1.First and most importantly the biggest of my mistakes has been not to write up all my construction notes as I go along. Which means that when I have gone to look back at my scribblings when they were not as fresh in my mind I have missed things or could not clarify what I meant at the time. This has resulted in some of the mistakes I have made since.
2. Working with white- I have already said it is a challenge I am enjoying but with all my efforts to keep it clean somehow there is still a black mark that I think may have resulted from rubbing my eyes over my work and somehow ending up with what may be mascara on the white. Luckily it is on the inside, but do I dare try and remove the mark?
3. A mistake made as a direct result of no. 1. Not reading instructions properly before ploughing on ahead. Here we can see where I have trimmed away the excess seam allowance up to the design line. I did this for every seam. Lo and behold in my notes, underlined no less, it says "except for side seams" meaning I trimmed away fabric that may have been needed for alteration. This is actually quite a serious mistake. Having had a think about it I decided I had come too far this time to re-do an awful lot of work. Luckily for me, this costume will never be altered, instead it will sit looking beautiful on one of my mannequins. If this had been a working costume however, I would have had to re-do the work, as the costumes, especially the core costumes often get worn by more than one artist and there needs to be alteration space in the costume. This was a good mistake to make now however, as I am unlikely to do it again.
4. Test fabrics on iron first. Classic mistake. I have made this mistake before and will probably ruin a few more pieces of fabric before my career is out. Here, after making up the waistband for the romantic tutu I managed to melt one of the elastic inserts with my domestic iron. There is no saving it as the melted edge is hard and would cause much discomfort next to the skin of the dancer. Thankfully I can replace the piece without too much trouble. But I now know to avoid the elastic at all costs with anything hot.
5. Another mistake(edited to be added after the original post), although I have no photo. Once I had sewn down the piping on the bodice, you then trim the SA to 3mm above the design line except you do not trim down the SA at the CB placket. Well I did by mistake. Although this reduces bulk it does not help if you need to alter the CB panel to allow more room. Keeping the SA hidden inside the placket allowance just makes it easier when it comes to the alteration.
6.-(another edit, no photo) I have noticed that in general this fabric is very tricky, as I am sure I have mentioned before. The over handling of this fabric is now beginning to show. I have been very, very careful with it, but because it is a sample piece, and therefore it has been constructed in many stages over quite a long period of time, it is starting to look a little withered. This I feel would ultimately be remedied the next time I make a bodice as I now know all the stages and should be able to make one a lot faster, which means the fabric, if handled with care should remain very crisp.
That's it for now, but I am sure to accumulate a whole many more along the way.
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