Monday 18 December 2017

2017 reviews: my least favourites

Alright, here comes the fun bit. I actually didn't have too many unmitigated disasters this year, especially compared to last time, but that doesn't mean I don't have stuff to complain about. Most (though not all) of the below fall into one of two categories: "the pattern's alright but this garment sucks" or "this garment's alright but the pattern sucks". Ready? Let's go!

McCalls 6442 coat


This one is very definitely a case of "the pattern sucks". The coat is cute and I've worn it a lot, but now that it's been my main winter coat (for "winter" read "three out of four seasons") for almost a full year I've found numerous problems with it. Even if we leave aside the fact that the pattern instructs you to piece the lining together, it's riddled with issues: there are no closures and the flouncy skirt just doesn't lend itself to being wrapped, it doesn't come with belt loops (I added my own), hand sewing huge chunks of the lining just doesn't work for something as hard-wearing as a coat, and all in all I wouldn't recommend the pattern to anyone. It's a shame, because it does look good (people still compliment it), but from a wearer's perspective it's really annoying and I'm looking forward to making a less troublesome winter coat. 

Papercut Patterns Yoyo dress


This, on the other hand, is very much "the dress sucks". I made the Yoyo skirt and I wear it all the time, but this just does not work. At the time I was just thrilled that the shape worked on me and didn't make me look deformed, but this fabric is irredeemable. It wrinkles like crazy if you so much as breathe in its general direction. I didn't realise quite how bad it was until I saw a photo of it after I'd been out and sat down for half an hour, and I've never worn the dress since. I'm considering having another go next year, though.

Sew Over It Eve dress


I just plain don't like this. It doesn't look too bad in photos, but I haaaaate how it looks in real life. I wore it to take these pictures and then never again. The bodice gapes, the length is weird, I don't like these sleeves, and overall there's something really matronly and unattractive about the way it looks to me in the mirror (not in photos. This photo is fine and I don't think I look matronly here, but in real life something about the proportion of neckline and sleeves is upsetting to me). I don't think I can give you a fair assessment of how good this pattern is, because I can't see past OH GOD I HATE IT. I'm holding onto it until I can think of a way to reuse this amazing fabric. 

Named Anneli dress


This dress looks nice but the pattern is stupid. There, I said it. My stance on the whole thing has hardened considerably since June and whatever lovely movement you get from wearing this dress does not make up for the fact that it is just not functional. It's a cape, and will billow out embarrassingly behind you given the slightest opportunity to do so. Named patterns aren't cheap and I would not recommend anybody pay £16 for a pattern you'll have to logic-puzzle into keeping you covered to the acceptable societal standard. 

Papercut Patterns Kobe dress


This one falls into the third category of "everything sucks" (despite the back looking nice here). The dress does not suit me and the pattern is photographed and marketed in a really misleading way. In order to get the aforementioned nice-looking back view, you have to make the pattern in a sheer fabric, and the slip dress pictured on the packaging is an entirely different pattern you have to pay for separately, meaning the pictured dress is £30 worth of pattern AND you still have to draft yourself a belt and belt loops. I'm still pretty cross about this, in case you couldn't tell. 

Also, while I'm here, I'd like to mention McCalls 7591, which I made several months ago and looks SO bad on me I couldn't bring myself to put the photos on the internet. I made the version with the keyhole and it is not designed for anyone with even a suggestion of bust. The crossover flops open every which way and the bust as a whole has exactly the wrong amount of ease, so the overall effect is that I have replaced my boobs with two halves of a beach ball placed somewhere on my rib cage. It was bad enough that even Patrick told me it looked awful. Because I am a committed blogger, here is a small piece of photographic evidence:


NEVER DO THIS TO YOURSELVES. I'm sorry I couldn't muster a full review, but there was no way I was putting half a dozen pictures of this monstrosity anywhere they could be seen by humans. 

So that's my worst of the year, and there's not much here I've changed my mind about, which I think is a good sign. The odd disaster is inevitable, at least if you're trying new things and buying fabric from different sources, so none of this really feels like failure to me. I've learned something from every one of these unfavourites, even if that thing was "trust your instincts in future". 

Next up: resolutions! 

6 comments:

  1. The Eve Dress I think you could cut the sleeves off and hem it shorter if you could bother. I don't really like Indie patterns as I think they are too costly and there isn't anything that is so WOW different that I have to have it. Good on you saying some are crap; too much gush over them a lot of times. You have to use the Named dress fabric thought... it's just gorgeous!

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    1. Debbie Cook gave me some advice on ways I could retroactively make the Anneli into a non-indecent exposure dress, so hopefully I'll be able to alter it to wear it. I'm never making it again though!

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  2. There was a Burda roughly similar to the Anneli that, once I saw the tech drawing made me go "HECK NO!" because, billowing fabric such that you cannot control what you show to the public! Shame on them for the Kobe. There's no good reason they couldn't include the slip dress and make the overall pattern slightly higher.

    I see where the YoYo dress could really work in a different fabric. I just put that McCall's coat in my destash pile.

    That's too bad about M7591!! I laughed but not AT you! :-p

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    1. I really feel that if the Kobe pattern had been designed to produce the garment in the pictures, then about 90% of the sewing community would have made one. It's incredibly short-sighted on their part to put THAT picture next to THAT tech drawing.

      M7591 completely deserves to be laughed at. Now that it's far enough in the past I'm laughing at it too!

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  3. What a shame about the Anelli as that fabric is amazing. I was far too much of a wuss to put half finished failures in my top 5 misses. God there were some shockers!

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    1. I generally put my wadders quietly to one side too, but I saw quite a few people talking about how great this particular one looked, so I wanted to put some kind of "BACK AWAY NOW" sign on it!

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