Knowing when to stop!

I made this dress twice.











Not as in two garments but as in I had to unpick and remake the front from the orange down wards and at both sides of the skirt up to the orange waist stripe.
 
The first time I sewed this up it was fine really. Not perfect but OK and very nice and wearable but I had to keep trying to make it better. What I should have done was to make a second version to perfect this which is what ultimately I will still do. In my strriving for perfection I recked the first version.

I was so stupid.

It may be due to the fact the front is one piece and the other bits are sewn in succession. I am considering adding a centre front seam to the skirt to see if its easier to get a good finish rather than how the pattern says.

You sew in rows until you get to the skirt which goes on to the front piece and back piece - or at least that is how I added it. I sewed the front, sewed the back and then joined together matching all the blocks up. They do match which is an improvement on my diamond leggings https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/01/sportswear-leggings-for-january.html

 The front as you can see on this version is still not quite right.

But the colour blocking parts all match pretty good too so thats great but the front ( and back) of the skirt are still not quite perfect. They do not hand right where they join the colour blocking.

Inside showing overlocked seams

I sewed all this up but decided it wasnot good enough when really it was as a first attempt - and then it did not look right so I again sewed another seam and in the end I had the skirt like a high low skirt - should have got a photo here to explain but instead I ended up carefully unpicking the overlocking ( horrible job) and then replacing the orange panel, lower yellow panel and the front skirt panel. So I had taken my first version appart below the top diamond.Then what I did was to sew the lower front again from new pieces of fabric - luckily I have lots of offcuts. Then I carefully rematched all the sides and sewed back together.

So really I made this twice!



It was pretty difficult taking decent photos of this garment. I think it was too sunny for the fluorescents to really show. The pictures taken in my sewing space were not much better - possibly because it was in a very sunny conservatory where I sew. 

 The lesson: If its OK but not perfect and a first attenpt ( and its overlocked and blocked and complicated to sew up, then think twice before randomly just re-overlocking the seams because you just end up ruining the garment. 

If its wearable and actually quite nice it really does not have to be perfect. 

Most RTW clothing is imperfect but a lot of it is very nice to wear and own. 

Perfection is great but its a great shame to ruin something you have achieved cos its not absolutely perfect. 

I need to accept and learn to ive with my imperfections!

And after all that effort the final version is STILL not perfect!

So in the end I worked very hard for this rather nice dress. I do like it. Its not quite like anything else I own and has an almost "Star Trek" feel to it whilst being essentially a scater dress. 

Maybe not the Star Trek crew but some other species. Its kind of futuristic. 

Again this is due to my trying to clear my stash. In this case I am using a mesh ( but opaque not transparent) fabric which has a sort of football shirt feel to it for the top and skirt and the panels are the same stretch crepe used for the last few projects.

I actually bought this pattern, which is McCalls M7538, because I read Dr T's blog. She reviewed this a while back and pointed out how it was a nice pattern for small bits of left over fabric and with that in mind I invested in this pattern intending to just make tops from it but what the hell - lets just clear the stash and make everything!

Have you done this and kept sewing when you should have stopped and then ended up either scrapping the garment or having to completely re-make part of it?

Bracken