Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Baby Kimono - Just a pass, maybe


If I were to grade my latest crafty effort here (Lucy's Kimono from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross), I would barely scrape in a pass. It started out well enough, but then the obstacles kept on coming...

  • I really really hate working with bias tape. I hardly ever do it because I find it so annoying. I think my tape was too skinny for this project (actually probably for any project). I didn't sew the tape on correctly onto the kimono, but it worked out OK. Not as OK is the ends that you tie are completely unfinished. I tried to finish them, but the skinny bias got sucked into my machine and I had to take it apart to get it out again. Was only going to do that once! So the ends will probably go fray-crazy in the wash. Oh well.
  • None of the seams are finished. The instructions don't actually insist on this. I started finishing the seams, but got lazy.
  • I am sure as sure can be there is an error in the instructions. I have googled the pattern and people mention the bias tape should be longer, but my main problem was that the instructions call for inserting both ties in such a way that they both end up on the outside. So I changed that a little bit, not before blindly following the instructions though and getting annoyed.

I am pretty tempted to give this another try and do it properly, but this took me 3 hours of precious kid free time, and I don't really know if I want to do that. It looks pretty cute in the photo, so I am warming up to it.

On the plus side, I am very confident my quilt will be finished before baby comes, unless I get an early surprise. (Very unlikely)

5 comments:

Jennie said...

Gah, I hate spending those precious kid-free hours on a frustrating project! Hope your baby quilt comes together more easily.

Megan said...

ooh, don't jinx yourself with the very unlikely comment! very good to hear however that you'll get the quilt all finished. and i'm sure no one will be looking close enough to find your only-a-pass reasons, the photo of it looks just adorable! no way could i have managed that in just 3 hours

Madeline said...

It looks really cute in the photo, but it sounds like one very frustrating project!

Sally said...

It does look totally adorable in the photos.
Bias tape can be a bugger. I always make my own now so that it is wider than the shop bought stuff... wider = easier for me and I don't really think it looks much different.

BettsyKingston said...

Email me if you are interested in doing another one but longer as a dress or sleepsuit. I've just finished a free pattern as a tutorial to make a christening kimono. bettsykingston@gmail.com. Assuming you are still able of course!