Serviceable things

Nothing revolutionary about this skirt.  It’s just a plain old a-line knit skirt.  The outer fabric I got basically for free at Denver Fabrics at the $2/lb table.  It’s a super high quality ponte with awesome drape, but about 20″ of width was missing, so they had to sell it in their remnants.  I had originally thought about making a jacket out of it, but without that extra 20″ there’s not too many jackets you can make even with the close to 2 yards that I had.  No matter–the color is just a little too cool for my coloring, so a skirt would allow me to use it and keep it away from my face.  But it was just a little too limp to use without a lining.

Enter a really lovely piece of some kind of poly/rayon/spandex I got in Santa Fe.  It has a soft sweatery sort of feel to it but I was kind of on the fence about the color.  

Though my coloring is warm, I can wear blue-greys because of my eyes, but this one is probably a little too dark, cool, and muted for my coloring…so my thinking here, you can see was very similar ponte.  All of these thoughts about color are pretty new for me after really thinking clearly about it after Steph’s and Patty’s posts (read: locking myself in the sewing room and dividing my stash into colors that look awesome on me, ones that are okay, ones that are passable perhaps if on my lower half, and ones that I should never ever ever touch–it’s pretty eye-opening what you come up with).  Who knew I’ve been wearing the wrong makeup like for-ev-er?  Originally I wanted the skirt to be reversible, not unlike the reversible skirt that Mikhaela made for her pregnancy.

I used a knit rib band + elastic on the top of the skirt instead of the shirring that Mikhaela opted for–essential since I was using two fairly heavy knits.  I really disliked the waistband from my first version.  It’s just a straight piece, which isn’t bad in theory, but dang it all, I still have a waist, so I need a little shaping at the side seams.  Burdastyle 6-2010-129 has a really great waistband that really mimics the shape of your weirdo pregnant body well when rendered in rib knit.  I’ve used the same pattern piece on the last 2 pair of shorts that I’ve made, so I knew it would work.  Those side seams in the waistband sit much better on my body–the straight one from the pattern likes to scoot around since the skirt hangs more on your bump than your hips like most skirts.  And let’s face it, pregnancy is uncomfortable enough without having to yank your clothes around all the time.

The sad thing was that the blue knit was too stretchy and swingy in comparison to the ponte, so after I basted them together and sewed on the rib knit band, the blue dipped unevenly and strangely in places underneath the taupe knit.  So reversible was out–no matter, my $16/yd knit became a posh lining with a little trimming and a quick rolled hem on the serger.  Normally this would cause me extreme guilt, but in reality, I really like the feel of this knit, and I’m not super crazy about the color, and @$2/lb, the outer fabric was nearly free.

So though it’s not terribly interesting in form, it is swingy, very versatile, and so so comfortable.  It’s the first in my mini-wardrobe.  I figured I’d get it out of the way first since it was exciting me the least.  I also have a jacket on the table and have finished a rather fun knit dress that Noah calls the “marshmallow dress” which is not nearly as insulting it sounds, but more on that tomorrow.

My full review of the skirt is here.

Do giraffes have more fun?

I’m not an animal print girl.  Mostly I think it’s that there’s a whole lotta gross poly that gets unfortunately printed with animal prints, so the effect is kind of cheap, but also the colorways for most cheetah and tiger prints are not terribly appealing to me.  They almost always involve black (I’m sure I’m allergic to black), and if there’s other colors at play, they seem juvenile.

But consistently, I feel like I come across two animals that are more free-spirited.  Zebra prints and giraffe prints almost always involve great color combos.

Mint and grey zebra?–of course!  Or maybe some of these prints from fabric.com:

This green giraffe print was a serious contender for drapes in our dining room before Mood ran out of it and I discovered I could buy it elsewhere for like 1/3 the price (in the end I settled on something with the same colors but a more geometric print).

Is it that being gentler vegetarian types, fabric designers are more inspired to make their prints just a little less edgy?  Or maybe giraffes and zebras simply have more fun?

At any rate, when I saw this navy and white ITY giraffe print a couple of weeks ago at Denver Fabrics, it leaped into my cart, having introduced itself first as a lively, swishy skirt.  As I look at the photo of it though now, I have to think that it’s a little more geometric than a lot of giraffe prints, but I still think it looks kind of giraffey even if it’s a little squarer…Robot giraffe.

The pattern is Ottobre 2-2009-11, a simple knit trumpet skirt with an elastic waist.  I figured it’s perfect for my pregnancy.  I gave myself wide SAs because I love this print enough to deconstruct the waistband and take things in to give it another life after I get down to my regular weight again.  This’ll be a fantastic wardrobe basic for me through the fall, and I’m looking forward to combining it with other things in my closet.  I think there’s little that it won’t work with.

It’s 10 gores, so it takes a bit of time to cut out, but it’s one of those brainless projects that comes together in no time.  If I hadn’t been fitting a little, the construction time is about 25 minutes.

It does however take a chunk of time to hem this skirt.  All those gores make for a lot of fussiness in pressing the curves.  Otto leaves you a 3/4″ hem allowance, but I’d say, cut off a little, use some Steam-a-Seam and call it good.  Pressing up 3/4″ is nearly impossible with the curves.  I used 1/4″ S-A-S and pressed twice which was annoyingly boring and time consuming, but effective.  1/2″ would save you a little time, but I’m not sure if pressing up 1/2″ would work.

Since I was using ITY, I opted for Steam-A-Seam in the hem to stabilize it and keep it in place while I was hemming.  I love this finish for ITY because it keeps the hem crisp, but because ITY is poly anyhow, that crispness doesn’t feel weird like it can in natural fabrics.  It also helps the hem hang really nicely.  Have I endorsed Steam-A-Seam enough here?

What’s your opinion on animal prints?  Do they speak to the depths of your soul?  Are there some that make you shudder and others that make you dance?

My full review of the skirt is here.

MMM 3, 4 including experiments with bleach!

Yesterday I took a long series of pictures in an attempt to montage some of the combinations possible from my Wardrobe Basics outfits in addition to MMM, day 3 picture.  They were all cute, but every last one of them was blurry.  I was sad.  I guess the road to understanding my camera is occasionally going to smack me in the head.  I think I will attempt the montage tomorrow or Sunday when DH can deal with the camera.

So, I’ll attempt this again.

Day 3:

Cabi Gather tee 2.0 in zebra print cotton

double knit pants (waistband grossness covered easily by the top)

It was laundry day yesterday, and these pants are so comfortable for feeling polished but still being totally comfortable.  So comfortable that I walked the kids to the park in them.  I will be revisiting this style come fall if for no other reason than redemption for the waistband of doom.

Day 4:

Cabi Gather tee version 1.0 in white rayon jersey

Another Ottobre 5-2007-9 in altered twill

So I bought this twill in March thinking I’d use it to make a pair of much needed shorts.  It was listed as coral, so I bought it with these J. Crew shorts in mind.

Well, when I got this twill, it was not the pretty peachy gentle coral I was going for–it was more like radioactive hallucinogenic orange.  But it is nice fabric, so I decided to make it an experiment.

I read this cool article from Threads about dyeing with bleach, and I gave it a go.  I mixed a 1:1 solution of water and bleach in a little squeeze bottle and went to town randomly all over the fabric.  I washed and dried it and I then overdyed it in the same manner with weak solutions of Rit Pearl Grey and Rit Petal Pink.  I let those sit overnight and then washed them.  In all of this, the hand of the fabric changed a little–it lost a lot of drape and became kind of stiff almost like a heavier denim.

I realized that it no longer had the right drape to make shorts from.  I made a pair of gauchos from a similar weight twill last summer and I think I wore them precisely twice for the same reason–they could walk themselves down the street they were so stiff.  But an a-line skirt?  Perfect use for this fabric.  And the “print” is not as busy as my teal and white skirt, so the details of this pattern could really shine through.

I updated my review of this skirt here.

Almost teal skirt and a pattern test

I’ve had this printed sateen in my stash for a good long time.  It was in a little flat fold at Denver Fabrics and I passed it by a couple of times thinking I’d regret it if I didn’t pick it up.  It just screamed at me (hello it’s a teal-ish [not quite as dark] print in a natural fiber) that it wanted to be a skirt.  Does fabric talk to you like that?

Fast forward a couple of years, and I picked up Ottobre 5-2007-9 in one of my daydreaming sessions looking through my magazine stash.  It’s a basic A-line skirt with some fun patch pockets in front, denim style pockets in back, a hip yoke, and belt loops.  I always appreciate Ottobre for their good drafting and excellent basics.  Sometimes I get bogged down trying to add too many details.  It’s refreshing to do something simple once in a while

I cut a straight 34, but it is definitely big.  I could have and probably should have taken the side seams in a little bit.  I’m okay with it–it just sits a little lower on my hips than normal, but that’s fine by me.  It’s so cool to wear which is a blessed relief when we’ve had a couple of days already in the 80s.

The top is my trial for Maria’s kimono sleeve tee that that I think she will be offering on her website as a download soon.  I was lucky enough to get to pretest it.  It came together quickly (50 minutes which included fitting the side seams!), and I love the effortless style of it.  Also, it’s very cool.  My 3/4 length sleeved tops are not going to get as much use I fear if this heat keeps up.  As I am not particularly crazy about sleeveless tops, this sleeve is a great alternative.  Ladylike, comfortable, fitted enough, yet relaxed.  And it takes hardly any fabric at all.  I used this remnant of cotton/poly/spandex that I pulled from the $2/lb. table at Denver Fabrics that had this weird bias chunk ruthlessly hacked off of it.  I always love heathered grey jersey, so I pick it up when I find it.  I had planned to use it for the kids, not really evaluating the spandex amount (a rather girly fiber I think).  I was thrilled that I had enough to make this top.

My full review of the skirt is here.

Also, my kids are hilarious:

This boy loves his dirt.

I look down from cooking dinner yesterday to find #1 having wearing this getup.  I laughed hard and long.  Is waxed paper as effective as foil in stopping alien mind control I wonder?

Striped piped skirt

For all the headache that were my last pants, this was a fun skirt.  It is Burdastyle 5-2010-130.  It’s actually the illustrated course pattern in that particular issue.  There’s nothing difficult about how it’s put together, and I didn’t use the instructions, but they’re there, which is reassuring if you’re a beginner or haven’t sewn with Burda before.  The big advantage of the illustrated course pattern is that it’s shaded in pink on the pattern sheet, which makes it much easier to navigate the subway map that are the tracing sheets.

I wish I had made this more of a straight skirt than the pencil that it is.  I like straight skirts, but pencils are a little too movement restrictive to me, which is not terribly helpful at this stage in my life.  That being said, this one is tremendously comfortable (maybe it’s the stretch cotton), and I moved around it fine (though probably more lady-like than normal) whilst running after the kids.

I added some bias piping on the pockets.  The pockets are wonderful by themselves, but the piping really makes them stand out.  Plus, it gave me a reason to use my piping foot, and I love that thing.

I also really like the denim details.  I’ve never done a fly on a skirt, but I like it, and after all the pants I’ve made recently, I’ve become fast at making them, and I kind of like them.  And they give you a chance to use vintage cotton for fly shields because that’s more fun than matching fly shields.

And you can never have enough belt loops.  They give you reasons to pull out pretty vintage silk scarves to use as belts.  To keep in the denim realm, I used a tack button instead of a normal button.  Tack buttons let you whack them into place instead of hand sewing.  Hammers+buttons-hand sewing= good things.

The welt pockets aren’t perfect, but they’re not hideously ugly either.  One is better than the other.  I’m glad I chose to make the welts on the bias.  Playing with stripes is endlessly entertaining.

The only thing I’m really not crazy about are the pleats.  In a perfect world, they’re these cute little divots that hang off the bottom of the pocket.  Look how sweet they look in the line drawing.  

In the real world, they poof out quite strangely.  At first I was put off by them and was pretty disappointed with this skirt, so I set it aside for a couple of days.  Then I wore it about on one of our recent warmer days and decided that they don’t look all that weird, and this skirt is crazy comfortable.  I guess I like it poofy.

So readers, have you come back to a project that you thought you weren’t crazy about later, only to realize that you not only changed your mind but that you really love it?

My full review is here.

A buttony sort of skirt

After my jeans, I’m pretty in love with buttons.  I’ve made my peace with my buttonholer and the two of us are getting along so smashingly that buttons are popping up on a lot more things than they used to.

Enter my camel skirt for the Wardrobe Basics Sew Along.  I knew immediately that I wanted to do something in wool (remember I have no wool skirt in my closet after the laundry ate this one), and with CF buttons.  I love Colette Pattern’s Beignet skirt, but it’s high-waisted which is a bad, bad look and a very uncomfortable style on my short waist.  It occurred to me that I could just add a button placket on a skirt with a CF seam.  Up popped Burda 2-2007-105.

vs.

It is a pencil skirt with a CF two way separating zipper.  It also has adorable little slot pockets in the yoke seam.  The instructions for the zipper were a little convoluted, so I was glad that I was doing buttons down the front this round.  I think if I sat down with them that they would work, but they are far from obvious, which sadly is often the case with Burda instructions…but at least they do work.

Also the instructions for the slot pockets were missing any talk about the second half of the pocket cut from your self fabric.  I serged the top of the self side of the pocket and folded it over and topstitched and then serged that piece with the lining, keeping the bottom edges of the pocket even. This meant that when I sewed the pocket into the yoke seam, I had to flip the finished edge of the self side over the seam allowance on the yoke just in the pocket area.  I was surprised that this did not create bulk and did not make the pocket flip out or do weird things.   In future, I think a better solution is to sew the pocket lining to the skirt front, and the self side of the pocket to the skirt yoke and join them after you sew the yoke seam, but I will test that theory.

I picked up a 1 yd flat fold (so rare to find just one yard) of this fabric at Denver Fabrics for $10.  $10/yd is kind of pricey for me, but it was the perfect color, had lovely flow, and was a great weight for a skirt.

I kind of got literal with putting buttons ALL the way down the skirt and put one directly in the hem area.  By the time I realized it, I had already cut the buttonhole.  Oops.  It looks a little dorky, I’m not going to lie.  I will just unbutton that bottom button and pretend it’s not there.  I will mention that I marked all the lines for the buttons with the Frixion pens by Pentel.  Have you tried them?  I heard about them via Amity, but then one of the ladies in my fitting group let me try hers at our last meeting.  The ink erases with rubbing…there’s little erasers on the ends of the pens, but an iron literally zaps out the ink.  To boot, the pens have a very fine line and there’s lots of colors.  Why can’t actual fabric markers be this awesome?

There’s limited button color choices in camel, so I opted for small 5/8″ cover buttons instead.  I didn’t realize that this would be the path of pain and character growth, but I will not soon be using such small cover buttons again unless my fabric is super lightweight.  This is not the thickest wool, but it was not easy to poke the fabric into the teeth without it bunching up.  I used the end of a small paintbrush to help the process, but I still had to trim out some excess to get the backs to snap into place simply because there’s so little room in such a small button for fabric excess to hang out.

As for fitting this skirt, I’m relatively happy with how it turned out.  I’ve never successfully completed a pencil skirt.  They’ve always pulled horribly across the hips or not fit in the waist, etc. etc. etc.  Since I’ve slimmed down, I’ve had a lot fewer fitting issues with my hips, so I cut a straight 34 and forged ahead.  I did have to borrow from my seam allowance in the hip area–sewing 1/4″ seams through my hips and back to my usual 3/8″ below that, but that did the trick.  The fit is not perfect, but it’s the closest I’ve ever come with a pencil skirt.  I’ll keep working with it as I would indeed like to attempt the CF zipper.  I wouldn’t mind doing another skirt with CF buttons, but I’ll probably opt for a non-pencil skirt since pencils are not very practical in my stage of life.

ETA:  My full review is here.

A skirt for all seasons and Simplicity 2594

After my wool skirt was shrunk beyond hope by my well-meaning laundry-doing husband, the need for a cooler weather skirt arose.  I passed by this pattern at first because it looked rather plain in the modeled photo.  As I looked back at the line drawing, I found it much more appealing.

I like the hip yoke, but the topstitching and the 4 vents at the bottom of all of the seams really suckered me in.

They add movement to what would otherwise be a simple skirt as well as giving some walking comfort for fall boot-wearers like myself.  As it is lined, it adds another layer against the elements and makes it an easy piece (vs. a slip) for my 30 seconds to dress that I often get in the mornings.

The fabric itself is pretty interesting.  It’s an teal overdyed denim that I bought from Denver Fabrics.  In one of my visits, I had seen it on the bolts, but I passed by it because I hadn’t started the pants journey at the time and because it looked rather ominous wrapped in plastic with big signs on it saying how it would stain.  For $8/yd I didn’t want to deal with that hassle.  On another occasion I came across it in the flat folds.  At $3.97/yd I was willing to take the risk.  As it turned out, it didn’t bleed dye on anything.  It does have some poly in it, so it frays perhaps a bit more than denim should, but as a lined skirt, I could care less about that.  Because the teal is rather subtle and I already own a denim skirt, I decided to use the wrong side of the fabric as the right side.  The darker side of the fabric feels nicer against your skin anyhow, and it fits in the color scheme of my wardrobe well.

This pattern was written for leather, but it worked well in denim as I imagine it would in other heavier fabrics.  I think a fine corduroy would be rather cozy.

The top is the much-loved Simplicity 2594.  For all of the PR love, there’s only 1 other review of the straight-grain version with the split neck.  I need to tack down the facing along CF because as it is it tends to pull the neckline off-kilter a little.  I certainly see why it’s been a favorite pattern.  It’s fast and easy, there’s no fitting really required (though I wish the smallest size were a tidge smaller in the neck because again I have silly undergarment issues), and the shoulder pleats are a nice touch.  Ooh, you can use fancy silky fabrics too.  This was my first time using serger-assisted French seams (you make the first seam with the serger so that when you sew the second pass, the sewing machine has something to grip)–wow, what a great option for floppy fussy fabrics.  This will have to be a layering top for me as it is heat deflecting rayon challis.  I’d be a little popsicle wearing this without a topper right now, but it’ll be great come spring and summer.

My skirt review is here, and

the top review is here.

No orphan garments here

I’ve been busy.  Or rather my serger has been extremely busy.  Having wanted to sew a bunch of maternity clothes for myself, and having the fabric to do so, Patternreview’s Endless Combinations contest came at a perfect time.  I love the idea behind this contest: each garment has to combine with at least one of the others in your collection.  What a smart thing, eh?  I feel like when you first start sewing garments you end up with all these little orphan projects (i.e. lots of skirts for instance with no tops that match etc.) for no other reason than you haven’t acquired enough skillage to make a wardrobe out of anything.  It felt good to be able to do just that.  And beyond that, I’m pretty excited to have some garments for my last trimester here that feel a great deal more like me and a lot less like souless, life-sucking maternity clothes.

I made a small collection of knit garments.  Can I say that knits are more the pregnant lady’s friend beyond the obvious reason that they s-t-r-e-t-c-h?  I mean really, knit garments sew up like lightning which is so swell when you’re tired and sore and just need a mental pick-me-up.  A week’s worth of cutting out at naptimes and sewing after dinner and maybe hemming at breakfast produced 5 seperate garments.  That’s a ton for me.  And while that will never be my normal pace for sewing, I felt a lot of motivation to get this project done before Christmas.  Here’s the rundown:

Simplicity 2560–a little knit cardigan:  I made this in cotton spandex and pleated instead of gathered the lower sections because I’m more of a pleat kind of girl.  I like this pattern, but I’ll make it in another view because the gappy thing at CF is kind of weird (it’s how the pattern works, not just a fit issue–but it looks like it should be a fit issue which is awkward).

Simplicity 4704–OOP general maternity pattern with a totally brainless skirt:  This skirt is so comfortable.  I made it in a double knit for the actual skirt part and the belly band out of a 4 way stretch nylon.  It goes with everything.  If I had a stash of heavier knits handy, I’d be tempted to sew them all up into this.  It took 1 yd for the skirt, 1/2 for the belly band and it’s literally 5 seams (serged no less) and a hem. 

Jalie Scarf Collar top: I’ve made this before and loved it, so I knew that making it into a maternity top was a hop, skip, and a jump away.  I love the construction of this top.  It’s just plum clever.  See how clean the collar is on the inside?  It halfway makes me want to wear it inside-out because it turned out so nicely.

Burdastyle 06-2010-132–a simple empire seamed dress: or it would have been a dress if I could have figured out that this rayon was way to flimsy to hold up as a dress.  Oops.  Well, I needed a nightgown anyhow.  Hey–you could nurse in this no problem.  Score!  I’ll make this again in a much more appropriate ITY. 

Jalie Empire Crossover Top:  This one took a little more effort.  There’s a lot of basting going on in this top, and it took a couple of times playing with the height of the empire seam to get to this version.  I STILL think I could lower the seam 1/2″, but it is better.  I guess if I outgrow this top, I’ll have to do that.

As for combinations, here you go:

If you’re a PR member and haven’t voted yet, consider voting for me when the voting starts!

In the nick of time

So I’ve finally finished my June projects (minus the dress which just wasn’t right for me).  Though It’s July now, I’ll give myself a break because I didn’t start my plan until June 7th.  All along my real deadline has been today because we’re going to be out of town with family this weekend.

I nixed the pencil skirt I had planned because just looking at my stretch cotton induced sweating.  Last week it occurred to me that a simple gored skirt in a lightweight fabric would be a nice alternative.  I was irritated that I had nothing in my stash, but I “suffered” and drove down to Denver Fabrics and found this totally amazing tencel/cotton.  It was in the shirtings, but it has more than enough weight and drape to be perfect for a sweat-reducing skirt.  It’s wrinkle resistant, but the fabric breathes.  To boot–it looks like denim.  Methinks it’s the best of all possible worlds.

8 gored skirt

What I learned:

I need to draft more: I followed the gored skirt tutorial from Weekend Designer for this skirt.  It’s just too simple, and fits absurdly well.  Why do I bother with patterns when I can draft a skirt that fits so much better?  The waist is high on this one–partly because I wanted a skirt that for once actually fit my real waist, (it does!) but also because I’m using this skirt as the bottom of a dress I’m modifying.  As a skirt, I can’t say I’m crazy about the high-waisted feel, but it’ll be perfect for the dress.

Take that invisible zipper!:  I won’t say I’m terrified of zipper installation anymore.  I’ve avoided them for a long time mostly because I haven’t needed them.  My last invisible zipper was woeful though.  And the one before that.  But they were in the side seams of dresses which I think are tricky anyhow, and ultimately I’ll never do because my sides are way too curvy to make the zippers lie flat.  I’m a CB zipper kind of gal, which is kind of liberating to realize.  But back to THIS invisible zip.  I used this tutorial and it worked out smashingly.  I’m so thrilled to have an actually invisible invisible zipper with no lumpy parts in it.

Making things hang well:  I’m a hem nut if you haven’t noticed, and it seems like I’m always trying something new with hems.  On the linen skirt, I interfaced the entire hem, which was fine, but perhaps a bit too much.  I ran a strip of fusible half the width of the hem right next to my thread basting line that I use to mark the fold lines on my hems.  It’s less poofy than the fully interfaced hem, but still adds enough extra to help this lighter weight fabric hang better at the hem.  I also ran a line of seam binding along the top raw edge of the skirt to help stabilize the waistline.  Twill tape would have been too bulky for this fabric.  The binding kept things nice and contained while sewing in the facing, and the facing actually sits better for it being there. 

Noah had to get in on the photo taking action:

Swishy

It’s been slow going around here.  Noah had a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago that caught up to me and my Mom on Monday with a vengeance.  I’m sticking by the notion that it was food poisoning, but does it really matter how you got sick when you’re lying about in agony?  Probably not.  Recovery has been slow, and Noah and I have had lots of quality couch time playing this week.  I’m still not 100% and right now I’m in a hazy sort of jetlag feel, so I apologize if this post is more scattered than normal (and my hair is a little bit more crazy Claire than I realized too).

I’m really grateful that I managed to finish 2 more garments that had been sitting on my table during my sicky time.  Here’s the curved godet skirt.  This was really a pretty fast sew, though it had to be hung since the godets are on the bias.  Without the hanging, there was probably 2 hours of construction involved.

BWOF 2-2007-113

What I learned:

I’m not near as wide as I think I am:  I’m hippy, but I also have a small waist, and when I lose weight, I lose it first from my waist.  The problem that I run into with skirts is that the waist is so big when I choose patterns based on my full hip that the finished skirt will fall clean off me were it not for those hips.  If they don’t fall off me completely, the skirts settle at a point below my waist that is not the most flattering.  I need to start being realistic about where I want my skirts to fall and be strict about that measurement.  This skirt’s waist is better than my previous skirts, but it’s still sits lower than I’d like it to. 

I cut a straight 38 which fit my hips beautifully.  I’m glad to figure out that this is my base size in Burda.  Once I figure out the waist problem, I’ll be doing better on sizing skirts.

Stay tape!:  The very inspirational Katie of Kadiddlehopper posted not to long ago about stabilizing the waistline of a linen skirt she had made with twill tape.  I took it to heart and did that for this skirt.  This may be why it doesn’t fall off me near as much as most skirts end up doing, plus it made for the nice clean look which I’m always looking for in linen.  Gertie wrote a quick primer on stay tapes last week, so now I’m thinking about them a lot especially with skirts.

Bias love:  I love the movement in bias skirts.  It makes all of the fiddly hanging and marking that comes with hemming bias worth it.  I’ll throw out there that to keep the godets (which are on the bias) from stretching as I sewed them in, I put them next to the feed dogs and kept the straight grain pieces on top since they are more stable.  I used a fusible bias tape to interface the hem too which made things very easy to deal with. 

I do love this skirt, and I wouldn’t mind at some point making another one with some changes to the waist.  For now, I’m grateful to have a cool skirt for summer.

If you’re interested, my complete review of the particulars of this pattern is here.