Designing can be such a weight on your ego. It can make you bend, shift, or even break. It can force you to experiment with your potential. While something can look great on paper, or in my case an iPad, it doesn’t always look right on a real body.

Things do not always come out as planned.

My thoughts were a nice Boho flowing and sheer frock and what I got were angled sleeves that made me look like I was wearing a choir robe.

This was my first fitting and I could already see even before sewing my side seams that this design had major issues. Just to test it I wore the dress on a road trip to Columbus. The giant angled sleeves threw the entire look off and was ill proportional.

I tried tucking it in and sewing it down to the inside. Another flip flop, fail or learning experience? This was like putting a big ugly bandaid on my problem.

I ripped my stitches and cut the sleeves short but they were still too much. Third time is not always a charm!

Finally I added a method called shirring to the sleeves to pull them in. Shirring is where you use elastic thread in your bobbin and it acts like elastic after many rows are sewn. I felt it did the trick and tamed the overdone look out. I also feel white is hard to pull off on its own – let alone making a Glad trash bag look.

I guess my point is if the sleeve fits you shouldn’t always wear it. Try and try again.

Behind the scenes~

Our second business, Juicymelt Supreme hot sauce turned one year old this weekend.

 

Thank you for reading,

Tracy McElfresh

Dream it! Sew it!

 

Tracy McElfresh
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