This is a sewing failure!
It looks OK but read on.................
I bought the Notches Kai child's dungarees pattern about a year ago when it was reviewed on the Pattern review website. It sounded a good deal. Dungarees and trousers and shorts with loads of different options, pockets etc. Because the small people I sew for are all boys the frilly options are of no use but I expected the rest to be good.
A complete disappointment as well as a waste of money spent buying the pattern and the fabric. Then the considerable time I wasted to get a good finish because its for someone else so I try to make it perfect. As most people do for a gift.
It looks OK here I know but really its not.
Its awful!
First problem: the pattern prints on loads of half sheets of A4 so really a waste of paper. I had to lose around half of every sheet yet it appears to be the entire pattern despite its on half sheets ( all lines match etc) so I continue. At this point I contact Notches. They fob me off and say go to pattern review.com where I had bought it. ( Have to say here beware if you buy from this place!)
Notches reckon the pdf has corrupted. It prints weird on both the 110cm and 116cm so the 5-6years as well. Right now I have no idea about the rest of the sizes. So next anyway I contact pattern review. I have had no response at all from them. It's been awhile now. This all began several months ago so they have had plenty of time to try and sort this out. They simply have not bothered!
So I won't be buying anything again from either Notches or Pattern Review since both gave sh1t customer services. And yes I am mad at these rip off online companies right now! I do not usually swear on my blog even if using numbers in place of letters. I just don't but I want other sewers to be warned and understand how angry I am with this and how ripped off I am feeling, before you buy this or another Notches pattern. And as for Pattern review, well they did not even bother to come back to me at all. So buy if you want but please think how you will deal with a total lack of customer services should you need help.
So anyway this is what happened next. I managed to get the pattern put together despite missing a print off half of every sheet. I found a lovely fabric that appeals to certain small man I am sewing for this time. I went to town with both side and patch pockets. Then having bought this nice digger print cotton I decided to get going and make dungarees. Supposedly in a 110cm so for a 4-5 year old in the UK.
Even properly interfaced the facings and the top and straps which I admit I often just skip over especially with small children who will wear something for such a short time. This time though I did exactly what the pattern tells you. After all a 4 to 5 year old will test this to its limits when playing so I want it to hold up for every day play for him.
I think I paid 14 Euro for this pattern. It's possibly the most expensive I have ever bought. Single pattern that is anyway. Should have stuck with BTrendy, Burda etc. At least you get decent customer services when things go wrong and they really do try to help. Not at all these two companies!
Its never good when there is a problem but I am used to having some level of customer services and Burda in particular - that is burdastyle.co.uk, burdastyle.de and burdastyle.com have all been helpful at different times. I have not had a pattern problem with Made By Oranges ( Btrendy and My Image magazines) but have had a postage issue and they were helpful too. Thats a good point though. No pattern issues whatsoever with their patterns!
Anyway so I finally get these made and to me they look small and how will small person get into them?
The neck hole seems tight to me but maybe its just how it looks.
Well I have an even smaller person available who currently wears a 92-98cm in RTW or UK 2-3 years and no the dungarees do not go on. In fact I possibly hurt small person trying to squeeze him in! Not too badly and he does tend to object to trying on clothing, but you know the idea was make something nice not an object of torture.
So what to do?
I don't want to scrap the nice fabric. I could remake with normal so buttons and non elastic straps but even then they would be tight I think on top. Not the loose fit I was aiming for anyway. I think trousers will work but for the 2 year old not the 4 year old.
Just to clarify as well I took the smallest possible seam allowance on the pattern that says seam allowance is included. So a smaller seam allowance that the pattern actually reckons it allows for!
Also the facings do not at all fit. I had to draft my own. That's OK I could live with that if the rest of the pattern was right. It's not though.
The pattern is meant for wovens and my reason for purchase was for woven non- stretch fabrics. Summer cottons particularly. Thats what I wanted and why I bought it because I already had several stretch fabric /jersey patterns. However, if this pattern actually has any chance it may work I would make it in a stretch lycra jersey fabric. Just in case it's on your list of to-dos. I might risk some more fabric at some point and try it out. But then why bother when there is a free Sparkle and Roar dungaree pattern that works. Yes I paid for this but it was possibly the worst buy so far. I have only ever made one other pattern so rubbish and that was a long time ago so I ahve maybe so far been lucky but I have to say this experience really does put me off indie designer patterns right now. I like my favourites - How to do Fashion being a very nice one that springs to mind and I used to like Rebecca Page though Rebecca has left the label as far as I know, but many out there are really not worth paying for. I will probably stick with the small number I currently like now for a while because this has really put me off experimenting which is sad. One rotten apple spoiling the whole barrel as they say.
Right now though I feel ripped off, disappointed and that I have wasted my precious time on a totally cr4p pattern that doesn't print properly and is definitely over priced!
Oh and yes before I cut anything of course I checked the gauge was right.
It's just a completely rubbish pattern so if I was you I would avoid this one. I also will never buy another Notches pattern ever again. What I may have to do though is work through my other small collection of indie designer patterns to see how the rest work because I own loads I have yet to make. Maybe its time to put these indies to the test and see if I prefer the big pattern companies after all. I definitely do not like Notches in case you missed what I have been on about here.
On the positive side I finally finished these as dungarees and I now know what I made and the fact is these can be altered into trousers for the 2 year old who tried them on for me. He wants them. The construction of these has been dragging on since last winter! So at least (once they get cut back into basic trousers which will be fast cos my smallest small person will then get some wear from them at least!) then I will have only stuff for me to make and some of this is on my list for a few years. I have a large pile if washed and ready to cut camo for starters - about 10 different types if camo fabric to be precise that I really want to wear and a long list of patterns sorted to use with this fabric so finally my sewing for others ends for a while. At least the future is looking good.
Or its looking camo!
Take care and have a lovely week won't you and thanks for reading to the end of this very long text heavy post if you made it this far,
Bracken
No comments:
Post a Comment