the blue mark would fall on the fish tail train. It did and was barely noticeable to anyone. I even explained it to my friend who didn't notice what I was talking about. I guess we as seamstresses are pretty anal about our work. Needless to say my snafu fortunately didn't ruin the dress.
In hindsight this isn't the worst thing that could possibly have happen. But I think it was the fact that I made this mistake on someone elses dress instead of my own that intensified the situation. But this snafus WILL FOREVER reign in my mind as my most memorable sewing mistake. That is, until I make another one that takes its place! I cringe at the very thought!!!! But hey, mistakes happen and I won't ever let the possibility of them stop me from sewing--and I know you won't either (wink). Besides, some of my greatest sewing lessons have been learned from my mistakes. Such is life...... How about you, what's your most memorable sewing mistake????? I'd love to here your story!!!
I was sweating bullets while reading this wondering how it would end. Thank God you had a good ending. Oh, Gosh. Me? Mmmm. Well, I've made lots of mistakes, sewing wrong side to right side, ripping a hole in the fabric while making a button, etc.. My biggest mistake is choosing the wrong size and not doing a toile to begin with; so the dress would not meet in the center back. And it was such beautiful fabric, too. Bummer.
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www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com
I got blood on my wedding dress. I didn't even know I had pricked my finger until I found many small blood stains on the back of my skirt. I couldn't buy more fabric because I bought it out of state and only had 2 weeks left. I ended up buying another 10 yards of white satin and starting all over with the skirt. If my bodice had been made out of the same material, I don't know what I would've done. Now I constantly check my fingers when I'm sewing.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness all worked out. As for my sewing snafus... too many to begin to think of one that stands out...lol
ReplyDeleteSo glad that it worked out, but I still can't believe it actually stained the dress! My biggest mistakes always revolve around one thing (and I sweat bullets every time I start one)....buttonholes. My old machine did them just fine, they may not have been perfect, but they were serviceable--the new machine? It screws up every buttonhole every time. :-( I'm a snap girl now, until I get my little buttonholer doo-dad for my vintage Singer figured out.
ReplyDeleteIt seems I've be searching all of my life for a tools that marks clearly *and* comes out of the fabric. I've tried them all, chalk wheels, pencils, erasable colored pencils – nothing works! Quick thinking on your part saved the day.
ReplyDeleteI cut a hole in every project. I've gotten some appliqué scissors so that should help!
ReplyDeleteI think we've all made those horrendous mistakes. It causes our heart to be in our throat and our stomach to be somewhere last week! I've done them too. But if you never did anything you never made a mistake - by this thinking, I must have done a whole lot!!!!
ReplyDeleteAlso this is how we learn - not only not to EVER do THAT again, but also how to fix our mistakes. I sometimes think I have as many of those lessons (how to fix a mistake) as I do how to prevent one!
Loved your story as it's great for pros and non-pros to hear that everyone makes mistakes!
I have made so many terrible mistakes that none spring to mind - telling me just how comfortable with the situation I have become!
ReplyDeleteThe loss that I regret most is a jacket and skirt I cut from gorgeous and expensive red woolen crepe with a lining of red india silk. I sewed a portion of it and then my home renovation began along with some work stress. I bagged it, stored it and then let it sit for years! Now it does not fit and by the time I lost that much weight it would be hopelessly out of date. I regret the money of course, but also the fabric. The wool cannot be recut for anything else and the sari silk was a gift from a friend in college who I remember wearing that particular sari to various soirees.
Now if the fabric is expensive or dear in any way, I wait until project time to cut it and then put my nose to the grindstone to finish!
This story made me think of an incident that happend to me. After finishing a white suit and hanging it on a hook on the wall to be admired, the jacket slipped off the hanger and fell to the floor. No big deal right? Wrong! My little brother had polished his black shoes w/liquid polish and guess where he sat them to dry, right under my suit. The jacket had black shoe polish all over it. After crying for about a half hour and scrubbing over the sink the polish came out but it taught me a great lesson.
ReplyDeletemy story: I do alot of alterations....A woman came over to my house, I pinned up her pants. Hemmed them. She brought them back, seems I hemmed the left leg twice, never touching the right leg. YIKES. Luckily, I left enough hem to fix it correctly. WHEW....Those mistakes do set back your self confidence though.
ReplyDeleteWell many years ago, I made the bride's maids dresses and flower girl dresses for my cousin. She chose a velvet dress with fur trim. I had never worked with velvet much less fur before. I concentrated sooo much on getting those brides maid's dresses perfect that when I made the two flower girl dresses which had an organza overlay with the rose petals in between. I completely forgot to zig zag the bottom to hold the rose petals in and if you havent guessed it already after the wedding (Thank God) there were petals everywhere!!! It wasn't a big deal (didn't charge for making them) but I felt awful and took a break from sewing for others!!!LOL!! Scarred for life!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat, but scary, story! That's one of the reasons I don't think I could sew for other people - I don't think I'd have made such a good recovery as you did. You clearly 'made it work' because the dress looks beautiful and your friend looks fabulous in it.
ReplyDeleteI have made so many mistakes I can't even remember them. Except for one time when I sewed a sleeve in inside out, ripped it out, and then did it again!
ReplyDeleteThe dress really did end up beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI tend to make a mistake on most of my projects, mainly with cutting into my seam allowance while trimming (Ugh!) My last mistake was with a project I am currently sewing self-made bias tape on. Somehow I ended up with a hole underneath the binding because my fabric raveled badly when I sewed the tape to the fabric in the first place! I fixed it, but it is true that those are "heart dropping" moments, no matter what the project!
Like so many others I have made many, many mistakes; still do. However, the one that came to mind as soon as I read your story is the time that I was commissioned by one of my clients to copy a jacket that she already owned out of this expensive home decor fabric she bought. Of course she bought all there was. Well, I cut everything out, so I thought, only to realize that I did not have one of the facings cut out. I immediately went into sweat mode. I was already runnning behind on getting this jacket completed. So, I was sweating blood. My thought was to go to the same fabric store by chance to see if they had gotten more fabric in. Not only did they not get any in, but they were not carrying that pattern anymore. By now, I'm delirious. As I looked around the store I noticed that all the samples were about 1yd. in length. So, I thought if the fabric is discontinued they just might still have the sample left. I asked one lady, she said they didn't have it. Thank God for persistence and prayer, I asked another lady that worked there. This lady went to the stock room and came back with that sample. Whew!!!! I paid a pretty penny for that sample, but I was so grateful to do it. Taught me a very expensive lesson~ PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I'M DOING.
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I have made more mistakes than I can list or remember. but the important thing is to figure out a way to hide them! My mom and sis are my final judges, and sometimes I have shown them something that I think is glaringly obvious - and they always say "what are you talking about" can't even see it. Of course the really big mistakes end up in the trash.
ReplyDeletePlus once you make a whopper of a mistake you usually don't do it ever again. Happy sewing to all.
My most memorable mistake was the cut velvet dress I made for my Christmastime engagement party. I knew about keeping all the pattern pieces in the same direction to allow for the nap. But the pattern called for the fabric to be folded crosswise not running the length of the fabric. I did not sit and think it through that this would have literally half of my beautifully sewn dress look like a totally different fabric. I had to finish and wear the dress (I was a fiscally challenged college student at that time). Almost made it thru the dinner and when we stood up for the toasts my sister's boyfriend asked "Why is your dress two different colors?".
ReplyDeleteI loved that pattern and made it two more times, but never again in velvet.
You just saved me from making this same mistake! I was about to mark some very similar fabric, and I had a "Hang on a minute!" moment. Sure enough, the mark I made on a scrap piece wouldn't be brushed off. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteAt high school, the first (proper) garment I made was a simple black jacket, I was almost done and went to over lock (not having much experience)and over locked/cut some of the back, luckily had some left over fabric but had to pretty go back to the start. Now doing fashion at uni I always check to make sure there isn't any fabric in the way of the knife, i have definately learnt my lesson. Also as far as marking stuff goes, over here (in New Zealand) we have these pens that have one end purple and one blue and they both come out with water and one comes out with light as well (after a few days). No one who has them in my class has come across any problems yet.
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