Well, it is reassuring to know that I actually can whip out a quick simple sewing project when I want. I will continue to work on a little sewing every day, although none got done yesterday, I was just too tired after the total mental exhaustion that follows Bard Music. I love this festival, but I am sure I need a vacation after it.
The red cotton skirt turned out really well and I wore it Saturday. Here I am toward the end of the day, about 6 PM when this photo was taken, and I have just run home for a brief swim and to change for dinner and the evening concerts:
There are a couple of important things to note here, at least to my way of thinking. The skirt is not particularly crumpled or baggy despite the fact that it is cotton and I did not underline it -- that is just dumb luck as I did not expect this much from the fabric. I suppose I have a natural predilection to discount the quality of anything I get from JoAnn.
I am sure the lack of crumpling or lines around the crotch is also due to the idea that I am finally getting somewhere with my attempts to get a straight or pencil skirt to fit me well and be wearable when I sit, without creeping up to hooker-like height on my thighs. I seem to have finally managed a near perfect pencil skirt that looks good and is comfortable.
This skirt is pretty snug through the waist and upper hip, where not much ease or movement is needed, at least for me, and tapers down at the knees. In between, around the hip joint and upper thighs it is much roomier without looking too baggy. Since I have been constantly refining the same pattern, Vogue 7333, an OOP Sandra Betzina Pattern, I think I am finally getting it right.
In the end I believe it doesn't really matter which skirt pattern is used, as long as one gets one just right, so that it always works with a little tweaking. If you have read my past posts on skirts you know that I have recently been frustrated with wearing a-line and long floaty skirts and wanted a straight skirt that really fit without wearing out at the stress points along the upper thigh and that didn't creep up to my crotch when I sat.
Since I have scoliosis and my back was fused, I don't have the normal lower lordotic curve that most people have which allows for a more gentle curving of the body when sitting. I sit like a board, or a right-angle square, more like a capital "L". My constant bug-a-boo has been getting a skirt to fit so it looks good and still has room. This skirt is a fairly stiff fabric and it looks good. Imagine the possibilities.
Otherwise, since this was really a quick project there are no particularly interesting technique details to report. I never have cut the seam allowances off this pattern and I did not mark the stitching lines on the fabric as I usually do (quick remember). I used dressmaker's carbon to mark any relevant marks, including the darts, which may have been a mistake.
I usually construct my skirt first, sewing in the zipper and all the seams before sewing the actual darts. This allows me to pull the skirt on and pin fit the darts so that they fit me in the actual fabric being used. Although I have the darts marked on the pattern, there tend to be minor differences in each version of the skirt depending on the body and hand of each fabric. Usually I mark the beginning of the darts with tailor's tacks, just to have a reference point, and work from there.
As I said, I am getting better at this skirt so most of the darts were spot-on, except for the right front quadrant, where the final location had little to do with the tentative placement of the marking lines on the wrong side of the fabric:
As you can see, one is pretty close and the other is not. This difference may have played a big roll in why this skirt fit so much better, and bagged less than past versions of the skirt.
I also did the curved dart in the back differently. That dart remains a learning process, and I always have to thank Heather Claus at See It Sew It for teaching me to pin the darts to fit and giving me the confidence to realize that, if I needed a curved dart (kind of like a big C) then I should just go for it.
Otherwise no other special techniques. Serged seam edges. I did interface the zipper and put stay tape around the waist seam, but I did not interface the hem, although I usually would. The fabric came seamed together at the side selvages as it was really two pieces of fabric cut out and quilted together. I planned to use the joined seam edge as my hem but in the end did not like it.
The original stitching was crooked and bright orange:
When I looked at the skirt in the mirror you really couldn't tell from more than 3 feet away that it was not OK, but still it bugged me and I knew if I looked down at my lap whenever I was wearing this skirt it would annoy me no end. Luckily the handy micro-surgical scalpel is a very efficient seam ripper:
and the old stitching was rapidly removed to be replaced with something that matched a little better:
A simple petersham waistband, stitched at the waistline, turned under, and anchored by stitching-in-the-ditch at the side seams and darts completed the skirt.
Photo courtesy of style.com . The coat is by Armani and I admit I am very tempted by it as well. I love the style and it may indeed morph into something in my fall wardrobe. Truth be told, if the nice young man from Bergdorf Goodman had sent me this coat to try instead of a bunch of black suits, all beautiful but none of which interested me, he might have even gotten a sale. Luckily for my pocketbook, it did not work out that way.
Obviously this collar is less dramatic but still much the same idea. Here is a detail photo (from www.style.com ):
