Rant ON

Ok, I'd like to rant a little right now. There is one company out there that is going to receive my wrath.

The folks at Kwik-Sew pattern company.

People, if I were a quilter I might be ok with 1/4" seam allowances. I am not. I sew clothes, and 1/4" seam allowance is not enough. Why? Because everyone who sews knows you'll have to fudge seams a little because of the second part of my rant. Your pattern pieces don't fit! This is the MOST irritating thing ever.

A month ago I ran across the grooviest vintage Gloria Vanderbilt fabric on EBay. I snatched it up and have been hemming and hawing over what to make out of it. At the same time I've been admiring the work on Ramonsterwear.com and I finally decided I will use some of my vintage fabric to make the most groove-deluxe rockabilly western shirt ever.

Enter Kwik-Sew.

Apparently, western-style shirts aren't exactly the most sought after style out there, but Kwik-Sew had a pattern so I bought it. Oh, wait, there was one more irritating thing - every other pattern company (even Burda!) routinely discounts their patterns 40%. Not Kwik-Sew. No, no, you shall pay full price for their crapbag patterns.

So I shelled out eleven bucks or whatever ridiculous price they were charging, and this weekend I started on my shirt.

I piped all of the pieces needing piping, cussing the 1/4" seam allowance the whole time. Then tonight I tackled the collar.

And I am upstairs typing this rant now because the collar stand is literally two inches too short for the shirt! I've double-checked all of my pattern pieces, wondering if I accidentally made the shirt in an XL and the collar in a XS. Nope. No such luck. The pieces just don't fit. [For non-sewers, the collar stand is the neckband thingy that your collar is attached to.]

So I threw the shirt down on the ironing table and stomped off. I'll re-create the correct collar and stand tomorrow, maybe. I'll post lovely pictures of my rockabilly groovy shirt when it's done. And I will never buy a Kwik-Sew pattern again!

OK, rant off.
- H