Can This Fabric Be Saved?

In a spin-off of Kyle's Can This Garment Be Saved? series, I am asking this very question about some fabric.  Lots of it.

When in the midst of counting my stash, I thought it was a good idea to prewash the washables.   Yeah, well, maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all.  I washed and dried the cotton shirtings, but I failed to remove some of the fabric from the dryer in time.  

Sigh.

The fabric is a rather stiff 100% cotton that I purchased from Joann's years ago.  It's like cardboard, but more consistent in weight with the fabric that I used in my first successful view of this pattern.

The photo on the left shows the side front and much steaming, pressing, and using the clapper.  I attempted to use spray starch, but the can is so old, the stuff just oozed out of the nozzle.  Besides spray starch vapors make me nauseous.  The photo on the right is the back, but without the extra steaming and pressing. 

Below is my fourth attempt at making this blouse.  The fabric is also cotton, but not nearly as stiff.  The wrinkles are still there, but they're not as visible.

I haven't worked on the first teal shirt any more; the wrinkles are too visible.  The bottom one has potential.  I'm going to assemble the back and test the first before I proceed.

I washed and dried all of my cotton shirtings.  Can they be saved?  Have I ruined the fabric by permanently setting in wrinkles?  Will washing them again remove the wrinkles?

What do you think?

L 

New Look 6053 (skirt): Complete

Sorry for the cruddy selfies.  I took these on my way to work and was in a rush.  I figured I would be too tired to pose for the camera after I came home.  I was sooooo right. 

This is the same skirt that's paired my second and frustratingly puckered version of New Look 6407.  Incidentally, I am working simultaneously on a third and fourth version of this blouse pattern and have wrinkles of another kind.  More on that in another post.

Back to the supposed-to-be pencil skirt.

Fabric/Notions:

• 1.5 yards raw silk tweed (from the stash...woot!)
• 0.75 yards silk or silk-blend something that I used for lining but probably shouldn't have (also from the stash!)
• 7" invisible zipper
• fusible interfacing
• 70/10 microtex needle
• serger and sewing machine

Fit and Alterations:  I made my standard full seat adjustment of 1.25".  I added a wedge beneath the darts and trued the center back seam at the waist.  I removed the extra width gained by truing the CB from the side seam.  Pictures and a step-by-step description of how I make this alteration can be found here.  

I like the way New Look skirts fit and I usually don't need to make any more adjustments.  

Construction & Lining:  Construction was easy since the pattern only has four pieces:  front (cut on fold), back (cut two), and front/back facings.

You read correctly: I added the facings!  I would say that there's a pig flying somewhere, but since that actually happened, I guess I have to stop using that phrase.  O_o

Usually I ditch the facings in favor of supporting the waist with petersham.  I learned this in a Kenneth D. King workshop and haven't looked back.  This time, however, I wanted to the inside of the skirt to look nice and pretty like this:

photo credit:  lladybird

How'd that work out?

Meh it's okay.  I think what I'm looking for is best suited for skirts with a waistband.  This just seems to add more bulk where it's not needed. 

Given that I've made three coats and several jackets, trying to create the lining pieces was a head-scratcher.  I had to think (probably way more than necessary) about how to get the lining and facing to be one piece without exposing the edge of the facing.  Here's what I did:

1.  I folded out the dart and traced the facing edge onto the lining piece.  

2.  I  measured up from the newly-drawn line 1 1/4" (two seam allowances).

3.  After the top piece is removed, I followed the same steps for the other skirt piece.  (I can't remember if I started with the skirt front or skirt back.)

This is the process I followed when creating the lining pieces from scratch when facings are involved.  It seemed to work well on my Indygo Junction coats, so I figured the same idea would work here.

I'm going back to the petersham method.  I'm not skilled enough to make this other way work.  And then there's this:

Bleh!  Not a nice finish and I press as I sew.  All.  The.  Time. 

Wearability Rating (3.5 out of 5):  What I used for the lining was not a good match.  The lining kept getting hung up on my tights, which made the skirt bunch up in weird ways as I walked.  It wasn't uncomfortable, but very annoying.  I think the fabric I used was probably better suited for a blouse or skirt.  If I want to continue wearing this garment, I'll definitely have to replace the lining and facings.

Conclusion:

New Look skirts are solid go-tos for me, so I'll probably make this again.  I was a little disappointed that the skirt wasn't more pencil-like in the end.  I suppose I have to peg the hem a bit to remove some of the flare.  Otherwise, the skirt fits just like my other A-line skirts.

Until next time, peace!