Remember this photo from last week? I told you to keep an eye out for a reappearance. So now, you may be wondering how a new fabric purchase could be involved in a refashion. Simple, dear Watson… I bought these fabrics in February this year and have since made one item that I subsequently recreated as another item because I loathed the first one so much.
I really really really wanted to make a Gathered Rectangle Skirt and use an Elastic Waistband, just like all those cool skirts you have been seeing in the stores. I was so inspired after spending more than a few hours perusing Pinterest… The skirts looked so simple and easy to make… But when I was finished sewing, I realized that my attempt had gone horribly horribly wrong.
Why didn’t anyone tell me that topstitching elastic to cotton was so much stress???? I ended up with the wonkiest looking zig zag stitch ever! So I was really depressed about it and wore it out the same evening as planned, even though I was not really pleased with how it looked (it’s amazing how much a banded bottom shirt can hide!)
When I came back home though, I had already decided that I wasn’t going to let one little failure deter me from using this beautiful fabric and making something gorgeous. Thus the very sexy tailored skirt was born! Please forgive the very crappy photos… they were taken with my cell phone…
I was so excited when I finished making this “new” skirt! And I had lots of fun doing it too. In the first semester of my Ladies’ Tailoring class at SJPP, we drafted and made skirts, so I had my own skirt pattern available to use, which made what I wanted to do so much easier. After unpicking that atrocious elastic waistband, I laid out the pattern pieces on the fabric and got to work. As I wanted to be adventurous and try adding front hip pockets and an inverted box pleat back vent, I had to make some changes to the basic tailored skirt pattern from class. Just look at those pockets and that back vent!
I am so glad that I didn’t throw the skirt in the EPIC FAIL bag as I was planning! Sadly, I don’t have any pics of me actually wearing this skirt, even though I’ve worn it twice now since its creation. I will try to add one before the year is over though!
Happy Friday!!!!! It’s the weekend!!! Have fun and be safe!!
P.S. Does anyone know how to deal with the stretching that occurs with cotton garments? This skirt is true to size when I first put it on, but 2 hours later? It starts to swing. Any suggestions?
abbey dabbles 