HotPatterns: 2. Me: 0.

Well, it’s official– both of my HotPatterns are a flop. At least for the purpose I had in mind.

I took a break from the pants fitting, and spent a good chunk of today cutting out and basting together the muslin– didn’t even bother putting in the second sleeve, because it was quickly apparent that there’s some major problems with this.

Problem #1: It needs to be taken in. A LOT. And it’s not so much a pattern sizing issue this time (I triple-checked my measurements against the chart, and since it had everything from size 6 to 26 on the same pattern, it’s not like I could have bought the wrong size!) No, this is my usual fitting-at-the-waist issues. But highly accentuated by the gathering. But yeah, several inches have to go.

Problem #2 (the more difficult one): The armhole is ginormous. To the point where this is where it stops–almost level with the empire waist. Since I’m planning on wearing this to conduct a band concert, arm movement is kind of a priority. And with both sleeves and buttoned up, don’t think that’s going to be happening– at least not without some major tugging across the back at this point!

Another view– hard to see since the picture’s kind of dark (and I haven’t gotten Photoshop back on my computer yet to play with it), but the hugeness of the armhole shows up better against my darker shirt.

Problem #3: I should have seen this one coming. But the sleeves are too short. It’s practically a 3/4 sleeve on me, and I think they were supposed to be long. At least, that’s how it looked on the envelope sketch. Curse my monkey arms!

So it looks like I’m going to be hitting the stash for the jacket pattern, too. I have a Simplicity one that might work out nicely. I’m just so annoyed–for one thing, I’ve been wanting to try a HotPatterns outfit for years, and it really doesn’t make me feel any better that the patterns are way pricier than my usual strategy of stocking up on the $0.99 pattern sales at Joanns’ or getting stuff free off of BurdaStyle!!

I’m not saying I’m never going to come back to these two patterns– if only for the reason of trying to get my money’s worth, I kind of feel like I have to at least try to tweak them into something wearable. But with only a month to get this pantsuit done, I just don’t have the time to try and fix such major issues right now.

On a brighter note, I did get C’s Christmas present mostly done today as well, and I’m very happy with how that is turning out. Though I’m not posting any hints or pictures yet, since I know she occasionally lurks on here!