Warning: Don't Be Cheap

I, thankfully, had nothing to do with the construction of this dress; it is RTW. 

The person who made it used cheap interfacing (or else they didn't pre-shrink it) because it bubbled and wrinkled after the first washing. 

While it is on the underside of the collar, it us very difficult to iron. 

Thankfully it is a very cute dress and worth the bother of some finicky pressing. 

Scheming and Planning

Now that I am rid of the triad of evil, I am making plans for the remainder of my leave. And while I can't row, cycle, kayak, play soccer, do pilates, drive, lift more than 10 pounds, or do any of the other things that fritter away my time, I can sit. And in the shade I shall sit while I take apart a few items I have found in thrift stores.

First up, this cool wool* skirt. It is a lovely, incredibly full, skirt, very royal blue and, judging by the tag, from the late '80s or early '90s It is destined to to become another Hollyburn with perhaps enough left over to trim something else.

The second skirt is a linen/ rayon blend. Allegedly dry-clean only, but since I don't own anything I can't wash, I pre-washed it. You can tell how much shrinkage occurred by the amount of lining hanging clear of the bottom.

The colours did not photograph very well; it is brown and green striped - very autumnal. I'll try to better shot after it has been remade. I'm hoping to get another Vogue 1247 out of the yardage.

I have no firm ideas about the fate of this skirt. I think it is a wool/rayon blend but the tag has gone missing. Maybe it dissolved in the pre-wash. I would like to get a top of some sort but I'll see how it looks when I drape it around myself, post dissection. It may end up looking too dowdy for a blouse.

It's nice to be able to spend time in the yard keeping busy. I'm pretty twitchy and while I'm fortunate to have a long leave to recover, sitting around this past week has been pretty restricting. It will be good to feel productive again.

*That's the name of the fabric, not how I feel about it.

Incredibly simple Pants

Has anyone seen the mesh panties hospitals use for in-patients? The construction is really rather clever.  I should find a scrap of stretch fabric and try a pair to see if there is any way to incorporate this into some self-sewn skivvies. 

They are made from two six-inch pieces very stretchy soft 'fabric' sewn down the sides. I think the elastic at the waist is woven right in. 

A sean is made across the middle of the  bottom to make leg holes.  Thoughts?

Hooray for Hollyburn

I now have three Hollyburn skirts, my latest out of denim.

I look unimpressed. Why?

 I love the fullness of these skirts -they are definitely bike-able. I made the waistbands on these two skirts about an inch narrower. I am very short waisted and the wider waistband would fold over when it made contact with my lower ribcage.

 The pockets are lined with the same fabric I used to line N4's cape. So many of my skirts have pockets now. I think the only reason my previous skirts did not is my need to hurry and adding pockets would add, what, another 15 minutes to the process. I guess I have learned to slow down.

 The second Hollyburn is made from this owl upholstery fabric. It has great body as well.

 I screwed up the waistband -I should have cut it with the grain, but I was worried it would stretch. Silly me.

 I did better with the pocket facings tho'.

 Especially this one.

I have plans for at least one more of these made from a thrifted lightweight wool skirt. But that can wait for cooler weather.

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!

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!!!

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.