My love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with patterns (or, sometimes things don’t go the way you plan)

I know I’ve posted before about my lack of experience using patterns. So far, I’ve managed to create quite a few items without needing to turn to a pattern. However, I did feel it might be time to learn. I like the idea that the pieces are cut so that they fit together perfectly – no guessing at measurements or the pieces needed to complete a garment… or at least, I like that in theory. The reality was quite a bit different.

JoAnn’s was having a sale on Butterick patterns, so I picked up a few to try ($.99 each – if I totally screwed up, at least I wouldn’t be out too much!). I also found some Alexander Henry fabric, also on sale, and thought that I’d make myself a dress using one of these patterns.

The pattern itself claimed to be easy, and said that the average person should be able to whip up this dress in little more than an hour. (ha! I spent the good portion of the day simply cutting out the pattern and then cutting the fabric…)

They didn’t have the size I thought I should get, so I had grabbed one size larger for this pattern. Although, then I took a look at their measurements and corresponding sizes and saw that from their description, I should be about 6 sizes larger than I thought. I wasn’t totally buying that, so I compromised and cut out a size somewhere in between.

All was going well until I started sewing some of the pieces together. Not only did they not line up correctly (and I really don’t think it was due to my cutting), but what I ended up with appeared large enough to fit three of me.

So now I sit here with a bunch of already cut fabric pieces and the start to a dress that’s much too large for me, and all I can think is that it’s the pattern’s fault.

(don’t be deceived by these pictures – these make it appear somewhat decent, and normal-sized, actually, when in reality, it really is bad, very bad.)

I guess I’ll have to come up with some way to salvage some of this fabric. Another skirt, anyone?