Blessings to your expanding family! Thank you for voicing what others may be too afraid to say when it comes to the overall sewing experience of commercial patterns and sewing along instruction misalignment. We are rooting for you and know you will come out with something great!!
Thank you so much! What a test of my sewing knowledge and patience this was!! I am happy I stuck with it and made it work, however, I did wonder, was it worth it? In the end it taught me that a toile when you are that unsure is a good idea and doesn’t have to be that hard, I whipped one up and was so pleased with how easy it was. I’m hoping all the struggle and lessons learned will serve me well in future makes!
It's really something to see the you wrestle with frustration and determination with so much grace. It will all work out, and your friend will look stunning! And one idea that was suggested by Andrea, (on her Sew-to-Fit YT channel while she needed to make fewer videos for a time), is for viewers to play your video collection on auto-play to keep your viewership numbers up during the time that you'e videos are less frequent.
Girl...I feel you 1000%. I am never down for hand sewing a set in sleeve...that's not my purpose in life. Unless its Norris or Brittany guarentee the instructional video will skip steps. I also am alarmed when I dont see online reviews or social post on a pattern. Just look at it as a learning experience. Great effort!
I feel your frustration. I definitely would have finished the sleeves before attaching bodice of blazer to lower section. I applaud the new designers on their creativity, though this particular design ME2065 backless is not for me, that said I think there may be a disconnect with th designers and the staff that writes instructions? I am not sure. Seems like there would be a meeting of the minds. Maybe poor editing in the video? Maybe there is a rush to put out product for new season without really being consisent and providing quality instruction. 🤔🤗 Great work so far!
I agree with your thoughts, Monique, so much disconnect. I used as much of my sewing knowledge, and all sorts of resources to finish that blazer, but it was a huge struggle and unnecessarily so. I hope to give a review along with tips after I have a moment to reflect on my process a bit more.
Hello Fatmata. It's good to see you. I think February was the month for some sewing disappointments for alot of us. I completely understand the frustration of the lack of instructions in the Big 4/5 patterns. The videos aren't much better, especially when it comes to sewing a more completed garment. The finished hip measurement is under the finished waist measurement on the back of the pattern envelope. Columbia has the paper version. I think HL might have it as well. You may want to get the book Tailoring by Creative Publishing International. Now, that you've done a toile, the next rendition will be easier to put together. I wonder if the tissue measurements translate correctly to the pdf version. Breathe, enjoy your goodies, create something for yourself, then work on the jacket again. You got this.❤
That blazer sure looks complicated and the conflicting instructions would have pushed over the edge 😂 high stakes too sewing wedding garments with a definite due date! I made my daughter's wedding dress and I had to mentally walk myself through to all the steps to make sure the lining, overlay, lace, etc, would all be done right. Order of operations is so important and you kind if have to choose your path at the onset. I hope it turns out well. If it comes to that, keep in mind these items will be worn ONCE. So if the insides are not perfect, that is totally fine 😊
Fatmata, you know I feel your pain. I am frustrated on your behalf. I get the impression that the written instructions are made by someone other than the designer, who makes the videos for Know Me. Unfortunately, that makes the videos a lot less helpful, as their process may be completely different. 🙈 I truly appreciate your honesty for others who may struggle with this pattern. I have faith in you that you'll make it work. Also, I'm so excited for you that you're going to be having a new little bundle of joy soon (maybe even by now)! Wishing you a happy and healthy end of pregnancy/birth/newborn baby time. Sending all the love!!
Thank you, Theresa! I know by now, you know I persevered with the blazer, but it almost broke my spirit to be honest, if it wasn’t a bridal inspired item, I don’t know if I would have tried to move forward with this (so maybe that was for the best). It was so apparent that the instructions and the video were not prepared by the same person, I would’ve loved a heads up on those trickier sections so that I would’ve proceeded accordingly. This was a project for the books, so glad it’s behind me, but I’m hopeful the skills I learned will serve me well on future makes! Thank you so much for your well wishes. I remember around that time, thinking a midwife’s advice would be nice right now lol
I definitely feel your pain..2 suggestions on this video particularly. Dee ,who sewed up the pattern, also did a sew along for this blazer. She's really sweet and I'm sure if you reach out ,she can answer some questions for you about the blazer. Also pattern review is a great site where people actually talk about their experience sewing up these patterns. I'm not sure if anyone has talked about this pattern yet, though. Hope this helps. You did beautiful work and I hope you finish it.
Thanks for the tips, Mishawn! I am hoping that I can collect my thoughts and put a review as well. I watched Dee’s sewing along during my sewing process in addition to the instructions, and the sew along.
Bestie is gonna swoop up that extra pattern! 😂😂😂 I think they dumped those feathers in there like that because they knew they were scant. The fact that Bestie made a mesh dress has me so impressed because I’m scared of mesh. And I got some in my goodie bag that night! Re: the backless blazer, I think with a unique pattern like this, you’d probably need to measure the pattern pieces against bestie’s measurements to get it right. I took a fit class last weekend and I’ve never measured the pattern pieces against my measurements but NOW I know it’s a thing… 😬 Hand stitch?!?! 🤮🤮🤮
I sew feel your pain on the blazer. I’ve noticed the instructions are not clear on many patterns and I wonder about its effect not only to the beginner sewist but it has experienced sewist scratching their heads.🤷🏽♀️ This shouldn’t be that stressful. And it can’t be upsetting the baby👶🏾😄. I hope you addressed this on the Pattern Review website as I feel it needs to be.
I do hope to get a proper review ( and hopefully tips) together once I can reflect on my process a bit more. It was really apparent with this pattern instruction was not written by the designer, but I think the incomplete sew along also left so much to be desired. Glad I got through it!
I feel if the instructions tell you to do it a certain way then the tutorial should follow the instructions. I train people and when I’m training them I do it exactly the way the manual tells them even though I may know how to do it a different way.
So happy to hear you and yours are doing great and baby is coming along soon. Thank you for your videos, it brings me joy to listen to you talk about stuff (not strictly sewing related) on the background as I sew. 💕 If you want to know how to put an unlined sleeve in a lined garment WITHOUT hand stitching everything, I use this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-apQY6Q7TcYs.htmlsi=7_cl6F31MXEjBtqt
I like the designs of the Know Me patterns but the inconsistent sizing (some starting at 6 or 10) and the sew-a-longs with no actual sewing, just jump edits, are not helpful to visual learners especially if the instructions are confusing. For a minute, I thought it was just me.
It is NOT JUST YOU! When I tell you I was scratching my head during that entire sewing process… it was disappointing at moments. I have learned since this episode that the KnowMe designers are not the ones that write the pattern instructions, and then have a quite short time to develop the instructional videos, o want to be empathetic to that, but seriously this was a stressful process and I was grateful I was able to fill in some of the gaps and wasn’t afraid to problem solve, but I could see so many people struggling with this because of how confusing the video and the written instructions were. I am hoping to get myself together to do a pattern review of this to help others who may want to try it. Thanks so much for your comment!
I was watching one of the guys dingis Knowme pattern and he completely was not following the instructions. He even said so. I just stopped watching because also the quality of the video was awful. I am wondering why the pattern company didn't print the instructions they way the designer wanted and why the designer just didn't follow the instructions as printed with the note of oh, this is a tip is a way we find might be easier. I may have missed it but is this even listed as easy,average or what? I feel so bad that the instructions were not good. I have high hopes for Knowme but this is not a good start.
