Bookworm's Musings

Well, I finished the Sedona Skirt on Thursday.
( See Pictures )

Total Cost, including Pattern, not counting labor or cutting errors: $32.72

I think it looks pretty darn good, especially for a first project!
As you can see, I top-stitched all the seams, which was rather nerve-wracking, since mistakes would show! Because of a cutting error, the diagonal lines are facing in the opposite direction from the pattern. Also, I accidentally got the waistband elastic pocket about 1/8" too large - I'll know better next time.
The waistband is the one time where I deviated from the instructions - instead of installing the elastic by placing it under the fabric fold and sewing along the edge while stretching, I made the pocket first and then threaded the elastic through. I don't know if that effected how the waistband looks or not, since I've never done it the other way. Still, I tend to wear my shirts untucked, so it doesn't really matter.
In the future, I need to pin and sew the panels together from the bottom up, not the top down. That way, the hemline will be perfectly even without needing to stretch any of the pieces, which is what I think happened this time and why a few of the seams appear slightly shorter than the others. That sort of problem will be much easier to hide in the waistband.
For the next skirt, I'm thinking of adding about 2" of width to each panel, allowing for more elegant draping and folding. We'll see.
This pattern, however, is most definitely a keeper! It was very easy to sew and the end result is very beautiful.
The only thing to look out for is the cutting layout: the pieces are asymmetric and cannot be cut on folded fabric.

Well, the Sedona Skirt pattern arrived on Wednesday. I cut it out, and then cut the moleskin. I ran into a little trouble here. I accidentally mistook the 45" layout for something that could be cut on folded fabric (don't ask me why, my brain took a short vacation). I therefore cut my 5 yards of moleskin into table-lengths and stacked it, intending to cut all 5 copies at once. Oops. The pieces are asymmetric and must be cut with the fabric all facing up. I ended up with three pieces facing wrong side up. So, I turned the three pieces over and cut two more facing the same way. The diagonal lines will now run in the opposite direction from the pattern. Good thing I had that extra two yards, right? In the end, I was left with two extra upper skirt panels and three extra lower skirt panels. I put them away in a bag. As I amass remnants from other fabrics, I will cut pieces from them, and when I have enough I will put them together to make another skirt. Since moleskin has a lovely, satiny backside, I briefly considered simply alternating front and backside facing forward pieces, but decided not to in the end.
I just finished attaching the lower skirt panels to the upper skirt panels. Now I just need to attach the skirt panels to each other, and do the waistband and the hem.
In other news, I picked up almost a yard of dark blue velvet for just $0.50 on Saturday.

I just finished another impulse project today. I made a wrap-around skirt/swimsuit cover from a lovely piece of fabric that I bought for just $0.50 at a yard-sale. The fabric was about 1 & 1/2 yards long and almost as wide (at first glance, it looked like a perfect square). I measured from my ankle to my waist, added 2 & 1/2" for the waistband, and cut the fabric so that I could use the selvage as the hem. Then I put a very narrow hem on the raw edges of the sides, then made a deep hem as the waistband. Next, the waist ties, which were very easy to make. And tada! Wrap-around. Because I have wide hips, it doesn't fall to my ankles anymore, but it's length is perfect and exactly what I wanted. Basically, this is meant for casual wear around the house. It's so hot here that I wear as little as possible in private, but I still need to be a little more covered in the public areas of the house, and the wrap is very handy for that. No picture this time, but I'm very pleased with the finished product. I also made myself a flaxseed snake. Stick it in the freezer, and when you take it out, you have a nice, flexible ice pack for cooling off. I plan to make another tomorrow so that I will always have a cold one.

So, I finished my first sewing project today (well, I finished the test muslin for the skirt, but that doesn't count). I made a set of curtains for my bedroom window.
( See the Picture )
As you can see, the curtains turned out great. In fact, I think they look store-bought. I used 2 yards of navy blue wool that I got at a yardsale for $4.00, and lined them with two yards of muslin. I didn't use a pattern, simply eyeballed it. I actually cut it so that I didn't have to hem the sides - I just used the selvage instead, which cut down on the work and helped them drape so nicely. This was an impulse project brought on by finding the wool, but it worked out beautifully. The curtains should help keep the heat out and the cool in. It only took me about an hour to finish these, and most of that time was spent ironing, not sewing.
Total cost, not counting labor: $8.00.

Upon closer consideration, I have decided that I don't like the skirt pattern. It doesn't drape nicely on me, I don't like the way it flares, and I don't think any of this will be fixed when I use the moleskin. So. I've found another pattern that I think will look much nicer:
Great Copy Patterns #2460 Sedona Skirt

I think that this will drape much more attractively on me, and will be a lot closer to the look that I see in my head.
It will be a couple of weeks before I can order the pattern, so in the mean time, I will make the previously planned sash, then my sewing machine cover, and then I will get started on the muslin for my dress pattern:
Sense and Sensibility 1940's Swing Dress

I'm really excited about this dress, and I hope that it will go together smoothly and look lovely.

And the muslin is finally done! The hardest part was the hem, surprisingly. The trick to blind hemming on the machine is all in the pinning. Lots and lots of pinning. Blah. I ended up taking a bit too much off the hem, which I'll need to watch out for on the real skirt. The moleskin has more drape and weight than the muslin does, so I'm hoping that it will fall a bit more attractively. I washed the moleskin tonight, so I'll layout and cut it tomorrow. Now that I'm a bit more confident, it should go faster. After I'm done with the skirt, I'll make my sewing machine cover, and then start the muslin for the dress. The dress muslin should involve some actual fitting, which will probably be both fun and frustrating. Thankfully, the pattern-maker included D cup pieces, so hopefully the fitting will be minimal.

And the muslin waistband is done. Just the hem left to go, which I'll do tomorrow, in order to get some practice with the blind hemming foot on my machine. The waistband was pretty easy, although if I had done it the way the pattern suggested, it would have been much more difficult. The pattern said to iron down the fabric for the casing, measure out the proper amount of elastic, sew the elastic ends together, lay the elastic ring in the grove of the casing, and sew the casing all the way around, stretching as necessary. That sounded really awkward to me, so I sewed the casing closed first, leaving a 3 1/2" gap, and then threaded the elastic in, sewed the elastic ends together, and sewed the gap closed. It worked quite well, but given how touchy sewing that gap closed was, I don't even want to think about how frustrating it would have been to do it their way!

Well, I'm partway through putting the muslin together. I just have the waistband and hem left to do. So far, it fits just fine, so no worries there. I'm still glad I made the muslin, though. I had sewed 5 of the 8 seams when I realized that the 5/8" marker on the machine didn't take the position of the needle into account. Thus, I was sewing ~3/8" seams instead. Oops! So, out came the seam ripper. I then resewed the seams with the proper allowance. Plus, mom showed me how to keep the machine from drifting to the right, as it was inclined to do, so my second set of seams were much straighter. Tonight I'll clip & finish the seams (for practice), install the waistband, and pin the hem.

This week, I made the necklace and second pair of earrings that I mentioned in a earlier post, as well as the flaxseed pillows for my mom. My photographer, my brother, is temporarily without a computer, so expect pictures later.
Meanwhile, I have started my skirt project.
I am using Kwik Sew #3364, view A.
( Pictures )
I cut out the pattern pieces last night (from the paper, not the fabric) in preparation for starting the muslin today. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this skirt only has one pattern piece! (Well, it actually has two, but they are identical.) It doesn't even have a separate waistband piece! Instead, you make a self-casing at the top of the skirt for the elastic. This is going to be really, really easy to make, but I'm still going to make a muslin first. Mostly because I'm concerned about the fit around the hips and waist, but also because I want to experiment with seam finishes and hemming techniques. Because the seams curve a bit, I don't think I can use French seams, so I need to decide what finish would be most appropriate without being too time-consuming. Also, it calls for a blind hem, which I plan to do on my machine. But I've never done one on the machine before, so the muslin will give me a chance to practice without worrying about it. I plan to cut the muslin tonight, and put it together tomorrow.