WIP Wednesday - Nobody's Perfect!

I know I share a lot of my finishes and I have had people say things like 'you made that??  You must be amazing' or 'I could never sew that good!' which makes me feel awesome, but then there are projects that never see the light of day.  It's very easy to only show the good and skim over the bad, and FaceBook is great for promoting the 'my life is awesome' persona.  I usually find sewing a fun and relaxing hobby, until things go very wrong.  Then it's time to hide the project, avoid my sewing area, and pretend I never wanted to make it in the first place...



When I was in high school, there was an unfortunate incident of sewing an A-line dress out of printed denim that actually stood out like a bell...fortunately I think all pictures of that were pre-digital age.  Although it was kind of fun to tip side to side and pretend I was a bell...or the Mobius strip vest for a Zelda costume that I sat and pulled through the turning hole for about 15 minutes before I realized that it was never going to turn right side out, which led to the 'no sewing after 11 pm' rule.  Or projects like this wallet.  Everything I can screw up, I have!  Usually I have little to no problem with patterns by ChrisW designs, but for some reason my brain wasn't wrapping around the instructions.  I know that if I ever make it again it will probably only take me a few hours, but for some reason this one has taken me WEEKS!

So in the interest of showing I'm in no way close to perfect, here's a few of the screw up pictures so you can scratch your head with me and try to figure out HOW I screwed up that badly!

Yeah...that should touch the fold line.

First issue...(not really my fault, but a typo in the pattern that threw me off, which has been fixed) Interfacing should cover half the pocket up to the fold.  Not a big deal, cut another piece, attached it and moved on.

To the right you will see some white...that's the lining of the pocket.  Not supposed to be there...

Second issue.  I'm pretty sure the zipper pocket is not supposed to be OUTSIDE the wallet body.  *face palm*  cut new lining piece, ripped the zipper and pocket out, re-read the instructions and put it together right.

Third issue.  My pockets are supposed to be a little higher so they are evenly spaced with the id pocket.  You know what? Close enough.

Fourth issue.  Forgot to fray check the corners before I sewed the plastic to the id pocket.  Added it afterwards, only got a little on the plastic, hopefully it will come off.

Fifth issue.  Card pockets should be the same width and length as the pocket behind it.  Uh....not even close.  1/2" off on width, 1/4" off on length.  Scratched my head for a while, tried to fix the seam allowance, nothing worked.  Tore the card pockets apart...turned out I cut the back piece to a random size, NOT the correct one.  Trimmed it down, resewed, Viola! they almost match!  Wiggled it a bit and close enough for government work.  ;)

Sixth issue.  Lost 2 pieces. Decided to call it quits for the day.  Found them the next day before I cut new ones, YAY!

See the folds to the left of the chalk line? Those should be right on top of each other.

Seventh issue.  Card slots again.  Seriously, why can't I ever get them right?  I found a trick that finally worked for me, after doing the folds and finding out that somehow I had lost half an inch somewhere, I opened them up and traced where the lines were supposed to be on the back side.  First 2 lines were right in place.  3rd line...only about 1/8" off.  4th line...well, 1/4" off.  Remaining lines....yeah...that was where I really screwed up.  I refolded and ironed and magically the pockets were the right size! 

After that, the wallet came together with no issues, and I finally finished it!!  I have to say that my new sewing machine, Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All, Jr. really pulled through for me.  Even going through a ton of layers was no issue as long as I went slow and didn't try to rush him. 

As soon as the pattern is released, I'll have some pretty pictures of the finished wallet!  Until then you can laugh at my mistakes, groan with me, or take comfort in the fact that even 'experienced' sewists make horrible, horrible mistakes.  :D