New Look 6708: The Eight-Year Skirt Project is Finally Finished

If you only come here for the quilting, be forewarned -- today's post is not for you.  Today's post will be all about how I spent $78 and eight years of my life making a skirt that I will probably only wear a handful of times, using a pattern (New Look 6708, now out of print) that I have no intention of ever making again.  Today I will relate the saga/review the pattern of what my mom and I have been calling "That Dumb Skirt!"  

New Look 6708 Skirt Finish

New Look 6708 (OOP) View B

I made my skirt using New Look pattern 6708, which is out of print from the manufacturer but you can still find uncut used copies for sale.  At the time I'm writing this, you can get a copy of this pattern on Etsy here and I saw a few copies available on eBay as well (This post contains affiliate links).  This A-line, lined Misses skirt with side zipper did not actually take 8 years to sew -- it just got abandoned for long intervals while I was sidetracked by other projects.  If you want to read the post from June of 2015 when I first started this skirt, you can find that here.

I made View B, the above-knee version of the skirt, and I used "Pretty Potent Echinacea" cotton voile fabric from Anna Maria Horner with solid navy cotton voile for the lining.  Although I was unable to find an online source for my skirt fabric in voile today, Anna Maria Horner has reissued this print in new colorways for Free Spirit Fabrics recently, calling it simply "Echinacea," and you can find those on Etsy here.  (Just be aware that the current versions are printed on quilting weight cotton fabric that has more body and less drape than the voile I used for my skirt).  I prewashed both my fashion fabric and my lining fabric prior to cutting out my skirt.

I used Pellon Shape Flex Woven Cotton Interfacing SF101 in White for my waistband and I'm happy with that interfacing choice for the cotton voile, but wish I'd chosen the same SF101 interfacing in Black in hindsight.  Because my fashion fabric is semi-sheer, the waist yoke with the white interfacing behind it looks like a slightly different color than the body of the skirt that has navy lining fabric behind it:

White Interfacing Makes Waist Yoke Look Lighter/Brighter than Navy-Lined Body of Skirt

Ah, well.  It's subtle and no one else is going to notice this or care.  I've only tucked my shirt in to show the top of the skirt for these project review photos; normally the waistband or waist yoke or whatever you want to call it won't even be visible.

A Sauntering Squirrel Swooshed By -- In a Kaffe Fassett Tiered Maxi Skirt

Hello and Happy Memorial Day Weekend, Everyone!  My birthday was May 27th, so I took advantage of Memorial Day sales on top of a birthday coupon from my not-quite-local quilt shop, Sew Much Fun, to buy yards and yards of Kaffe Fassett Collective cotton fabric prints that I plan to transform into long, swooshy skirts with my serger:

Birthday Flowers From My Sister, Kaffe Fassett Fabrics for my Skirts

I'm planning to make one skirt with the purple Japanese Crysanthemum-Antique (yes, this post contains affiliate links) alternated with Spot Plum (the two fabrics on the left), and another skirt from the Japanese Crysanthemum-Scarlet alternated with Zig Zag-Cool.   I'm linking to independent Etsy shops who carry these fabrics for your convenience, but I recommend pairing fabric prints in person at your local quilt shop if at all possible.  I spent a LONG time dragging fabric bolts around the shop (and made a big mess -- sorry!) before I was satisfied with my selections. 

Inspiration:  La DoubleJ Tiered Maxi Skirt, $590 from Nieman Marcus

The Tutorials

This new "squirrel project" first invaded my consciousness when I saw Sharon Madsen's How to Sew a Multi-Tiered Maxi Skirt tutorial on Bernina's We All Sew blog last week.

Sharon Madsen's Skirt for Bernina's We All Sew Tutorial

I love wearing easy, comfortable styles like this for summer, and I am seeing tiered maxi skirts cropping up in all of the high end retail shops this year.  This is definitely an on-trend look for Summer 2022, and it would be a great beginner sewing project if any of you have daughters, granddaughters or other girls in your life who are interested in learning to sew.  

Of Skirts, Blouses, and Forgotten DVDs

Well, looky what I found in my studio the other day, all brand-new, still wrapped in cellophane and nearly forgotten in a corner! 

Threads Magazine Blouse DVD

It appears that, amongst my many purchases at last year's Sewing and Quilt Expo in Atlanta, I bought a Threads DVD featuring Sandra Miller's blouse construction techniques.  In my defense, I crashed on my bike a week after returning from the Expo, smashing my collar bone into little pieces and snapping all the way through the bone at the tip of my left thumb.  Humpty Dumpty didn't get back to her sewing room for a few months, and by then I didn't remember what all I'd bought and planned to work on.

Sounds like EXACTLY the supplemental information I need to walk me through my first blouse project, don't you think?  Anyway, before I spend any money on any online blouse sewing classes, I'm going to go through this DVD and watch the whole thing.  And take notes.  And maybe practice stuff.  We'll see.

Harrison Blouse Pattern, available from Cashmerette here

Another blouse resource that I discovered this week comes from Jenny of Cashmerette, an indie pattern company that specializes in patterns that fit and flatter curves.  Jenny's new Harrison Blouse pattern, shown above, fits exactly the way I'd hoped my White House Black Market blouse would fit after alterations (didn't work out that way, though).  I really like how the double princess seams on the Harrison blouse originate from the armscye instead of being straight lines from the shoulder seams; I think that will be more flattering on me.  The Harrison Blouse is available either as a PDF download or as a paper pattern, and they even have an online "Plus Size and Curvy Shirtmaking" workshop that walks you through their pattern step by step.  The only glitch is that the smallest size the Harrison Blouse comes in is a 12 and that might still be too big on me in the upper chest, shoulders, and upper back.  But it's nice to know I have some options.

Meanwhile, my skirt looked like this a few days ago after I'd cut everything out and then walked away from the project (again):

Paralyzing Mess Prevents Progress!

You are looking at not just the skirt pieces, but stacks and stacks of fat quarters for those 6" Farmer's Wife blocks, and a pile of prewashed and folded fabric and templates for Anders' quilt.  Too much started, not enough finished -- and I hardly had any time in the sewing room all week, because I've been working on a project design for a client.  Work before play.

But I'm trying to maintain that elusive balance in my life by observing a work-free weekend rule, or at least a No Working On Sundays rule, so I did manage to sneak into the sewing room for a bit on Sunday afternoon.  Now, my skirt looks like this:

One Side Seam Accomplished

You are looking at the right side seam of my skirt, and you are supposed to be admiring the precision of my pattern matching.  So, what I accomplished so far was to stay stitch the top of the skirt front and back and the lining pieces.  Then I sewed that right side seam in both the skirt fabric and the lining fabric, and serged off the raw edges of the seam allowances.  The skirt and lining were matched up, wrong sides together, and I basted the two layers together at the top of the skirt inside the seam allowance.  This took more time than you might imagine due to the slippery, shifty voile and my determination to match that pattern as precisely as possible at the seam.  There was obsessive pinning and basting involved, and I am pleased.  My skirt is an A-line shape, so the rows of flowers converge diagonally at the seam line, but I am satisfied that the rows of flowers will appear to be straight on the finished skirt.  Now let's hope I can match up the print so nicely on the other side, when I install my invisible zipper!

I still have to make and attach the yoke thingy to the waist of the skirt before the zipper goes in, and I'm still kind of foggy on just HOW I'm going to put that zipper in, because I am adamant that it's going to be an invisible zipper (in defiance of the dorky pattern instructions) and I am determined that the zipper tape is going to be hidden between the skirt fabric and the lining, just like it would be in a nice store bought skirt.  I found a couple of video tutorials online for inserting invisible zippers into skirts, a few that even showed how to do it with lining, but I'm going to have to adapt and combine techniques from different videos to make it work for my particular skirt style.  ALL of the video tutorials say to put the zipper in FIRST, before sewing any side seams, and I have to say, it does look like that would be easier.  Too late now! 

I don't know whether I'll get a chance to do anymore sewing before the weekend, but may be able to conduct additional zipper insertion research at odd moments in the carpool line.  Wish me luck!

Starting the Skirt (Finally)

Skirt Cut Out, Ready to Sew

My mom came over a few days ago to help me overcome the inertia, procrastination, and confusion that has prevented me from making any progress on the OOP(Out of Print) New Look #6708 skirt that I started at the beginning of LAST summer.  Ahem. 

When I abandoned set this project aside back in July of 2015, I had purchased the fabric, lining and notions, and prewashed the fashion fabric and lining (both cotton voiles).  I had sewn up a muslin, which was good because I discovered that the size corresponding to my measurements on the back of the pattern envelope would be WAY too big (the muslin fell off and hit the floor; that's how big it was), and even more importantly, I realized that the fitted yoke at the top of this A-line skirt wasn't shaped at all like me through the tummy area.  I redrafted those pattern pieces until I got a fit I was happy with (basically size 14 at the top of the yoke transitioning to size 12 at the bottom edge of the yoke, but if you just grade from one size to the other you get a weird inverted V shape at the sides instead of a straight seam around your middle that you can attach the skirt to) and made sure that my new yoke pieces would fit at the seams that attach it to the skirt front and back.  And then life, and other projects, intervened...

So here we are, ready to cut out the skirt.  First consideration: I wasn't thinking about this when I picked out my fabric, but this bold, large scale floral print fabric is kind of like a plaid or stripe in that the pattern needs to be perfectly centered on the front and back of the skirt, and perfectly STRAIGHT on the front and back of the skirt, or I am not going to wear this skirt when it is finished.  And the voile is shifty stuff, folks -- the same qualities that make it soft and flowy for a skirt make it scoot all over on the cutting table, especially prone to stretching askew on the bias.  So I made full pattern pieces for the skirt front and back as well as for the yoke front and back, and cut out the skirt the way I would cut out drapery swags from a print fabric.  I centered a row of flowers on the center fold line of the pattern, and carefully shifted the fabric behind the pattern until the same pattern motifs were positioned in the same positions at the edges of the pattern all the way along the hem line and the right and left side seams. 

Skirt Front Cut Out with Pattern Centered

After I cut out the front from a single fabric layer, I used this cut-out fabric piece as my pattern to cut out the skirt back by laying that piece onto my fabric and adjusting the position of until the pattern was perfectly aligned and the top piece "disappeared."  This took a lot longer than just using the cutting layout in the pattern instructions, but it was the only way I could get my pattern centered and straight with this squirmy, wiggly voile.  So the pattern placement is identical on the front and back of the skirt.

Once all the pieces had been cut from the fashion fabric, cutting out the pieces from my solid navy blue cotton voile was a snap.  Since I had already had made a full pattern piece for the skirt front and back, I just cut the lining from a double layer of fabric.

Next dilemma: This pattern specifically suggests lightweight fabrics, sheers, and voiles like mine in the fabric suggestions.  However, the instructions tell you to put in a standard centered zipper through both layers with an ugly rectangle of stitching around the zipper opening that would look terrible from the right side of the finished garment.  Why, oh why, would anyone want to do that?!

Yucky Centered Zipper in Pattern Instructions

Can you imagine how awful that would look, stitched through two layers of semisheer cotton voile?  YUCK!

Inside View, with Exposed Zipper Tape

And if I followed the pattern instructions for the zipper, I would have exposed zipper tape scratching against my skin even though this is a lined garment.  This isn't how store-bought clothes are made, and this is a major pet peeve against the pattern companies.  Why do they give these cheesy instructions for making things that look dorky and homemade instead of writing instructions for professional looking garments that their customers can be proud of?  They are undermining their own customer base by deliberately making it difficult for beginners to achieve good results when following a pattern.  It's very frustrating to feel like only someone with years of experience, who knows which directions to follow and which ones to disregard, can sew a successful garment from a pattern.

So I looked through the RTW (ready-to-wear) skirts in my closet for something similar to what I'm trying to make.  Every single one of them has an invisible zipper at the side seam, and every one of them except one has got the invisible zipper sewn so that the zipper tape is completely enclosed between the fashion fabric and the lining for a clean, professional finish on the inside of the garment. 

Invisible Side Seam Zipper in RTW Skirt, Enclosed Between Lining and Fashion Fabric

That's what I'm going to attempt to do for my skirt.  My sewing technique books recommend leaving the rest of the seam open until after you have inserted an invisible zipper, so my mom wrote that in the pattern instructions for me, crossing out where they told me to sew the side seam below the notch and then noting later in the pattern instructions, after the zipper insertion, when it's time to close the side seam.

I'm a little nervous about the zipper for several reasons.  I've got my Threads magazine article from back issue #179 (June/July 2015) with tips for zipper insertion in tricky sheer fabrics like mine (I'll be stabilizing the seam allowances in the zipper area with strips of fusible interfacing and sewing with a layer of Sulky Solvy water-soluble stabilizer between the voile and the feed dogs of my machine to prevent puckering).  And I've got the fantastic Bernina invisible zipper foot that I've used successfully to sew invisible zippers in home dec pillows.  I'm just not sure whether changing the zipper application will affect anything at that top edge of the skirt, and I'm not 100% clear on how I am going to sew the lining to the zipper tape after I've sewn the zipper to the fashion fabric of the skirt, in order to get that clean finish of my RTW skirts.  But I think I just need to get started, because some of the instructions and illustrations in the pattern don't make sense to me.  With my caroling outfit, I found that some of those instructions make more sense when you have a partially sewn garment in front of you that you can match up to the illustration. 

On My Worktable

Anyway, everything is cut out now except I'm not sure whether I'll use the Pellon lightweight nonwoven interfacing that I already cut out (I think it's P44) or a lightweight woven fusible interfacing (Pellon Shape-Flex SF101) that is less stiff and drapes more like my voile fashion fabric.  I've got my machines threaded up and ready to go with new size 70 Microtex needles and cotton 50/3 Gutterman thread, so my next step is to test machine settings on fabric scraps in case I need to adjust tension, presser foot pressure or (on the serger) differential feed settings in order to get a nice stitch.  The RTW skirts in my closet have 3-thread overlocked seams, but I'll be sewing my seams on my sewing machine first and then using a narrow 2-thread overlock to finish the seam allowances.  That way if I mess something up along the way, I have a chance to rip out my machine stitches and fix it before the serger has trimmed away my seam allowances.  If I was more confident in my garment sewing and fitting abilities, I'd save time by just doing it all in one pass on the serger.  In fact, I have some other fabric stashed away that might work for this pattern.  If the voile skirt turns out to be a wearable success, I may make this up again in the stashed fabric, and I'll be able to serge the seams on the second skirt once I feel comfortable with how the whole thing goes together.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a TNT ("Tried and True") skirt pattern that I could just whip up in different fabrics with variations?  That's the goal, folks!

My kids go back to school a week from today, but historically my design business picks up steam in the Fall, so Back to School doesn't necessarily mean more free time for my sewing projects.  But it's all about finding that balance, right?  At least, that's what I keep telling myself.  Have a great week, everyone!

Taking It Easy: Farmer's Wife Block 39, "Friendship" and That Skirt Again

Well, that Prudence block was a bruiser, so I decided to take it easy yesterday.  I flipped through my Farmer's Wife book looking for a block that would come together quickly and painlessly, and came up with Block 39, "Friendship."

Farmer's Wife Block 39, Friendship

The most difficult part was picking out the fabrics.  So now my collection of 6" sampler blocks looks like this:

6" Sampler Blocks as of 8/8/16

But I'm not making another block today.  It's Monday and I do have some work to get done and then, instead of starting a new quilt block, I'm resolving to clean up enough work space to finally cut out that skirt.  You know, the one I barely started in June of 2015.  Ugh.  Procrastination, anyone?!!

The Fabric: Pretty Potent Echinachea in Preppy, Cotton Voile by Anna Maria Horner for Westminster Fabrics

The Pattern: New Look 6708 (OOP)

After spending about $78 on the pattern, fabric, lining, interfacing, thread, and notions, and fretting about the waistband yoke thingy that was weirdly shaped (or else I'M weirdly shaped!), I ran out of steam AFTER redrafting the waistband to fit me in muslin, but BEFORE cutting out the skirt from the real fabric.  I set the project aside almost exactly a year ago, the week before Anders' 12th birthday (he turns 13 this Saturday) and then got caught up with back-to-school, and then it was Fall and this was a Summer skirt...

It is SO NICE to be able to come back to this blog and use the search feature and key word tags to refresh my memory about where I was with the skirt project and what my game plan was.  Before I had a blog I would have jotted down notes on scrap paper or Post-It notes, and they would be long gone by the time I came back to the project; I'd have to start all over from square one.

Ah, well -- I had planned for this to be a short and sweet post this morning.  Whatever.  I'm linking up with:

·       Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times www.patchworktimes.com

·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/

·       Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/

Happy Monday, everyone!

Victorian Caroling Costume: The Mind-Boggling, Massive, Monstrous, Magnificent Skirt

Finished Christmas Caroling Dress

The first thing I did after I got home from the store with my fabric and my costume pattern (Simplicity 1818) was to look for reviews and suggestions online from others who had already made this dress.  One common theme in those reviews was that people had trouble with the skirt and/or thought that it was way too full, with way too much fabric.  The skirt is made up of four panel widths and is approximately 170" in circumference at the waist and about 186" in circumference at the bottom.  That's a LOT of fabric!

Well, having done my research on mid-Victorian women's fashions, I knew that it wasn't an excessive amount of fabric; it was period-correct.  There are other patterns out there for "Victorian costumes" with way less fullness in the skirt, and those would definitely be easier to make, but less authentic.  Of course, my skirt was further complicated by the silk organza underlining that I felt my silk shantung fashion fabric needed in order to hold up to repeated wearings, resist wrinkling, and support the weight of the trims.  So the first thing we did after cutting out the skirt panels was to hand baste silk organza to the wrong side of each panel, with perpendicular lines of basting through the center of each piece to align the grain and then basting around the perimeter of each piece through the seamline.  Then, because my silk shantung frayed so badly and so immediately, as soon as I seamed the panel widths together I pressed the seams open and then serged both sides of the seam allowances to put an end to the ravelling.  (How do I love my serger?  Oh, let me count the ways...)

Inside of Skirt, Organza Underlining, Serged Seam Allowances, Skirt Facing Attached

There are several odd things about this skirt pattern, and one of them is that there is no hem allowance to press up at the bottom.  Instead, you create the hem with a deep facing out of lining fabric, as shown in the above photo.  The only reason for this that I can think of is that, although the side and back panels of the skirt are rectangular pieces of fabric, the center front panel is curved at the bottom and the facing is able to match that curve.  Unfortunately, this means that you cannot adjust the finished length of the skirt at the end of construction by taking a deeper or shallower hem. 

For my dress, I put on the hoop skirt and shoes that I would be wearing with the costume, held up the center front skirt pattern piece with the fold line right at the waistband of my hoop skirt, and looked in a full-length mirror to check the length of the skirt without adjustments, knowing that there was a 5/8" seam allowance at the bottom of the pattern piece.  I decided to add 2 1/2" to all of the skirt pieces before cutting them out (I'm 5'7" tall and my shoes have about a 2-3" heel).

My Hoop Skirt, Found on Amazon here

Ah yes, the hoop skirt -- Yes, you do need one with this pattern.  Not only do you need a hoop skirt, but you need a flouffy net ball gown petticoat as well, between the hoops and the dress itself. 

My Petticoat, Found on Amazon here

That's how these enormously full skirts were supported back in the day, and without those crucial undergarments to lift the skirt and spread it out in a graceful bell shape, this dress will be way too long and will look like a mess.  If you don't want to wear hoops and petticoats, this pattern is not for you.  My hoop skirt was very inexpensive, and it has given me a bit of trouble.  I thought it would be fine at first, but the finished skirt seemed kind of empty with just the hoop skirt, the rings of the hoops showed through as ridges on the front of the skirt, and the drawstring waist has a very skinny string like a shoelace that cut into my tummy uncomfortably.  My mom replaced the drawstring with a wide, firm elastic and again, I thought I was good.  But when my petticoat arrived (which makes my dress look SO MUCH BETTER), the weight of the petticoat was making the elastic waist of my hoop skirt slide down on my hips.  The bottom of the hoop skirt was hanging out beneath the hem of my dress and I tripped on it several times.  So I cut off the bottom hoop and serged the raw edge of the hoop skirt about an inch and a half below the 5th hoop.  So far, this is working much better.  My petticoat was a lot more expensive than the hoop skirt, but it is perfect right out of the box without any of these annoying trouble-shooting alterations.  It has a firm waistband that closes with Velcro, lining on the outside and inside of the voluminous ruffled netting layers that give it its fullness, and is a much more appropriate length to support a full, floor length dress without sticking out at the bottom. 

Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite, found here on Amazon

So, back to the skirt construction.  My pattern instructions told me to attach the facing to the bottom of the skirt, press it up, press under a 1/4" hem on the raw edge of the facing, and then slipstitch that to the skirt.  I rummaged around in my studio and came up with another handy notion to simplify that process, a 1/4" wide double-stick lightweight fusible web Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite that I've used in the past for securing narrow hems in slippery knit fabrics prior to cover stitching them on my serger.  That way I was able to secure my skirt facing to the organza layer on the inside of my skirt panels without pins and then slip stitch the facing only to the organza, with no stitching coming through to the right side of the skirt and no chance of pins catching and snagging the silk fabric during the hand stitching process.  The manufacturer says that this product "bonds permanently when ironed," but I wasn't taking any chances.  I'm not comfortable with nothing but glue holding my hem together, but if you feel like you have a strong enough bond with your fabric, you may be able to skip the hand stitching altogether with this product.

In Process of Turning Up Facing and Fusing to Silk Organza

At this point I have something that looks like a huge, 4-width drapery panel that was accidentally sewn into a tube.  I've got the side seams done and serged, the hem facing attached, but I have raw edges that are fraying wildly along the top of my skirt, so I serged along the top edge next.  I felt SO much better with all of the raw edges under control -- there were times when I was afraid the whole dress would disintegrate before I could finish making it!

Top Edge Of Skirt Folded Down, Stitching On the Fold Line

The next step in my directions was to turn the raw edges at the top of the skirt down along a fold line.  Since I had two slippery layers to my skirt rather than just one, I decided to stitch along that fold line first and I'm so glad that I did.  It prevented any shifting of the organza layer during the pleating and gathering phase that followed.  From this point on, the skirt was a lot like making an elaborate window treatment.  The fold line became my "board line," and the process of marking and folding in the thick, stacked pleats at the sides of the skirt was very much like pleating up an Empire Swag drapery valance (except that the stacked pleats on the dress skirt are all perpendicular to the top edge of the skirt, whereas the stacked pleats on a drapery swag would be angled). 

But before you start pinning in the folded and stacked pleats, you have to hand stitch gathering threads for your cartridge pleats at the back of the skirt.  Unlike the stitches you put in for regular gathering and easing, the stitches for the cartridge pleats must be perfectly aligned and identically spaced in order for the pleats to draw up properly like an accordion when the threads are pulled. 


Tiger Tape, available here at Amazon

The pattern instructions tell you to mark your stitches every 3/8" all along the back portion of the skirt, and mentions that Tiger Tape (originally intended to help hand quilters maintain evenly spaced quilting stitches) is helpful with this.  In my opinion, Tiger Tape is the ONLY sane way to do this.  I used the Tiger Tape that has 12 lines to the inch, and took a stitch every five lines along the top and bottom edges of the 1/4" wide tape.  This was much faster and more accurate than the alternative, using a ruler to mark a gazillion little dots every 3/8". 

Using Tiger Tape to Guide Hand Stitching

Gathering Threads for Cartridge Pleats, Ready to Go

Also, I should mention that the pattern called for "buttonhole twist" for these stitching lines.  I couldn't find anything called "buttonhole twist" on the thread wall at my local JoAnn's, but I knew this thread needed to be STRONG. 

Gutermann Polyester Upholstery Thread, available here

I used Gutermann Polyester Upholstery Thread in Dark Green for my gathering threads, and I also used this thread to hand stitch the entire skirt to the waistband.  It's ridiculously strong, as well as smooth and static-free so it glides through the thick fabric layers and resists kinking up and tangling.  Also, do yourself a favor and reach for a strong, sharp, NEW needle.  This is not a job for that needle that you've had in your pin cushion for the last 15 years!  I needed my very snug-fitting sterling silver Roxanne Thimble that I use for hand quilting for this task (which I realized after puncturing my finger with the EYE of my needle due to the tremendous force required to penetrate so many fabric layers) and a rubber needle grabber in order to sew through all of the layers of stacked pleats by hand.

Whipstitching Stacked Pleats to the Waistband, Catching All Fabric Layers

No, You Cannot Do This By Machine!

This skirt gets sewn to the waistband COMPLETELY BY HAND because the fabric thickness is way too thick for the sewing machine; plus, there is no seam allowance at the top to add bulk to the waistline.  You just whipstitch the top folded edge of the skirt to the bottom edge of the finished waistband, and you need to catch all the layers all the way through every pleat, all the way around the skirt, so it's crucial that you keep that top folded edge perfectly aligned as you're pinning in the pleats.   I used straight pins to secure each fold, but used Wonder Clips to secure the stacked pleats because they don't distort the edges of the fabric the way that pins do when your layers are this thick.  When you turn back the waistband after stitching it, the skirt merely abuts the waistband.  They are touching each other with no overlap whatsoever.  Very cool.  So, first I sewed the pleated sections of the skirt to the waistband at either side of the skirt opening (the skirt opening is to the left of center and, although some reviewers of this pattern mentioned that they could not figure out where the center front and center back were, both are clearly marked on the pattern piece for the waistband).  Then I pulled up the strings to gather my cartridge pleats in the back section of the skirt, fitting it to the remaining loose portion of the waistband.

Front Edge of Cartridge Pleats Pinned to Lower Edge of Finished Waistband

Folded Stacked Pleats Already Stitched to Waistband, Cartridge Pleats Ready to Stitch

Here's the cool thing about those cartridge pleats.  Looking at the photo above, you see that only the fold at the FRONT of each little pleat will get stitched to the waistband.  The backs of the pleats are pointing inward.  But when you put this skirt on over the hoop skirt and petticoat, those pleats rotate outward away from the waistband.  It allows you to attach a tremendous amount of fabric to a small waistband without any bulk at the waistline, which is crucial for the Victorian ideal of a "wasp waist" silhouette.  (In the photo above, you can also see that those stacked, folded pleats were basted about an inch below the fold line prior to whipstitching the top edge to the waistband.  Those basting stitches are subsequently removed).  Once the skirt has been sewn to the waistband, all that's left to do is sew on the hook and eye closures and tack the skirt to the inside of the bodice at key points (to each of the boned seam allowances). 

Finished Dress, Front View

The bodice fits me much better than it does my dress form, by the way -- the dress form needs to be padded out to match my size and shape but I just haven't had a chance to do it yet.  I don't have any good pictures of me wearing the dress that really show the skirt like these do.



Finished Dress, Side and Back View

In addition to the pleated ruffle trim, we also hand stitched a heavy trim to the bottom edge of the skirt as well as to the lapels.  I really wanted the lapel trim to wrap around the back of the neckline and extend down the bodice front, like this:

Abandoned Plan for Additional Trim

But I decided against it because it's difficult enough for me to button and unbutton the little dress buttons with my broken thumb and all that stiff boning in the way.  I was worried that I'd spend hours hand stitching the trim and then be unable to button the bodice and have to take all the trim off again.  Also, I was running out of time!

Even Sitting Is a Challenge In This Skirt!

Now that the dress is finished, I'd like to extend a big THANK YOU to my mom for helping me make it happen.  Without her help making sense of the directions, cutting layouts, endless hours of hand basting silk organza and stitching skirt trim while I wrestled with buttonholes, this costume would definitely never have gotten finished in time for my first caroling gig.  I couldn't have done it without her help.  Thanks, Mom!

My Amazingly Talented and Profoundly Patient Mom

I'm linking up with WIPs on Wednesdays at Esther's Blog and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.  And now, I'm off to the mall to get my cracked iPhone screen replaced and clean out the LEGO store.  Wish me luck!

A NEW Quilt Top On My Design Wall, and a Smidgeon of Skirt Progress

New Quilt Top Finished: "Math Is Beautiful"

Since I am currently in the middle of three different quilts AND a skirt project, I decided to ignore all of them and start something new this weekend.  Remember the doodle I found in Lars's math notebook at the end of last school year?  Ta-da!  This is the fastest quilt top I have ever made!  After putzing around for weeks trying to get the fit just right on my skirt pattern, and months and months of working on my hand applique project, I just felt like I needed something quick and easy thrown into my mix.  This is baby quilt sized, 45" x 45" right now, and just needs borders.  I'll probably stow it away in a closet until the next time I need to come up with a baby shower gift.  I got the top pieced on my 1935 Singer Featherweight in just two afternoons, leaving the Bernina 750 set up in skirt-making mode.  

Piecing on my 1935 Singer Featherweight

Not that changing the presser foot, needle and thread on the B 750 is that much of a big deal to do -- but psychologically it would imperil my chances of seeing the skirt project through to the end.  And I DO want to finish the skirt.  Which technically, I still haven't started yet since I'm still playing with muslin and pattern tissue and haven't touched the fashion fabric...  But I am getting closer to starting my skirt!

Earlier last week I was trying to make a muslin of my silly skirt (New Look #6708, OOP) to make sure I was sewing the right size, and I discovered that the contoured waistband didn't fit me very well in ANY of the pattern sizes.  I tried cutting the waistband so that it was a size 14 at the top of the band and a size 12 at the bottom of the band, and as you can see in the pictures that got me a good fit with no ripples, but created weirdness at the side seams:

Hybrid Size 14/12 Waistband Muslin

My mom suggested that I should leave it alone because I probably won't tuck a shirt into the skirt anyway.  NO WAY!  It's not even about leaving it alone, because this is just a muslin.  It would be deliberately cutting into $78 worth of fashion fabric and spending hours of my precious time to make something that I knew would look so wonky and misshapen that I would never in a million years have paid $5 for it on clearance.  I am not going to waste my time sewing a skirt that I know I would be embarrassed to wear.

So I used my French curve ruler to redraw the curves at the top and bottom edges of the waistband pattern pieces, making sure to keep the waistband a consistent width all the way around with exactly the same curve at the top edge as at the bottom edge, and working with seam lines first and then adding the 5/8" seam allowances back in:

Redrafting with French Curve Ruler

I just barely had enough time to sew up a muslin of my new waistband before we left for the theatre, which is why I'm trying it on over top of my dress:

New and Improved Waistband Muslin, Front View

No More Wonky Side Seam!

Yay!  That's a pretty custom fit, wouldn't you say?  Pardon the poor quality of the photos -- my husband was yelling at me to hurry up and get in the car.  Anyway, I am happy with the fit of the new waistband, and my next step will be to make sure that I didn't inadvertently alter the length of the seam line where the waistband attaches to the body of the skirt.  Theoretically, since the bottom edge of my new waistband is size 12, the size 12 skirt should be a perfect fit -- but I might as well check to be sure before cutting into the good fabric.  I just didn't feel like doing it this weekend. 

Maybe tomorrow!  I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times, Sew Darn Crafty at Sew Many Ways,Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, and Show and Tell Tuesday at I Have to Say. 

Skirt Shenanigans: Threads to the Rescue

July and September Threads Magazines

Well, now, isn't THIS timely!  I recently renewed my Threads magazine subscription, and I just received both the July and September issues in my mailbox.  One issue has a feature explaining how to clip the seam allowances prior to seaming opposing curves together.  DUH!  How long did I stare at those muslin skirt pieces, wondering why the fabric edges of the contoured waistband/yoke and the curved top of the skirt were not meeting up properly?! 

Shoulda Woulda Clipped That Curve

So now I know what to do differently with THAT when I make up the skirt in my good fabric.  Why didn't the pattern instructions tell me to clip the curves?  Moreover, why did the pattern instructions include this VERY misleading illustration that makes it seam as though the two pieces SHOULD match up without clipping?!

Misleading Pattern Illustration

The other issue had a useful article on zipper insertion that will help with my skirt as well.  I've put lots of zippers in throw pillows made of home dec weight fabrics, but the Threads article has tips for pucker-free zippers in very lightweight fabrics like my cotton voile.  So far, I'm getting my money's worth from that subscription.

As far as sizing goes...  The size 16 muslin was gigantic, so I made a size 12 waistband to try.  It fits, but too snugly for my taste, so I'm going to split the difference and try a size 14 waistband before making a final decision.  Hopefully I'll get back to the skirt today, but I need to finish up some laundry and housekeeping first. 

In quilting news, I did get my fabric prewashed, pressed, and cut out for my Math Is Beautiful quilt, based on Lars's math notebook doodle:

New Quilt Cut Out and Ready to Sew!

This should be the fastest, easiest quilt top I've ever put together, just gigantic squares and half square triangles.  I think I'm going to set one of my Featherweights up in the dining room for this one so I can work on it at the same time as my skirt.  So I have my skirt going on in the studio, my needleturn applique in the family room, and now a little quickie quilt on the side in the dining room.  I'll get back to my pineapple log cabin blocks once I've finished my skirt.

Otto Guards the Pineapple Log Cabin Blocks

Meanwhile, Mister Puppy-Pants is keeping me company and guarding the design wall.  His sister Lulu is temporarily banned from the studio for leaping at the television when Anders was watching Tom and Jerry cartoons.

I'm linking up with Show and Tell Tuesday at I Have to Say, Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts, WIPs on Wednesdays at Esther's Quilt Blog, and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.  Have a great day, everyone!