Good Seamstress vs. Bad Seamstress

I don’t have too much to show yet for my Cruise Wardrobe items thus far, but I have been a busy seamstress. :)

In attempts to be a speedier seamstress for my cruise wear, I thought to myself on Sunday “Geee, I bet I can cut *this* corner.” Come Tuesday night, I regret this decision.

For starters, I’m working on Simplicity 3673, the sailor skirt pattern on the right:

I had a moment on Sunday where I thought to myself, I’m just going to cut into my fabric… I’m sure pre-washing linen won’t really matter.

I started cutting the fabric and begun assembly on Monday night. I had just finished constructing the waistband when I got to thinking long and hard about this skirt.

While I wanted to attach the waistband, given the sewing instructions for it, it’s going to be terribly hard to remove once it’s stitched together (since other pieces get stitched to the waistband afterwards). What this means… if there’s any shrinkage in the fabric, I’m S.O.L. It will be a pain to unpick the waistband since I’d have to unpick the front plackets where the buttonholes go, and to to that I’ll have to let out the hem.

Hence my blog post title today: Good Seamstress vs. Bad Seamstress. I started out thinking I could cut this corner, but when it get’s down to it: OF COURSE linen is going to shrink!!! What was I thinking?!?

I’m just glad I had this thought before stitching up the waistband and before I do my final fitting! I prewash nearly everything else, I’m not sure why I thought I could get away with it for this linen skirt.

Being a good seamstress, I spent the rest of the night serging all of my seam allowances so I can throw this in the wash without it unraveling on me. Hopefully tomorrow night I can attach the waistband and let it hang so I can hem it.

I welcome sharing your horror stories of cutting corners or fabric shrinkage so I can feel better about making such a silly mistake. :)

Random Aside: How do I have a whole box of buttons yet no buttons available for this skirt?! Pure craziness I tell you. hehehe

In: Sewing