I never thought it would take so long for me to follow up with details on the skirt. Blame unusual heat, house guests, and a sinus infection which is usually a summertime plague, striking whenever the weather gets hot and steamy.
I got most of the hand stitching down within a day or two, discovered I had left a couple of basting threads in and removed them, and have worn the skirt a few times now. I just managed to put the hook and eye in yesterday. Although I have tried to train myself to be a more detail-oriented person I am far more naturally inclined to let minutia like hooks and eyes slide.
Pattern: Vogue 7333
Fabric: Cotton Matelassé, Valentino Atelier, at least 10 years old
Changes to the Pattern:
I've had this pattern a long time, and it has been made quite a few times as well. I chose this pattern because I wanted a pencil skirt and the last version of this fit pretty well at the time I started, hopefully needing only a few small tweaks to the pattern.
I had already changed the waistline of the pattern to fit my own unevenness. This was accomplished by trying on a muslin, getting the grainlines to hang straight, matching the hips to my actual hips and retracing the waistline to match my own waist. I had help with this project, the marking of the waistline, at the time.
I had also copied the pattern so that I had three whole pieces: one complete front, and two back pieces, each of which was subtly different.
But when I tried on the muslin I discovered that more changes were necessary. First of all, I noticed that the waistline of my skirt pattern (and the original too) was way to high on me, coming up a couple of inches above my actual waist and ending just at the bottom of my ribcage. Of course I had noticed this when I wore the previous skirts but somehow did not think about it at the time. It was not a particularly flattering look. I ended up cutting nearly 2 inches off in length at the waist, which then required that I re-grade the hips and alter the darts slightly so that the skirt would sit at my actual waist and follow the curve of my actual hips.
I then also had to peg the skirt a little bit at the hem. Although it was fine from the front, I noticed that by the time the fabric accommodated my rear, I had a huge barrel of extra fabric at the back of the skirt, which just added general dumpiness to the silhouette. I took out 1" at one back side seam and 1 1/2 at the other. Actually I cheated and took a little bit of this from the front as well, dividing it between the pieces, but not evenly. Most of the extra fabric came out of the back. Sorry, I did not manage to take a back view.
Once I made all these changes and was satisfied I transferred the pattern to oaktag, as this is a pattern I will make again and again: my first TNT.
Construction Notes:
There really is not much to report here. As I mentioned in a previous post I spent a fair amount of time worrying about matching the center back seam; but once that was done, I just relaxed and sewed.
When I cut the initial skirt pieces I was undecided as to whether I would use a facing or line the skirt to the waist and use petersham to interface the waist area. Since I sewed the back before I cut the lining, I did not sew the lining and the fashion fabric together with the zipper which is the technique I have been using the most frequently lately. Therefore I had to hand-sew the lining in at the zipper. As you can see the skirt is lined to the waist and there is petersham hidden between the fashion fabric and the lining, reinforcing the waist seam.
All in all I am very happy with this skirt and am looking forward to making many more.
When a skirt like this rides above the waist it's usually an indication that it's too small at hip level. This prevents the skirt from "dropping" to where it should be.
If there's a next-time, try releasing the side seams and pull it down until the waist is in the right place.
This may not be your problem - but it might be worth a go...
Ann
Posted by: AnnR | July 17, 2010 at 02:02 PM
OK, it looks totally FANTASTIC and I know it fits perfectly but I have a question: Do you ever feel that the tissue to muslin to altering the muslin to going back to the pattern situation is just too tedious? I totally don't have the patience. I'd prefer to make it once, figure out what's wrong and then try to adjust on the "wearable muslin" (presuming it's wearable!:-)) for next time. Not that I enjoy that option, but I'm really not feeling the muslins x3. Of course, throwing something away in disgust doesn't really do it for me either. You say you aren't patient but you are incredibly tenacious.
Posted by: K-Line | July 15, 2010 at 12:31 PM
Wow! You really made the perfect skirt. I would never had the knowhow nor the patience you had. But now, once it is ready, it must be a great feeling to wear just the perfect for you skirt. If you count the expenses; the material and an approximated hour fee of a professional, how much do you estimate this skirt of yours might cost?
Posted by: metscan | July 15, 2010 at 10:39 AM