Hawthorn in Candyland

In case you hadn't guessed from the title, I think my face here pretty much says it all:

How did this one particular Hawthorn come out so messed up?  Good question.  Let's analyze this logically.  The fabric: the fabric is light weight and definitely made me think of cheesecloth.  It's sheer enough that I thought it would be prudent to underline it.  Except I knew I didn't want to underline the peplum or the sleeves (cuz that's obviously waaay too much work) and somehow I ended up only underlining the front pieces.

See all those wrinkles under the bust?  WTF?  I did add a FBA to the pattern pieces and I noticed a little bit of this on my rayon Hawthorn as well so I'll be retracing the original piece and just dealing with the slight gape-age (no matter how I spell that my computer insists it isn't a word but I'm sure ykwim).  I have no idea even how to fix these without completely taking out the front waist seam and I just don't have the energy for that right now. 

I originally wanted to make a sleeveless dress with this fabric but I'm pretty glad I didn't.  I honestly kind of wonder if a fabric this flimsy will hold up to the wear I put my clothes through.  I run and play and catch shit on door handles and don't hand wash anything so, yeah, I'm pretty rough on my clothes.  Plus the pink, green, and orange in those pastel shades is really pretty obscene as a garment.  Why did I buy this fabric?  I mean, aside from the fact it was sooo cheap.  I really probably should have reserved it for baby girl clothes.  That kid can pull off colors that I cannot.  And I think it's more than fair to point out this shirt is a combination of several colors that just don't suit my coloring.

And that f*@#%ing facing is perpetually popping out!  This one hasn't been tacked down yet but it will be.  I've found that the bar tacks at the shoulder seams on my blue Hawthorn more than do the job of keeping the facing hidden.  I do have to iron the collar every.single.time I wash this thing.  That tiny little collar just doesn't want to sit right.

I know I look like I'm about to mug somebody in this picture, but it's like the only one I have where the collar is ironed down all nice and proper so I included it.  The rest of the pics were taken after a looooong day at the zoo in Tacoma.

The back is a whole 'nother story.  One which I can't even begin to explain.  I assume that the fabric is so flimsy it just kind of stretches and poofs.  You must admit, there's some distinct poofiness about the upper back.  I would assume I had accidentally cut something off grain but, plaid, duh.  I think I would've noticed.

I do love the bias sleeve band on this pattern... if not the fact that the cut pieces are always way too big when I try and sew them on.  I steamed the hell out of the pieces and eased them on for this shirt, I just took in the seam to fit on my blue one.  I'll just take it in from now on I think, it was way easier and doesn't seem to have affected anything.  It's so cute in the plaid, though.

Ahh, yes...  Did I mention I didn't have enough fabric to make a dress and match plaids.  Well, I failed to match the plaids anyway, so, yeah... my bad.  Coulda just made the dress after all, apparently.  Actually the plaids kind of match in some places... but that's about the best I can do.  It's just a totally weird plaid.  See how big the repeat is?  It's like an eight inch repeat or something!  Crazy.

The insides are pretty awful.  The sleeves are bound in pink bias, the waist seam in dark red, and the hem with pastel mint green.  All these colors actually kind of match the fabric, and I think that's what's so awful about it.  Who ever thought to combine these colors in a plaid?  I think it's the green that really ruins it for me.  Why not white?  

Close up of the cute cuff detail.  It's a little wavy from being so aggressively eased.  Even in the solid fabric the bias cut band really looks cool.  I know I've bitched this entire blog post, but let's get real for just a minute: I wear this shirt all the time.  It's really cheerful, casual enough for jeans but can be dressed up for work, too, and I really do love this pattern.  If I can fix the wrinkles up front I'll be completely satisfied, even though I think the color scheme is slightly off for my skin tone.  Since I'm super tan right now, though, I guess it's okay ;-)

Pattern: Hawthorn by Colette Patterns

Fabric: Cotton gauze (idk, seems like a good description) from Goodwill

Notions: random bits of bias tape, also all thrifted and several buttons out of a big mixed bag of pink buttons for crafting

Total cost: Less than $5 (not including the pattern, of course, of which purchase I feel totally justified by now).

Make again: why even ask?

Final thoughts: I think I summed it up pretty well in the paragraph above; not quite a happy ending, but not a hopeless one either.  And other than the buttons this whole thing is, you guessed it, reloved.