My Cleo pinafore is the first garment I made, and I’m so proud of it. It’s in a blue medium weight stretch denim, the longer length option with a split at the front, and with the two small pockets.
I was afraid to wear it initially because I was convinced that something I made could never be as sturdy as something you buy in the shops, but it’s still holding up well now, three years on!
I made four clear errors when making the pattern (I’m sure there were more than this, but these for are the stand-outs for me):
1. Wonky top stitching on one of the straps. When I made my Cleo I didn’t actually own a seam ripper, so as far as I was concerned any mistakes were final. Also, I was slightly scared of my sewing machine – partly an irrational fear of getting things wrong, and partly a very rational fear of the needle breaking – I broke five needles making this dress. When sewing the first strap I was quite careful, and it went pretty well. The second strap I rushed, and might have even had my eyes closed due to the aforementioned needle related issues, and it’s ended up a bit askew. I don’t actually mind at all now. It’s not very noticeable, and to me it gives it character. It makes me smile when I remember how I made my first garment.
2. Top-stitching on the pockets. This is one mistake I’m very glad to have made – I didn’t check I was using the correct stitch on my machine after I’d been changing between straight stitch and zigzag for the seams. It wasn’t until I was halfway across the first pocket that I realised I wasn’t using the straight stitch, but decided to just carry on and see how it ended up. I actually think it’s a nice feature, and when I showed friends my me-made dress it was one of the first things they liked about it. So – a happy mistake this time, but it’s still something I need to learn from because it could cause a headache in future projects.
3. I didn’t stitch all the way to the top of the pockets. For some reason I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to or not, so I didn’t. After a while I realised I should have, so I added a stitch by hand near the top of the pocket, but it hasn’t done the job. This mistake still bothers me because I have to carefully iron the pockets after each time I’ve worn it, and by the end of the day the top has curled down again. It’s not irritating me enough that I would stop wearing my Cleo, but its something to bear in mind for future.
4. This is the big one – I should have graded between sizes. My hips are quite wide, so I went with the larger size all over, but now the top half is quite loose. After three years of wearing the dress I finally twigged that if I move the positioning of the buttons on the straps the top half will fit much better. So this morning I finally made this adjustment, and it’s made a world of difference. I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to do it. It’s given me much more enthusiasm for making my second Cleo, which hopefully I will do within the next couple of weeks!
Project Life Pursuit 