Sew Distracted

Skirting the issue

Ahh, the famous headless shot...

Not that you really need to see my head anyway.  Besides I really wanted to show off my cute new shoes, purchased just because I was making this skirt.

I actually saw the shoes the day I bought the fabric for the skirt, but was too tired to buy them then.  I had to be back in NYC a week later, the shoes were still there, and I knew that it was fate that brought us together.  They actually go with quite a few things in my wardrobe.

Note the cute yellow heel, that's what really brings a smile to my face and a little skip to my step.

The skirt is probably a little loose for a pencil skirt, but I am still trying to work out the fit-when-I-am-sitting issue.  A narrower skirt looks great standing and walking, but since I bend funny due to the fused back and lack of lower lordotic curve, I need extra room to sit.  Now I personally don't mind just hiking my skirt up to my hips, especially at home when no one is around, or in the car when I am squirming around, but it is not something that is generally done in polite company.  Actually, if I sit in a short, meaning knee length or above, skirt that is at all fitted, unless it is very roomy, it hikes itself right up there anyway.   Good thing I have nice legs.

I am going to continue to mull over the purple top options a few days longer but all the wonderful comments are really helpful.  I am leaning toward greater overlap and still torn over short or long.  I may just have to make another one in different fabric.  The long version will certainly take better advantage of the water repellant treatment on the fabric.

San Francisco Skirt

Here is a skirt I made last week in San Francisco.  I was inspired by a Max Mara skirt in the May Vogue Magazine, although that skirt is really more ornate than mine and is made from a more summery tweed.

I purchased the feather trim at MJ trim in NYC and also bought the matching ribbon trim. The feathers and trim are deep brown with a deep violet/purple/fuschia color.  The color of the wool is much more fuschia/navy than it appears in this photo, giving the overall cast of the skirt a deeper, red-purple hue.

The feather trim came sewn to a tape which inserted between the bottom of the skirt and a hem facing.   The ribbon trim is machine sewn  to the skirt, anchoring he hem in place.  The skirt is lined and has a petersham ribbon faced waist with no band.

My next project was not as successful.   I was working with this silk fabric from EmmaOneSock.com.  I have never worked with a laminated fabric like this and thought it would be an interesting project.  The fabric was part of a bundle I purchased and although I think it is quite pretty there is no great emotional investment here. 

I decided to use this pattern:    which is still available from Vogue Patterns. 

Everything went together well but I was just not sure I actually liked the garment.  My friend Mary says it looked very good from the back but in front it looked like it just didn't fit, almost unfinished like it was buttoned in one place because there was not enough room although I actually had lots of extra ease in the front of the garment.  I was thinking that the silk was just too light.  I had originally thought of lining it but had not felt like adapting the pattern to that or doing the extra work.  I am not yet sure what I think, I packed it up and sent it home.  We are going to Knoxville next weekend so it will be at least anothe week before I get it out and take another look.  I think that I like the pattern and I like the fabric, but it was not a good marriage between the two.

Saturday is shopping day for the Power Sewers and Sandra's husband Dan spent the day driving 9 eager shoppers around the bay area.  We went to STone Mountain and Daughter in Berkley and Thai Silks in Los Altos and I purchased fabric at both places.  Those packages were sent home and I will share the goodies when they arrive.

We also went to Poppy in Oakland.  Poppy has great trim and great upholstery and home dec fabric and a few other unusual things.  I bought a bolt of fabric to upholster the conversation pit in my living room there a couple of years ago.  This time I was very moderate and only bought once piece of trim, shown below:

It is really just a piece of flat binding with buttons sewn down the center.  Each button is topped with a tiny bead.  I think I will use it as trim on a jacket but it also inspires me with ideas of how to use old buttons, old pieces of bias binding and many other things.

New fabric additions

Wednesday I met Mary in NYC.  The fabrics I purchased at Mood and B&J arrived yesterday.  Today my fabrics arrived from Sawyer Brook.

These are the B&J fabrics:  the blue and violet are cotton poplin that I will use for some casual summer suits.  The white with green dots is a really lovely Swiss cotton dotted Swiss voile, which I purchased primarily because of the green dots.  I love dotted swiss and I love green, how could I go wrong? On the far left the rose pink tweed will be a jacket and I have a lot of things that will go with it. 

The purple wool, 2nd from left, is my only non-summer fabric and was purchased because I wanted to make a skirt with feathers on the bottom after seeing a photo of one by Marni in the new May Vogue Magazine.   I went to  M&J Trims and purchased the feathers first as I figured that would be the hardest part for me as I get really picky about that kind of thing.  Then I looked a couple of places before finding the fabric I wanted.  My skirt will not look at all like the Marni skirt and is more fall oriented.  Still, I can't wait to make it:  Here is a picture of the fabric and the trims:

I am really eager to make this even though I might not wear it right away.  If I don't get it made this week, I will be going to San Francisco for one of Sandra Betzina's Power Sewing weeks and I will take it with me.  Who knows, I might even be able to wear it.

I started looking for the tweed at Mood, but didn't find anything I wanted for the skirt.  I bought silks this trip, mostly for linings.

The black with the paperweight design was just pretty.  The other three were purchased to go with specific fabrics and you will see them in the near future.  The peachy fabric on the far right can be seen in more detail below with the cotton from Sawyer Brook.

I am planning on taking this combination with me to work on in San Francisco.  I am stil planning on making the fairly straight DKNY jacket; It will be a very casual jacket, purposely minimally structured and I think it will be a lot of fun.