Sunday 21 July 2013

Queen Bee

 After reading so many good reviews for this skirt, Vogue 1247, I jumped on the band wagon.

 I am not comfortable wearing bright yellow. I like the colour but I can only wear pale yellow in the summer when I have a 'tan' (I am a strawberry blonde -I don't tan, I just change from clear to white). If I wear such a bright yellow so close to my face, I look jaundiced, as in seen-immediately-upon-presentation-at-the-Emergency-Department jaundiced, so I thought I would make a yellow skirt which sits a fair distance from my face.
I didn't have to make any alterations to the pattern except add about five inches to the length. This would have been one short skirt otherwise. Surprisingly enough, even tho' I cut the correct size waistband, it only fit around the entire waist with easing; there was no overlap at all. I have no idea if it supposed to be that way because I haven't looked at the instructions. I'll have to see if the same happens with the corduroy skirt I have waiting (for fall) to sew up.
 I like skirt. It fits well, was easly and quick to sew, and it has a good shape. Most important is its bikability (is that a word? It is now!) but if was even a centimeter narrower, I wouldn't be able to happily ride my bike in it.
Wow, wrinkled!
 I could not, for the life of me, get a total back view, so I gave up.

And I like all the extra picture people add to their posts, so I am not sure why I haven't been adding more. So here we go , in the event someone other than me is reading this.

Here I am checking out the grapevine.
Are there any grapes in there?

Construction details:
I didn't follow the patterns directions and bind the seams because I was in a hurry.  I didn't french the seams because I was in a hurry. They aren't serged because I have brown thread in the serger and a project requiring brown thread is next in the queue (and while I could have changed the thread back to brown again, my serger has an evil, nasty streak and senses when I am in a, you guessed it, hurry, and would have refused to work at all) and, well, I was in a hurry. So I pinked them using pinking shears I  picked up at a garage sale.

 The just-fits waistband, because there is no overlap, is fastened with two little daisy buttons I had in my stash and loops of narrow elastic I coloured with a fabric marker.

I used hem tape to make the narrowest non-rolled hem I have ever done and the length is just right. The tape was in a bag of notions I also picked up at a garage sale. The colour is such a close match it was only the seam gauge on my sewing machine that allowed me to stitch it in place. Thankfully it was the usual 5/8" mark that I followed and things turned out fine.
The pockets are lined with some polka-dotted fabric from the scrap bag and just adds to the over all summer happy vibe.
Would I make this again? Most definitely! This cotton version is great for summer and the corduroy one will be lovely for fall and spring. I'll try wool for the winter!

Thursday 11 July 2013

Bait!

My friend Shamrock wants to start sewing with her daughters and was looking for a basic machine.
I saw this Morse in the Salvation Army in Maple Creek and texted her a picture (I do love technology!). She replied that she was interested so we will be hauling it home for her. 
Bahahahaha. Another one brought over from the dark side!!!

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Jungle January, I mean, July

A dollar short and a day late, isn't that how the saying goes?

I was in no way able to participate in Jungle January, tho' I enjoyed seeing what everyone else made. But now I have a giraffe skirt!
  It is my TNT skirt pattern but as I only had one yard (not meter) of fabric I had to make the waistband lining and pockets out of a different fabric, but I kept to the theme.
This is one of the many things I cut out earlier in June. I'd best get busy and work on the rest.