I promised some laughs on this blog so yesterday I bought a pattern, McCall's 4091 extra large. It has two basic designs for a dress and blouse. The pattern is supposed to be large and comfortable. So I messed up and got the extra large pattern. I am a small person but I like loose clothes. Because I don't sew I thought it would be best to use the largest size. Very silly of me and a bad start at the project. Taking out the instructions it looked simple enough but when I cut out the pattern it was huge! The pattern was 72 inches across the body! So with such a bad start I came up with a few ideas to save the project. First idea was to use some dollar store fabric! It didn't seem so bad when it only cost $4.00 in fabric. Next I decided that instead of trying to cut the pattern down to my size I would make it fit by smocking! The pattern is so large on me that the blouse comes down to my knees, So the blouse will now be a dress!
The pattern only has three pattern pieces, front, back and sleeves. It uses cording to gather at the neckline and wrists. It took me 2 hours and 30 minutes to lay out and cut the fabric. I rested a lot between cutting the pieces out. Finally I had it done and sewed the shoulder seems. Next I got out the book A ~ Z of Smocking to see how to pleat the fabric. The book also helped me to decide to smock it before sewing the side seams and to smock the waistline only. If I'm right it should be loose across the chest and flattering around the waist. Guess we will see! The fabric is a light weight open weave with purple flowers on a light purple background.
Using the book ideas I marked the fabric for pleating using a needlework ruler a friend gave me a long time ago. So I hope to get it all marked and started smocking this weekend,
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