Oh. My. God.
The notorious black and gray plaid has a rival for Worst Fabric Ever.
The yellow Art Deco-ish print isn't as crooked as the plaid but it lied like a dog about its fiber content. Cotton-polyester, my eye! There is no cotton in this stuff. It shrinks, stretches, and frays if you just look at it wrong. If you thought my finished-seam obsession was out of line, well, I can tell you it's going to serve me very well on this project.
I decided to use buttons to close the neckline, so I improvised a facing for the center front:
The notorious black and gray plaid has a rival for Worst Fabric Ever.
The yellow Art Deco-ish print isn't as crooked as the plaid but it lied like a dog about its fiber content. Cotton-polyester, my eye! There is no cotton in this stuff. It shrinks, stretches, and frays if you just look at it wrong. If you thought my finished-seam obsession was out of line, well, I can tell you it's going to serve me very well on this project.
I decided to use buttons to close the neckline, so I improvised a facing for the center front:
But I hemmed the tie ends first to try working with this awful fabric.
Interfacing for the center-front facing:
Trimmed off the bottom to make it easier to hem.
Used hem tape because the #@$!! fabric didn't want to fold over twice, nicely.
Hemmed.
Machine-basted the facing to the center front.
Machine-basted the pockets into the curves in the center front. The pockets will be doubled over, the opposite ends sewn, um, somehow, to the side-fronts, and the pocket sides sewn up. Assuming the fabric doesn't unravel completely before I get that far.
Applied bias binding. I had two packets of gray bias binding that were almost the same color but not quite, since they were different brands. However, I didn't want to spend any extra money on a dress that I wasn't--and still am not--sure will work out, so I was going to use them together, anyway.
Then, I bought another, unrelated, pattern and the seller sent me a freebie: A packet of dark gray Boil-Tex half-inch single-fold bias binding! So I had two packs of Boil-Tex dark gray to use.
Then, I bought another, unrelated, pattern and the seller sent me a freebie: A packet of dark gray Boil-Tex half-inch single-fold bias binding! So I had two packs of Boil-Tex dark gray to use.
Center front with bias binding applied.
I desperately wish that this fabric weren't so awful because the print is perfect for a 1920's housedress. So sad.
Comments
I'm trying to be positive: I'm not at all sure that the resizing and reconstruction I had to do on this pattern will work, so I guess if I have to make a dress that it's likely I won't even be able to assemble, I might as well not waste good fabric on it. Work out the kinks on the cheap stuff, right? Then I can make it out of something better.
Wal-Mart. Never again, after the black and gray plaid and then this.