Wednesday 13 January 2010

Stash Busting Skirt

In the process of using up my stash of fabrics and refashioning projects before I will let myself buy any more material and I really want to be making a pair of velvet leggings and a high waisted light pink skirt with exposed zip, which I don't have the material for, so expect to see a lot more sewing in the weeks to come. That is if these silly things called job applications and interviews will actually let me have any free time. I shouldn't complain, I would rather like a 'proper' job. Anyway, the skirt. Here it is. It is made from stash material that I had left over from this project.

It is based on a how to on burdastyle called Nayantara’s Quick Party Skirt. The changes I made were to make it high waisted, widen the waist band (it's 7 or 8cm I think) and to ingore the advice given on the size of the skirt pieces and instead base them on the measurements of an elasticated skirt I made a made a while back, also seen here. I also omitted the in-seam pockets and hook and eye closure because I'm lazy and I wanted to finish this skirt quickly. Oh and I finished the hem by hand which took ages compared to just running it through the machine but saved the skirt from having a line of black stitching running through those pretty coloured dots.

Okay so problems encountered. I'm still trying to get my head around invisible zippers. This was my second attempt and I still haven't worked out what you are meant to do at the bottom. Last time I had a hole and this time a load of zipper was sticking out of the seam. So far been finishing them by hand. Also I again omitted to try to match up the spots on the seams or even try to have the seams on the black parts of the material which I think would have greatly improved the apperance. Must be less lazy! And then there is the fact that although both back pieces were cut to the same length both from the same selvedge edge the spots are not level at the back. You should be able to see from the last photo that on one side they are on the seam and by the other they are above it. No idea how that happened. Can only think that I didn't sew the fabric on evenly when I attached the skirt top to the waist band.

So there we have it warts and all. Despite it's imperfections I hope to get a lot of wear out of it. I didn't make the waist band too tight so it should still be comfortable after a meal and it is a little less conspicuous than the dress in the same fabric which seems to encourage stupid comments whenever I wear it.

2 comments:

Sandra said...

Very cute. Found you via burdastyle, I have just made a mini version for my little 3 year old! With invisible zips, you sew the zip in first with invisible zipper foot. The switch to regular zipper foot. Put the foot alongside the bottom of the closed zipper, make all your fabric even as possible with allowances lined up. Then sew to the bottom. You should have no hole and no puckers, a perfect invisible zip!

Catherine said...

Thank you for the advice. My old machine doesn't have an invisible zipper foot but I might look into getting one.