Almost fell for my Lola..

So – after a hugely positive start to the year with my Archer – which I love – my next make has been a bit of a flop.

This is super annoying as I love Lola by Victory Patterns and had been really inspired by all the amazing versions I have seen – it seems like everyone has been making a Lola. Examples from Tilly and the Buttons, What Katie Sews, Lladybird and Sleek Silhouette – these have all been coming up as I have struggled and failed with this one. Bad enough to be making something that isn’t working but even worse when everyone else is turning out fabulous versions!

This has been a bit of a struggle from the start

First – the fabric is a very stretchy sweatshirt fabric – thicker than any I have used for making knit tops so far and probably more stretchy than I should have used for this as the pattern suggests ‘slight stretch’. I was excited to be able to use the stretch stitches on my new sewing machine, but when I tried them out on the fabric I found that both the lightening bolt stitch and the triple stitch seemed to really stretch out the fabric and resulted in wavy seams. I may need a walking foot to resolve this I think? The best results came from using a narrow zig zag stitch in the end.

I originally cut a size 8 bust/waist grading to 10 at the hips (having to guess where the hips are as it isn’t easy to judge from the pattern as the front and back pieces are different lengths) I stitched it all together and tried it on and it looked like a shapeless bag. I thought it still had potential though so I decided to unpick the stitching, cut it smaller and start again (this alone was a hideous job – unpicking tiny navy stiches from soft navy fabric was not fun!

Second attempt – I cut the pieces down to a 6 and 8. I used a narrow zig zag but I still got wavy and out of shape seams where the bodice joins the skirt pieces – worst at the points where all the seams meet and there was a lot of fabric being pushed under the presser foot. I can’t see this effect on anyone else’s version so this is clearly down to my need for a walking foot or something else I should have done differently with this fabric. I have steamed the seam a lot and tried washing it to tighten it up a bit but it hasn’t made much difference.

And after all this I tried it on and it still doesn’t really work on me – better but still not something I want to wear out of the house. It isn’t fitted enough at the waist but is rather too tight on my hips. If I am honest I think perhaps this shape just doesn’t quite work for me. I generally avoid very high-waisted skirts or empire line tops – I prefer things that fit at the waist and then flare over my hips. The high front means that I lose the waist definition that I like and the stretching around the bodice seam makes this even worse.

Finally I found myself questioning where I was even going to wear this – it isn’t a work dress but it’s not quite what I would wear at the weekend either – though I love it so much in theory!

Following this I was rather stalled, so I have been following Sarai’s Wardrobe Architect series at Coletterie to try to work out what I want to do next and making a couple of easier projects – so there will be more to follow and hopefully it won’t take another two months to post again!

Has anyone else found out after they made something that although it looks lovely on everyone else it just wasn’t for them?