A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had visited Jo-Ann’s for fabric purchasing. What I didn’t say was what an awful experience it was. Prices shown on the shelves were not what rang up at the cutting counter. They tried to convince me that the knit fabric for the pink dress was $20.00 per yard. On my last trip there to purchase the fabric for my granddaughter’s PJs, there was someone having the same problem with shelf pricing not matching the scanner. Part of me was relieved that it wasn’t just me who had this problem but mostly I was annoyed that Jo-Ann’s couldn’t get a simple thing like showing the correct prices on shelves. This is more time wasting for the employees than going through the store and removing the out of date signs as every time a customer questions the price the employee has to check. I am sure the moral of the staff is a reflection of how they are treated by management.
Anyway, there was no problem with one of the pieces I purchased. The shelf price and the scanner price were the same. Except – yes you knew something had to be wrong – when I laid out the fabric it looked really short and when I measured it the length was not what I had asked for. I checked the receipt and I had only been charged for what I had been given. But what was I going to do now? I could have taken the fabric and got a refund but before resorting to that I had a look at my other patterns to see if there was enough to make a different top.
A while ago I had got a free PDF pattern online and printed it out thinking I would turn an old skirt into a top. That didn’t happen but as I had the printed pattern it was easy to check if it fit my fabric – and woohoo – it did. The pattern is a simple sleeveless top with a pleat down the middle. I am not a fan of that style as the pleat tends to bulge out so I made the pleat at the top and sewed down for about two inches and did not sew down the pleat at the hem. The pattern says to make your own bias binding from the fabric or use pre-made. As I was not expecting to make this top I had not purchased any binding so make my own it was.
Oh my gosh, this was not the best fabric for the first time for making bias binding – slippery and frayey and barely holding a crease. And then sewing the narrow strip of slippery fabric onto slippery fabric – ugh! No wonder I sewed one edge per day and for the armhole edges I placed the garment on parchment paper to stop the slide of the fabric on the machine.
Despite that, I love the end result. The fabric works really well with the pattern.
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