Blah - Two wadders in a row

Wow, this hasn't happened to me in awhile. And grrrr, I am SO IRRITATED!

Here's the blouse I was making, Vogue 2912. It's the bottom right view. The top of the bodice has pleats across the front. That tie looks a little 80's but I loved it anyway. I knew I needed something silky and slinky so the tie would hang correctly. Now I remember why charmeuse is not my favorite fabric to work with.

But the fabric actually wasn't the problem, it was the unfortunate location of the 4th button. Although a bit hard to tell from this picture, it makes the bodice cave in right under the bust. Had I the insight to place the buttonhole below the horizontal seam, all would have been fine. But I cannot fix this unless I take the entire blouse apart and recut that front piece. We are talking hours of work. And I have tried placing snaps here and there with no change in outcome.


Up next is this cute Butterick 5277, the black view with high collar.

Oh my gosh, this dress was a nightmare. I made it in a crape-backed satin in bright red for the Christmas candlelight service at church. Stupid fabric. You have to use a squirt bottle to get a crisp ironed seam but the water leaves marks from time to time. The pattern calls for zero interfacing, although it certainly needs some along the armhole sleeve seams (which I added because it was stretching out there.) And that collar could definitely benefit from interfacing, since it in no way resembles the standing collar on the pattern envelope. I spray starched the heck out of it to get some firmness. Still droopy. Which I really could have lived with were it not for the awful fit issues I was having. Gaping here, wrinkles there. I worked and worked and worked on the fitting. I'm D-O-N-E with it. I'll have no new dress for Christmas.

Close-up of the droopy collar:

And oh, yes, I bought the perfect shoes to wear with it. Guess I'll have to make another red dress. But not out of crape-backed satin, and not with this awful pattern. It's going in the trash, along with the dress after I salvage the zipper.

I'm feeling rather bah-humbugged about the whole last 2 weeks of sewing. But I am excited about Christmas, so I'm going to walk away from my sewing machine and spend time with my family until after the holiday.