A Double Take

I didnt want to post the work in progress pictures which is all I have right now.  Sooooo I thought I would share some modern sewing I did recently.  Two Vogue 1247 - the Rachel Comey skirt that a gazillion bloggers have already made.

I am beyond late to this party!

That dress form is a lot
smaller than I am

The first is a brown double plaid.  There was a blue cloud above my head from all the swearing that occurred while trying to match up the plaids.  All seams were hand basted first.

But didnt I do a good job!  I think it is a tad short but my colleague thinks it is great length for me.


The next is a black and grey teeny tiny houndstooth of indeterminate fabric that wrinkles like crazy.  I pressed it prior to taking the picture but by the time the skirt went on the dress form it was wrinkled again.

I added just 2 inches to the length and I think this is a better length on me.  Though truth be told I do keep pulling it down while wearing it.

Stupid wrinkles

Both are lined.  You will notice that each has a different width waistband.  Hahahaha ... not on purpose but because I always "wing" the waistband.  That is I cut out a waistband with whatever fabric is left over which will determine the width.  Yeah, that is my idea of winging it!

Summer is Here!!

It's the longest day of the year, the start of summer, the summer solstice.

My favorite time of year.  I love summer and everything that goes with it: the heat, going to the beach, summer BBQs, watching fireworks and many more things.  What special things do you like about summer?

One thing I can’t do, and it makes me sad, is eat ice cream.  I get terrible migraines. 

For the first day of summer, I always go out and get a milkshake.  I have to endure the migraine but I get my desire of ice cream and ice cream related items out of my system.

This is my fabric for my new summer skirt! 

It is lightweight and flows so it is perfect for a summer skirt.  Will probably need to line it.  I have had it for years tucked into the stash.  It is a polyester chiffon which ravels like the dickens so serging is a must!

Alas, I just don’t see this fabric working with any of my vintage patterns, so I think I am going a more modern route with it.  It should be a quick make, I just need to cut, serge and sew.  Sounds simple enough…..

Resolved

At least I hope all of my computer issues are finally resolved.  Ever since the power went out in a wind storm on December 1^st, I have been having significant computer problems.  Basically, the computer has been not working more than it has been working.  That makes blogging tough since I cant download my photos onto my work computer.

A flippy little number made with
a modern pattern....ooohhhh bad
of me, I know

However, it now seems that the problem has been fixed ….something with the hard drive.  Let’s hope so.

Without further ado….yes I have been sewing.

I whipped up this skirt while manning a costume repair station at a local Doctor Who convention.

I also started this dress a typical 1930s cape sleeve dress.  But, I dont like the cape bit, I think it is too young looking for me.

Using this fabric:

Perfect for a 1930's dress

Silk chiffon, a favorite of mine but so hard to sew….

But more to come on this little dress.

A Perfect Opportunity

Since, I need a pencil skirt for the fantasy outfit, I might as well muslin one that can possibly be a wearable muslin.  So, I just spent the past couple of hours wading through my vast pattern collection to find what I was looking for.  Meanwhile, I popped some khaki fabric into the washing machine.

I found the pattern I wanted and found an entire box of patterns I forgot I owned!  I really do not need to buy any patterns for a very long long while.  I just wish patterns would stop tempting me!

The chosen pattern is Advance 9689.  I did dither quite a bit over the pencil skirt patterns I own.  Pencil skirts, on the whole, scare the bejebbers out of me!  My athletic thighs are not meant to be paired with pencil skirts. This pattern looks to be from the early 60's based on the model's hat.




I hope to be able to throw this one together except for the zipper rather quickly.  I will not have access to my 25 cent zipper store over the weekend and I can no longer pay more than 25 cents for a skirt zipper!

1940’s Skirt

This is the pattern I am using

This little skirt with the same front and back piece is proving to be challenging.  I thought I needed to add a little bit around the hips based on the hip measurement on the envelope.  Good idea?  Nope because I forgot to re-measure myself.  All the running I have been doing has whittled an inch or so off of my hips.  Yay!  But I had already added to the skirt and cut the fabric.  Oops!

Second problem is the back piece is the same as the front piece and that does not seem to be working for me.  I would like to blame the rather stiff fabric.  But nope, can’t do that!  When I try on the skirt, the front looks great and the back looks like a big old bubble. Because I assume I did something wrong to one piece, I flip the skirt around, since the front is the back, and but it is the same thing – front looks nice and there is just too much fabric in the back.

Nice blue.  If only I can make this work
for me!

I do not know what you do in these situations, but I just throw the project aside and think about starting something new.  Some thoughts have occurred to try and fix the situation.  Both pieces have gathers on either hip so it does not seem as if a dart could be added.  What I may do instead, since I added about 2 inches to the width of the skirt is cut the back up the middle and put in a seam with the hopes of manipulating the seam to get a better fit.

Do you think this will work?  I have only a few days to finish my April skirt.

A Skirt

More quick and easy because I am starting to panic.  My muslin of the bodice was horribly off.  So I put that aside to do a quick and easy skirt. 

Same method as the petticoat with the plans to put on a waistband.

It looks short on the dress form but the skirt nicely skims the ground when I am wearing it ‘cause I am really short!  I love that the skirt only has one seam in it.  I suppose I should have cartridge pleated the top.  I only pleated it and will have to do a bit of stack pleating in the back of the skirt.

I need to finish the
petticoat.

You can see that I have still not added the final ruffle to the petticoat.  Ouch…that hoop is noticeable on the bottom.

The only plus is that it looks like it may rain on Saturday because I am not sure that I will be able to finish a bodice that fits in time.

I think all this rushing is making me not like the outfit one bit.  If it does rain this weekend, I probably will not need this outfit until fall/winter of this year.  Plenty of time to get it done then!