Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Best Laid Plans...

I have been very busy with work sewing. Many of the fabrics we use need to be ordered from overseas and the already long ship time can be further delayed by Customs. I am not complaining about paying duty or taxes on these orders, but the delays can make deadlines difficult. The actual sewing time diminishes while the deadlines remain the same and I end up in a rush at the end.

This is the sleeve of a dress I have been working on. I took these pictures to show the difference a little extra line gives in emphasizing the under/overs of the Celtic knotwork. It looks much more finished, doesn't it?
I used a similar knotwork design on the skirt. The area was much smaller, but I wanted to maintain the scale, so I removed the two loops on either side and changed the shape slightly to fit into the background shape better. I made 10 little petal ends like this, got the dress together, sat back to admire the cohesiveness of the design...

...and YIKES! the tip of each skirt end had a horrible little smiling skull face on it!

Below is the sketch, now picture it in white on black.
Can you see it?
Just imagine the horror I found as I prepared to package this up to ship to a sweet little dancer!
I will have to remake the skirt before I can send it and, as I am already behind, I will need to stay up most of the night to do it. Ouch!

7 comments:

Ann Made Studio said...

Where??? Aghh I can't see it :)
Does this mean you are re-doing this.
The knots are beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Hi MP,

Is there anythinng you can do to save that amazing embroidery. Perhaps "color" in the hose area of the skull with a sharpie marker or embroidery the nose area? This would delete the skull look. Of course, you are certainly a perfectionist, and this "save" would probably not appeal to your aesthetic. Anyway, all your work looks lovely, as usual. It is always a treat to see your work. Amazing!!

Karen (Karendee)

kiltsnquilts said...

MaryPat, does it look as bad as the drawing when it is stitched out with the 'gaps' to show the over and unders? Have you tried showing it to someone as is and asking if they can spot a problem? It seems such a shame to re-do when no-one else might notice. Your work is beautiful!

Patricia said...

Thanks guys. I ended up redoing the skirt, but I left the sleeves as they are. My husband saw the skulls right away. I get so caught up in the dresses that I cannot see them anymore. If I take a break and come back to them they are much clearer. I am sure this one would jump out at me later. Now,if it had been for the next dress I am doing it would have been fine. That one has a skull lining. The dresses need to go with the dancer's style and personality.

Ann Made Studio said...

I asked my son to look and he saw it right away. Once he saw, I saw too!
Too bad you had to re-do it. But I'm sure your client appreciates it.

gwensews said...

Thank you for visiting my blog. The mishap with the design on the skirt is indeed, unfortunate. I hope the remake turned out as you wanted it to.

ClaireOKC said...

Hey - I know how this is....more than once I've had to redo something huge cause "I knew" it wasn't right - no one else would know, but I knew.

On the shipping front, I order lots of my fabrics out of Hong Kong, and when the Brits left, I worried about shipping (a la history of Shanghai - when the Chinese took over, the economy went to shambles), but things worked out great....it was after 9/11 that I had probs...my fabric sat on the doc in LA for EIGHT WEEKS!!!! Arrrrgh! It was getting the logistics all worked out, now I have it clear customs in my local city and when I drive up in my station wagon (still no SUV), with "Sew Sew" on my license tag - it's pretty obvious what the long slender package is!!!

You'll be happier with it in the end - and your rep will be stellar!