Winter Skirts
First off, ‘thank you’s to tigerweave , scandium21_45 , and msmcknittington for their suggestions back in November 2010.
I have been sewing for a little over a year, and last summer a close friend from high school gave me the fabric for two skirts.
Christmas Skirt
The first has an underskirt of purple cotton, and an over-skirt of delicate organza with a hand-sewn binding at the bottom.
As I mentioned in my first post, I got a little hasty and didn’t do proper prep work. On the bright side, the skirts pleats turned out to have more than enough excess fabric and I was able to turn them into darts.
However, organza is very delicate, and the invisible thread I used to disguise the pleats caused some damage.
So as per her request, I sewed ribbons over the damaged areas, seen here:
And the back:
And some things I (re-)learned from this project: double-check your model’s measurements against those of the pattern; organza is very delicate, serge all of its raw edges lest it unravel with handling, use French seams for visible seams, and organza under tension will split like crazy when ironed (even with cotton between it and the heat :< ). You cannot see it, but that last detail necessitated a fancy stitch on the top edge of the yoke to prevent the organza from disintegrating. Oh, and I’m a decent hand with zippers, but trying to sew one without a proper foot is horrid.
Winter Skirt
The second skirt came pre-cut (thank god! And it fit her) on the bias. I modified another iteration of the pattern I used for the Christmas skirt, adding a yoke. It’s (probably) a wool mix, and very loosely woven.
No, that’s not fringe at the bottom, that’s fun fur! The bottom is modeled after a balloon skirt because the thought of hemming fun fur made me break out in a cold sweat.
I think it adds a flirty touch to the skirt.
And my mom modeling (she and my friend are the same size):
It looks smashing on my friend paired with black tights, black boots, and a light-weight button-down black blouse!
Some things I learned on this project: fun fur and zippers do not mix! I had to cut back the fun fur around the zipper and added in wool panels. Serge your fun fur and then immediately clean up the bits that shed. My cat was tracking it everywhere. Grade your seams! Seriously! Four layers of fabric makes for an unhappy sewing machine. And zippers without the right foot are still odious.
Oh, and a gratuitous picture of my cat ‘helping’ with the Winter Skirt. She ‘helped’ with the Christmas Skirt too, I ended up holding her against my chest with one hand and machine sewing the underskirt hem with the other. Trickier than it sounds ;P
x-posted to my journal
I have been sewing for a little over a year, and last summer a close friend from high school gave me the fabric for two skirts.
Christmas Skirt
The first has an underskirt of purple cotton, and an over-skirt of delicate organza with a hand-sewn binding at the bottom.
As I mentioned in my first post, I got a little hasty and didn’t do proper prep work. On the bright side, the skirts pleats turned out to have more than enough excess fabric and I was able to turn them into darts.
However, organza is very delicate, and the invisible thread I used to disguise the pleats caused some damage.
So as per her request, I sewed ribbons over the damaged areas, seen here:
And the back:
And some things I (re-)learned from this project: double-check your model’s measurements against those of the pattern; organza is very delicate, serge all of its raw edges lest it unravel with handling, use French seams for visible seams, and organza under tension will split like crazy when ironed (even with cotton between it and the heat :< ). You cannot see it, but that last detail necessitated a fancy stitch on the top edge of the yoke to prevent the organza from disintegrating. Oh, and I’m a decent hand with zippers, but trying to sew one without a proper foot is horrid.
Winter Skirt
The second skirt came pre-cut (thank god! And it fit her) on the bias. I modified another iteration of the pattern I used for the Christmas skirt, adding a yoke. It’s (probably) a wool mix, and very loosely woven.
No, that’s not fringe at the bottom, that’s fun fur! The bottom is modeled after a balloon skirt because the thought of hemming fun fur made me break out in a cold sweat.
I think it adds a flirty touch to the skirt.
And my mom modeling (she and my friend are the same size):
It looks smashing on my friend paired with black tights, black boots, and a light-weight button-down black blouse!
Some things I learned on this project: fun fur and zippers do not mix! I had to cut back the fun fur around the zipper and added in wool panels. Serge your fun fur and then immediately clean up the bits that shed. My cat was tracking it everywhere. Grade your seams! Seriously! Four layers of fabric makes for an unhappy sewing machine. And zippers without the right foot are still odious.
Oh, and a gratuitous picture of my cat ‘helping’ with the Winter Skirt. She ‘helped’ with the Christmas Skirt too, I ended up holding her against my chest with one hand and machine sewing the underskirt hem with the other. Trickier than it sounds ;P
x-posted to my journal