Finally, I finished this dress!
This was part of a Craftsy Course which in itself was a good course, with good tips on how to change patterns to suit you, but not really advisable for novice sewers like myself.
With the course I received the Butterick Pattern 5030, and I initially signed up because I have always wanted to learn how to sew a wrap dress.
Now I absolutely loved, really loved, and learned so much from Meg McElwee in Sewing with Knits (this link will take you back to the post where I shared all my projects I completed in this course).
She showed me how to sew the pieces step-by-step in a great video class.
This is what I had hoped my new course The Perfect Wrap Knit Dress would teach me too.
I mean look at this awesome dress - who wouldn't want to make something if it turns out like this:
Unfortunately I didn't gain the same kind of experience with the course.
I think this course was definitely made with the advanced sewer in mind.
The instructor didn't take us through the steps, and I found myself treading water and confused at quite a couple of sections.
Because I received the pattern and the instructor didn't specifically say that she was going to take us through the pattern in a different sequence, I understood that she would show us how to sew the parts of the pattern when we come across them.
I merrily began to sew my dress according to the pattern insert and realized too late (more-or-less in the last chapter) that I had to add the belt tie in the seams and under the neckband. So I had to rip open band seams and side seams to allow for the belt!
The neckband was another headache as I had merrily attached it to the dress thinking that there was only one way to get it on there.
Once it was on, I tried the dress and noticed the collar sticking up at a weird, warped angle and suddenly distant bells rang reminding me of my Home Ec class many, many moons ago.
What was it the teacher taught us about neckbands?......
Oh golly, I had sewed it on the wrong way.
Much to my distress I had to undo all my work from the day before and spent the entire morning doing nothing else :(
Once back on track and feeling slightly frustrated with the whole experience, I decided to persevere and hoped that the outcome would be one of wonder and awe.
Unfortunately I was wrong again!
After the garment was complete I tried it on - UGH!
It didn't fit me at all, was way too big and my girls told me it looked like an old, wealthy man in a dressing gown, kinda like a Hugh Heffner - YUCK - take it off!!!
What to do?
Well, I whipped off about 25cm off the hem and got Jas to try it on.
She looks really nice in it and it suits her with some skinny jeans underneath it.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV3WUyCIvyn68eGBWYbo-BYkRgO8ZmKcTisQgeEm52-hcNgsTupxgxaq4h1chhqSCRbMJgFRUmtcXrOuH89R_ogZgMg6DkBjk7fi0L9TIuv0n_8mPweHdmrJ7gG_Hx4J6CMn6TO2MeguKN/s400/IMG_2493.1.jpg)
Would I recommend this course?
Yes - if you are looking for some advice on how to adjust a pattern so that you get a perfect fit, then this course would definitely give you some help in that area.
Yes - if you aren't a novice and can achieve the results you want from your sewing, then this is a great "Extras" course.
*No - if you are looking for a course which will give you some basics and more in sewing with knitted fabric. Then I would definitely recommend Sewing with Knits, this course gives you great satisfaction as the end result is very close to what she teaches you and is a very rewarding class to take.
No - if you are looking for a course that is built in a step-by-step construction class, this is definitely not one of those! Refer back to the *No above, that is an in-depth construction course!
So that is the end of this week's sewing attempts, maybe I will try something simpler next week - like one of these FREE Craftsy Courses for example:
I wish you all a super weekend.
See you soon.
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I've signed up for a couple of the beginner sewing courses. My goal is to work on them over Thanksgiving. Maybe I will watch the whole course before sewing...just in case it's done out of sequence.
ReplyDeleteHi WonderWhyGal,
DeleteYes, I would definitely recommend watching the course before hand. I do this with all of my Craftsy courses before I even get started. I watched this course quite some time ago before my old machine died so it has been a while and I should have re-watched it before beginning the project, although that would not have solved all of the issues I had with the course and project respectively :(
Thanks for visiting, and enjoy your courses :)
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