Fail February and the Paxson Grandpa Sweater That Should Not Have Been

In the spirit of Fail February, I have a project that probably should not have been. For an explanation of Fail February, check out my last post. Now, let’s revel in some poor decisions I’ve made!

I wanted to make DD a little something for our upcoming [cold] trip to Japan. The Paxson sweatshirt by Seamwork Magazine seemed perfect! It’s stylish AND fast to make. Plus, who wants to spend tons of hours on sewing for someone else? I admit I’m a selfish sewist. Not sorry!

I went shopping at Joann’s to pick out some fabric since most of what I had in my stash was considered girly. I came across this grey heather sweatshirt fleece stuff and it felt sooo soft… but it was polyester! I know polyester isn’t very comfortable to wear, but the fabric felt so great in the store, I figured it would work. Below is a shot of the inside. See how fuzzy and cozy it is?

I measured DD and determined medium would be the perfect size. He’s a tall, lanky guy so I was worried the sleeves and hem would be too short. I held the pattern pieces up to him and eyeballed the length. It looked as though it would work!

Well, it didn’t work. When I finished it, DD put it on and lifted his arms. The bottom came up to his chest! And the sleeves stopped above his wrists.

FAIL.

But the good news is the length fit me just fine. So now it’s MY sweatshirt.

Sorry, DD! He claims I planned it that way, but I swear I didn’t!

I feel bad because I thought this would look so nice on him. We even chose the elbow patches together to make it a little more special.

The patches are made from a fake leather upholstery material that I bought from a local home fabrics store that was going out of business. I like the texture… it looks like it’s supposed to be ostrich leather, I think?

To me, this is the epitome of what a “grandpa sweater” looks like. Gray with elbow patches. I think DD could have pulled it off better than me. I feel like a boy wearing this, especially with my short hair.

So other than it being meant for DD and not for me, there are two more fails about this sweater. The fit is one. It’s kind of tight around the shoulders, causing the neckline to rise up.

See that weirdness poking out from the back of my neck? It’s a bit thick, so it bulks out everywhere. I have to keep pulling the sweater down so I don’t have a weird neckline around my chin.

The fit is also not very flattering. It poofs me out as it’s just not made for a curvy womanly body. I even took in the side seams a smidgen just to give it some shape.

The other fail is the fabric. After washing and drying the polyester sweater fleece, it just didn’t feel as good. Polyester fabric tends to have a plastic-y feel to me and it doesn’t breathe well. This sweater is super warm, but since it doesn’t breathe, I get sweaty. I get sweaty even if I’m wearing gauzy cotton fabric… I’m just a sweaty kind of gal (TMI?).

Oh, and while we were taking these photos, my DSLR camera died! The battery went out and the other battery wasn’t charged, so we had to take the majority from my cell phone. I think it did pretty well, though. After the photo shoot, I went in search of my camera charger. It couldn’t be found! I looked all over the house and even asked my parents to check their houses in New Orleans to see if I left it there from our Thanksgiving visit. Nope.

But after a couple of weeks and being on the verge of buying a replacement charger on Amazon, I took one last look through the luggage we brought to New Orleans, and there it was!!! Thank goodness!

Anyway, I’m tempted just to make this an “around the house” sweatshirt. The weather is warm now, so I won’t be wearing this again any time soon. Maybe I’ll give it another chance next winter and see if it makes the cut. If not, then maybe it will be a better sweatshirt for someone else.

So it looks like some other bloggers are getting into the spirit of Fail February! Check out Jamie’s posts on Mac’s Crafts… she shares a shirt that just didn’t work out and a dress that actually ended up turning into a win after she turned it into a skirt! Thanks for sharing, Jamie!

I’m also part of a Sewing Bloggers Facebook group and threw the idea of Fail February around there and some others are on board! Let’s celebrate our fails this month in unity! 😀

On that note, I’ll leave you with an awkward photo…

HAHA, FAIL!!!!

Have you had any sewing or crafting fails recently? Share them in the comments!

-RED