Wednesday, April 13, 2011


Facings Face Plant

Apparently facings confuse me and are not my friend.  Also, I apparently am still unable to read pattern directions or simply have problems with reading comprehension.  Something is wrong.

There I am working on the Brown Leaf Dress, moving along well at the snail's pace that I prefer.  The very first direction given says to attach the front facing.  I did that.  Moving on....the dress is all sewn together; adjustments have been made.  The dress ….well….it looks like a dress.  So, I decide to take that step I really hate to take….. trim around the neckline and clip.  I do that and boy does that neckline sure look nice!

Then....the next instruction says to attach front facing to back facing...what???  The front facing is already sewn in but the instruction shows that it is not sewn in.  What??  I have already trimmed and clipped it.  What to do?

I then have to pick out everything I have done with facings and start over.  This means, I have to put it back together with a smidgen of a smidgen of a seam allowance left after my surgery to the neckline.  Blah...this is so frustrating.  And ah the hubris....as I was trimming and clipping I was so proud that I was actually doing this instead of ignoring this instruction and the difference the trimming and clipping made to the neckline.  I typically skip the trimming and clipping bit because I am scared to do this because what if I need to make changes later on.  This experience has just reinforced my fear.

Here it is with all the facings catch-stitched
into place
With a new day, I went back and re-read the instructions….this is where reading comprehension is so important (really, I don’t think I have though in terms of reading comprehension since High School which was a very long time ago.  But in re-reading the instructions, the first instruction dealt with only the interfacing, NOT THE FACING.  The facing and interfacing are from the same pattern piece it makes me wonder if all I did was look at the picture without really reading the instruction?!

So when it is all said here is the dress with facings AND collar attached.

2 comments:

The Vintage Seamstress said...

Your little dress is gorgeous, I wished I was better at pattern comprehension too... What I know I learned on my own and am always intemidated by pattern instructions, but your dress looks great!

Summer said...

Your dress turned out great :) Facings are mean and best avoided when possible. Imho.