HotPatterns break up

I think I'm "done" with HotPatterns. While I love their styles, I find their lack of pattern marking difficult and their directions sometimes unclear in important ways.

I tried to put the Deco Vibe So Pretty Dress together and it all ended in tears. I think I will have more luck just draping a similar pattern myself.


Major problems:

Illogical and confusing construction directions
/no/ design ease at the waist
waist far too long for me with no obvious way to shorten it.

*sigh*

Like I said, I may keep the pattern around as a draping guide, but I don't think I'll be spending any more money for very expensive, unnecessarily difficult patterns.

Hot Pattern Coat update

So the deco vibe coat came sooooo close to success and then just fell short. I think it was a fault of the fabric I chose. The hem facing stretched considerably when I attached it to the hem and the threw the facing off and the coat just didn't hang right.

So very sad.

I might try it again some time with guidance, but I think I'm ready to move on to a new project.

what's next?

Watch this space for other non-academic sewing projects. I've got lots in the queue.

Next up: adjusting the Hot Patterns Deco Vibe Cocoon Coat for heavy coat weight wool and liner.

other projects

I've been on hold on the regalia project until I could get back to my second class to get some advice on the final pattern adjustments. But I've also been out of school, so I've had plenty of time on my hands. Here are the other projects that I've been working on in the mean time:

A modified version of the Hot Patterns Wong-Singh-Jones mandarin Wrap Top. I left off the wrap overlay because between my being a "short round" and the thickness of the velvet, it was not going to be attractive. I am very pleased with this, although the nature of the fabric demanded a /lot/ of hand sewing. Even though this is the least complicated project, I spent the most time tweaking the pattern and sewing it. I had to make some pretty major changes to the should slope and width on the kimono sleeves, which was a bit tricky.








I also made this top from McCall's Pattern 5586. I made it out of some silk charmeuse that I had in my stash. Actually, all the projects were about working through some of the stash. I am also ver pleased with this pattern. It wears very easily and I can see myself putting it on for dinners on hot, steamy summer nights.








I used McCall's 5618 to make the dress that I will wear underneath my robes on graduation. This dress is GREAT! It hangs well and looks super flirty, but the skirt lining is designed really well so that there is no danger of exposing oneself. I highly recommend this pattern to anyone with a proportionally large bust. The only caveat is that you will either need to be able to wear a strapless bra or you must own a Y-back bra and pull the straps together slightly at the high bust line to keep the bra straps out of sight (or make some design changes to the neckline).








I've also completed my muslin for Hot Patterns Deco Vibe Cocoon Coat, but I don't have any pictures of the muslin right now. I am taking it to class tomorrow for a little advice about how to increase the sleeve width to accommodate the heavy wool coating and Sunback lining I'm using. I'm hoping that this can be this winter's coat ( or at least one of them).