Right yarn, wrong project!


So I’ve spent the last few weeks knitting a skirt – the Chelsea skirt to be exact – out of some totally gorgeous tweedy yarn.
This is what my skirt should look like!
 
Initially I struggled with the stitch pattern, but persevered because I loved the look of it so much. 
Yummy colour, yummy stitch pattern.
 
Once that was sorted, I then struggled with the waist shaping, and had to undo several inches and reknit to include more waist decreases.  I’m obviously a lot more curvy than the person the pattern was written for!

Yesterday I got to the “trying on” stage...... and it looks awful on me!  It totally makes my curvy bits look heavy rather than curvy, and makes my slim(ish) waist look definitely not slim. 

I seem to struggle with this quite a bit – see a pattern or finished item, fall in love with it, make my own and hate it!

I thought I’d got better at knowing what suits me and flatters my shape, but on this occasion it appears not!  I’ve been overtaken by a case of the “oooh, pretties” which has driven all sensible thoughts out of my head. 

This affliction seems to affect me more with knitted items than sewn ones, which is good I suppose, because I can always unravel and reuse the yarn.  Much harder to reuse fabric you’ve already cut up!

Happily, I did manage to finish sewing a blouse at the weekend that my husband thought I’d bought when I tried it on to show him, so I’ve not lost my touch totally.  I’ll share more details of that with you soon, cos I’m quite pleased with it. 

Please tell me I’m not alone, and that you’ve knitted or sewn things that you love the idea of, but just look awful on!  And do you have any "rules" for deciding whether a project is going to work for you?

 

2 comments

  1. Oh how frustrating after all your hard work, the pattern looks lovely. Do you think it might grow on you if you leave it to one side or is it a definite 'no'? My son's friend just finished her first knitted jumper and was a bit 'meh' about it but, having worn it for a day, thinks it might be a keeper.

    I made a dress in the summer, caught up in the 'I can make that' and 'what pretty fabric' moment - it looked terrible! When I thought about it I would not have picked it out if it was RTW, definitely a case of getting carried away.

    I'm still trying to figure out what suits me, I cannot fathom what shape I am and if I ask for help from my family I get differing answers! I love my Picnic Blanket skirt but think gathered waists probably don't do me any favours. I guess fitted things work best but as I find actually fitting them a bit of an issue I've reached an impasse! Back to the sewing books I think :)

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    Replies
    1. Sadly it's a definite no! Just didn't look good at all :-(

      I struggle with fitting too, but am slowly getting better with practice. I'm going to try a semi-fitted dress in a ponte knit next and see how that goes.

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