Monday 19 September 2016

Bow[der]line

We're on a Madonna kick today!



I got into a bit of a sewing funk after we moved. I hadn't been able to use my machine for three weeks at Patrick's, and it was another week again before the desk for my sewing corner arrived (it was a flatpack desk and I put it together ALL BY MYSELF, thank you very much). After a month of no sewing, I found it hard to get back into the groove. I just about managed to put together a skirt I'd already cut out, but I'd also given myself a project queue full of new skills, complicated fitting, and things for other people that would require a bit more care than I usually put into my own stuff, and it all felt a bit overwhelming.

Patrick was a bit concerned about my lack of sewjo, particularly as I was going to have to stay in the house all day waiting for the Virgin Media guy (gaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh), and so he offered to buy me some fabric and a pattern to get me going again and give me something to do. We went to Ray Stitch and decided on the Papercut Patterns Bowline sweater, which I've been considering for ages. It intersects my need for more tops, more basics, and more interesting stuff. Also I was convinced I'd lost my favourite black jumper in the move and I realised just how many clothes I have that I cannot wear without that jumper. In the interests of not having a broken wardrobe, I need to be less reliant on it. (The jumper has since reappeared - it turned up in a bag of Patrick's old Goth clothes - so at some point soon I'm going to try making a pattern from it.)


This was a fun thing to sew up. I've not made a top with raglan sleeves before so I don't know what the normal construction process is like, but it was interesting to get halfway through and find yourself with a line of sweater with neck binding on three out of four pieces.


I am also super impressed with my stripe matching. I always get slightly grumpy about having to cut on a single layer (mostly because I always forget I have to flip the pattern piece over the second time), but it really does make the pattern matching easier. I'm not that bothered about pattern matching generally, but mismatched stripes REALLY bug me and I wanted to make sure I had it right, particularly at the front raglan sleeve seams. I couldn't get one of the back seams to line up because I did all my stripe matching before I read the part of the instructions telling you to cut half an inch off the top of one sleeve, but it's at the back so I care less.



The way I've finished the pleat is almost certainly not the way it's meant to be finished, but I was confused. I don't know if I missed something during the whole burrito roll bit, but what I ended up with definitely wasn't right. So I just unpicked a seam and sewed the end of the pleat into it. I'll definitely have another go at this and see if I can work it out, but if I can't, it doesn't really matter. The effect is much the same.


There is one other thing I'll say about making this top. I was between two sizes and decided to size up, since the whole point of it was to have something that wasn't a completely form-fitting cropped sweater, but when I tried it on before attaching the hem band, it was HUGE. Not huge in a stylish oversized sweater way either; it looked really sloppy and like something I'd put on when I was depressed. I took it in at the sides a bit, which didn't make a whole lot of difference, and then I spent half an hour pinning, trying on, stabbing myself in the side with said pins, taking off and repinning. This is what I eventually ended up with:



On the far left (next to my thumb), the original stitching line. In the middle, my first attempt at taking it in. On the right, the pins that represent the line I eventually sewed to get the top to fit. Overall I took the whole thing in by more than five inches at the sides, and it's not exactly a tight fit. I'm not really sure what happened here; I've read a bunch of reviews and nobody else mentioned the pattern coming up large, so I don't know if there was a mistake, if I stretched my fabric hugely, or if this is just the normal wearing ease and it happens to look really odd on me. Either way, I'll be seriously downsizing next time.


So, this top had three jobs:

Get my sewjo back - yes. I made most of it on the Monday morning and was inspired enough to have a sewing day on the Tuesday where I finished this and three other garments in my WIP pile, made another project start to finish and started two more.

Keep me entertained while waiting for the internet to turn up - it's hard to judge this. I was quite happy making it, but then I got a message saying my router had been delivered when it hadn't and I had to spend all afternoon arguing with Virgin and with the courier, worked myself into a total state and stress-ate Doritos until 6pm, when a complete stranger showed up with my router which had been delivered to his office about fifteen minutes away from here. So the day was basically a Faith in Humanity Rollercoaster, but that really can't be attributed to the pattern in any way. There is a chance that some day soon I will stop complaining about this through every platform available to me.

Be a top I'd like to wear: I would like to wear this top. I think the pleat detail is great and I am unexpectedly a huge fan of the super-wide cuffs. The one thing I'm not sure about is whether the shape of the sweater will work with anything else I have. The looser shape combined with the grey and black stripes probably isn't going to be very versatile. I think I'd like to try it in a lighter colour and/or a sweater knit. I've been a bit obsessed with sweater knit lately. I am slightly concerned that when autumn hits properly I am going to purchase eight hundred yards of sweater knit and make some kind of tiny fabric house out of it. Yes, fabric house. What?

I leave you with a very short photo series I like to call "Very Pleased About Seeing A Plane":



1 comment:

  1. This looks fabulous on you! This is the first bowline that I liked, all the others I've seen seem to have way too much fabric in the waist and draped area and just look sloppy. I think yours is perfect, it has the interesting drape, but it doesn't swamp your figure.

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