Finished Projects

Over the last few days, I've been working on completing some projects that were hanging around.

Colette Patterns 1005

Fabric & Notions:

• white stretch linen
  
• white polyester lining
  
• fusible interfacing
• 12 dark blue marbled 1" buttons
  

I finally sat down and remeasured the way-off button spacing for the Beignet skirt. Let this be a lesson in always measuring twice! I last worked on this skirt in June. By the time I was ready to hand-sew the twelfth button, the bottom hem was an inch off. The whole front was crooked, looked terrible, and prompted the removal of all but three buttons. Needless to say, I was not very motivated to start over again. So, this skirt hung in my closet for weeks!

Determined to wear this white skirt before the end of summer, I put all other sewing aside and took my time with marking the front. I placed pins in the buttonholes where the buttons should be and adjusted the spacing after each button was sewn. Instead of sewing vertically from top to bottom, I sewed a few buttons at the top and then moved to buttons near the bottom to ensure that the hem stayed relatively level. While the hem is slightly off, it isn't nearly as bad as before. I can live with it. The top is Simplicity 2614. I blogged about it here.

In the picture, it looks like the skirt falls below my knees. It doesn't. It stops right at the knee which is just where I like it.

New Look 6897 (out of print and on sale until 22 Aug on Simplicity.com)

Fabric & Notions:

• 100% cotton home dec fabric from Field's Fabrics in Kzoo
  
• 7" invisible zipper
• 1.5" wide petersham cut to waist measurement plus a little more for folding under

I *heart* this pattern. For the second version, I sewed view B without the flounce. Instead, I inserted pseudo-self made piping along the front princess seams. Since I wanted to use this honeycomb print, I knew that the princess seam would interrupt the print's flow. So I exaggerated the break using the piping.

I say it's 'pseudo-self made' because I technically made it from other piping material. JoAnn's was out of the butter yellow piping I wanted. They had some awful green colour in clearance for $0.25. I harvested the cord from the green piping and used some butter yellow bias tape I had in the stash to create the piping I wanted. This task did not go without its challenges. In all, it worked pretty well.

I used an invisible zipper in the side seam and faced the waist with petersham.

BWOF 09-2009-137

Fabric & Notions:

• 50/50 polyester-wool blend that's just not worth the time
  
• 7" invisible zipper
• 1.5" wide petersham cut to waist measurement plus a little more for folding under
• fusible interfacing for the zipper edges
  

In addition to finishing the skirt, this is my first completed BWOF magazine pattern. The instructions weren't too bad, although this skirt is really easy to construct. I cut a straight 46 and added 1/2-inch seam allowances to all edges except the lower back (flounce) edge. On those edges, I used 3/8-inch seam allowances since the curve was so dramatic. I didn't add any hem allowance because I suspected the skirt was long enough.

I made my standard full seat alteration of 1.25 inches and lopped off 2 inches from the length. The skirt as drafted comes to my mid calf and that's not a flattering length on me. As I mentioned before, I suspected the skirt was plenty long. I didn't realize just how long until after I inserted the zipper. I unpicked the zipper and lopped off 2 inches from the back pieces and did the same from the front. I liked the width of the flounce and chose to not shorten it.

See the puckers?! *$&#@% I interfaced the zipper area and pressed the shit out of those darts and CB seam. Nothin. The fabric just has too much polyester in it. I am annoyed and can't stand it. I will try to press one more time and if it doesn't work, this is going in the give-away box.

The fabric was just a poor choice for this skirt. It doesn't have enough drape to not make the folds on the flounce look so stiff. I'll likely make this again and when I do, I'll select something with no polyester and a lot more drape.

The front isn't as bad, though there are puckers at the hem. Stupid fabric. The skirt is unlined and finished with petersham at the waist.

That's it for now. I'm working on finishing up a few other PIPs (projects in progress) and adjusting my trouser draft to crank out some pants for fall.

Until then, be well!

L