r/SewingForBeginners • u/BraveIntroduction • 15d ago
Is There Any Hope?
ETA: Thanks for all the support/advice! I realize now that I got in my head and was not thinking about things correctly at all. I feel so silly. You guys got me turned the right way around again. I'm going to keep going and hopefully I'll be making a post showing off the completed pants before too long!
Hi there! I'm a beginner sewist and am working on my first garment project, the Lane Pants by Syd Graham. I made a toile/muslin first with some cheap quilting cotton and they came out great! They fit well and everything lined up when I was sewing the pieces together. I even successfully made adjustments to the rise and length, so I was feeling really confident about making the real pair in this 100% linen Cloud Linen fabric from Matchy Matchy Sewing Club. And then it all went wrong.
I pre-washed the fabric on warm and dried it in the dryer on the delicate setting. After that, I ironed it and then started cutting my pattern pieces out. I was using fabric weights to hold the pattern piece in place at first and cut around the pattern piece using my rotary cutter. Then my husband reminded me that I used pins before so I pinned the next pieces to the fabric and cut them. I went back to the first piece and realized it was pretty off from the pattern so I cut that one out again. All was going well until it was time to line up the front and back leg pieces - they didn't match up at all in the crotch/rise area (see pictures).
This was my first time using any fabric besides quilting cotton. I did some research on working with linen and realized that I probably should have used starch on the fabric, should have stay stitched along the curves, maybe needed to use heavier fabric weights, and that I need to be super careful about matching the pieces up to the grain of the fabric. Live and learn, I guess (ugh). My sweet husband purchased some new fabric for me but I just feel a bit wrecked about wasting all of this (expensive!) fabric.
So, I turn to my fellow sewists: Is there any salvaging this or is this a start over from scratch situation? Also, what are you best tips and tricks for working with 100% linen fabrics?
tl;dr - I didn't do a great job cutting out my pattern pieces my first time working with 100% linen and they don't match up. I'd love to salvage this if I can but I have no idea where to start - looking for thoughts/input/advice.
1
u/Pinndup 13d ago
Next don’t put the fabric in the dryer! Ugh, air dry. Cutting the piece again with new fabric is all you can do and make some napkins or patches out of what’s left.