stitchinandbitchindotcom

I did it. Just finished my first wearable garment. One that I can and will wear out in public. I love, love, love this jumper first of all, and a Google search of “New Look 6826” turned up more than a few sewing blogs like mine of gals who had made this pattern as well as great reviews on PatternReview.com that inspired me all the more to make it. I’m pretty happy right now.
See here:

Front view of jumper

Couple of changes. This little jumper had pleats front and back. I liked the front pleats but wasn’t crazy about the back pleats. It just didn’t drape in a way that made me happy. So I changed them to darts. I don’t think it will show up clearly, but here’s a photo:

Back pleats to darts.

Yeah, can’t see the darts but they’re there in all their glory.

Next change…late in the game, might I add…is I decided to line the skirt. The pattern envelope showed 4 views in 2 different lengths.

The pattern envelope is a bit deceptive (or maybe I’m worse at this than I think). The actual pattern lengths came to mid calf and right at the knee before hemming. I was really going for that cute little tunic length but after I got the jumper made, I had sorta fallen in love with the dress @ the knee length so I kept it. I did, however, then decided that as a dress I’d need to line it as I can’t be bothered with wearing a slip.

Lessons Learned: it is far easier to incorporated linings into the seam during construction. I did have that great 5/8″ seam where the bodice is attached to the skirt and I was able to **Serger the lining right onto it, but it took quite a bit of hand stitching to get the lining secured nicely around the zipper, and it (the lining) is jerry-built like you read about where the zipper tape meets the bodice/skirt seam. I really like the hand stitched lining around the zipper; just not where the bodice/skirt/zipper tape meets. So if I’ve decided I’m making a tunic length top, that’s what it will end up being and I’ll make it again as a dress. Or maybe I’ll hold the pattern up to see where the bottom of the pattern is on me because as it turned out, that’s the sort of information one finds really helpful beforehand. Or, maybe I’ll just get better at making changes in mid-stream. Who knows where this will end.

This little jumper is the result of 2 muslin mock-ups and still…during the construction of this final garment, I thought I would never be able to sew a seam without having to rip it out, reposition and then resew the seam. Yeah, thinking back on it, I’m not sure that there is a seam on the jumper that was sewn only once.

I’m taking it over to my good friend Jackie who works at Ellicott City Sew N Vac (ref: Serger purchase) and have her  critique it for me. She’ll be able to see some things that I haven’t thought of for me to take into my next project…

…which will be a knit jersey top to be worn under the jumper.

**I got to use my brand new Serger! OMG! Had the manual opened with one hand marking text and the other on the Serger to figure out the knobs, dials and what-not, including how to thread it for a 3 thread overlock stitch but it was amazing to use. What a rush! Scary as all get out but…wow. Just wow! I was afraid because remember, this garment was all but finished and what if I completely screwed it up simply because it wasn’t until after I finished it that I decided it needed a lining? But–

I. Didn’t. Ruin. It.

P.S. If anyone reading this remembers me from my twenties, fear of completely screwing something up never did stop me.