On Thursday, I went to get more vaccines. More Hepatitis B along with Hepatitis A and Typhoid. Typhoid’s a killer. It leaves your arm heavy and sore and ‘flu symptoms for a few days. Better than the actual thing, though, right? Anyway, I’d left the house early because I had another appointment before the vaccines but when I was waiting for the bus, they called and had to postpone until next week. The net result of this was that I found myself in Hodges and Figgis, absorbed in a book called Couture Sewing Techniques, when I probably should have been looking for shoes to wear with my wedding dress. It’s a great book with high detail and many photographs showing the difference between the couture method and the usual method. Of course, I had to go and find the section detailing checks and plaids and how to insert darts without upsetting the pattern at all.
So, when I sat down to sew my darts this morning I realised that what has been seen, cannot be unseen! I sewed one the usual way without much consideration for the pattern… until I pressed it out and there they were, staring up at me from the irioning board. Many, many slightly unmatched lines.
I went no further. I ripped out the machine stitches and got out my needle and thread. I tacked it by hand. And re-tacked it. And again. And again. Eventually, it was right. I did the same with the other three pieces. Thanks to my completely paranoid cutting last night, the other pieces were easy to match up and I only had to tack them once to get them right. It might sound terribly dull to you but I think it was worth it. After all, what’s the point of using such a patterned fabric if the lines don’t match up?
Putting on the back pockets was easier. I pressed all the seams and tacked down all the corners because they kept poking up and generally being bold.
I had a problem with the seam allowance at the top because it kept poking up over the top. So I folded it in, like an origami valley fold and tacked it down. It worked really well.
Then I pinned them onto my two back pieces. I didn’t like the alignment specified in the pattern (which I used when I made the muslin sample) so I adjusted it a bit and tacked them in place. I figured I should see how they lined up when the two pieces are together so I pinned them and had a look. One was completely wrong so I was able to whip out the tacking and reposition it. Then I topstitched them in place.
And that’s more than enough lines I can take for one day! I thought I was going to go blind lining up the pattern pieces and cutting it out! All in a good cause though I think.