I finished two garments this weekend – the Georgia Peplum top and a pair of Barb pants from StyleArc in a lovely wool and lycra fabric which I bought at Global Fabrics in Dunedin. Both of these items were made from remnants, and both remnants were problematic. As reported yesterday the fabric for the peplum top had a big square cut out of it and the fabric I wanted to use on the Barb pants looked like it had been chewed!

Having planned to make the pants from this fabric, I found that it wasn’t long enough to accommodate the pattern. I had two problems – the reduced fabric and the fact that I had to match the plaid.

I had to literally mosaic together the pattern. The waistband was supposed to be in two pieces – mine was four, and I had to put a yoke into the back section, all the while attempting to pattern match. I wasn’t overly successful in this.

Unfortunately, this appeared to be the easy bit – I then had to match the plaid on the side seams. I finished up pinning almost every square and the fabric still managed to slip by a micro millimetre. I can’t tell you how often I unpicked those seams. I finished up sewing them in a really long stitch (for easy ripping out) and when I was happy I then overlocked the seams.

Finished product? Not too bad. Worn here with a Susan top and hand knitted mobius for MMM. Also the inevitable machine knitted socks!

Then came the peplum top. As you can see, there are four darts and a centre seam that all have to come to a point right on the waist seam. Seemed easy enough – NOT! I got them all to a point, but they would be slightly under the seam. Frogged it.

I got to the point where I just sewed tiny little bits to get the match right and then would backfill the rest of the seam. Then I had to put in an invisible zip without an invisible zip foot – managed this ok, but matching the waist seam proved problematic. I couldn’t bear it to be a mm out. OK, got that sorted eventually. Then I had to match the waist seams when sewing up the side seams. Did this fairly easily. Finished it. Put it on. OMG I look like a dental nurse from the ’60s!!!

The only way I could make this look any good at all was to belt it. I put it on to wear to work, and took it off again. This might go into the big mistake pile!