I was fairly confident of my skilz with the summer pants pattern, so I drafted some in-seam pockets and cut everything out and finished the edges before sewing together my practice pants. And everything was too small, which meant the in-seam pockets became vagina pockets. A big no.
I went back to the drawing board and made a toile with more of the material I’m using for the top layer of my mystery masquerade skirt.
It took two tries for the back, but I got it fitting, so next I will cut out again in the fun red/pink lines fabric.
My assigned character for the mystery masquerade ball is the mouse, a poor relation. So I figured, no need to spend a lot of time finishing seams. Instead I used wooly nylon serger thread to finish the edges. It’s a very pretty brown color.
Other progress: Not only did I manage to cut out the upper panels, I pieced them together using French seams, and then finished the edges in the same way as on the lower skirt.
Ideally, I would have gotten the correct tension and the edges wouldn’t be wavy, but I like the effect here.
I have one pair of shorts to exercise in, and I could no longer exercise in them due to a hole in the inner thigh. I went with machine repair because I had a lot of other sewing to do.
I had a fun time drafting the flared skirt, but it got confusing enough that I got out the colored pencils to differentiate which flair went with which panel.
This was pretty enough that I traced the pattern pieces on other freezer paper and hung this up in my bedroom.
Now that I have my pattern piece cut, so begins the laying out of the material.
You can’t see the lines I drew when tracing the pattern piece, but you can see my tape marks on the panels. I was worried I wouldn’t have enough room for six, but I did!
I’ve been obsessing over my plans for a split-side skirt (as see on the Stitchery), which I plan to wear for the mystery masquerade party we’ve been invited to in mid-July. But it being halfway through June, I really needed to get started. So here I am drafting the skirt panels. (Finally!)
I drafted a half circle skirt pattern, and then divided the half circle into three. From there, I created a point at the bottom. That’s what makes this a handkerchief skirt, rather than a circle skirt.
The plan is six panels, three front, three back. And then six shorter panels on top of the first. I’m glad to finally get this step done. Sometimes starting a new thing is the hardest part.
Here is the first version of a gathered skirt. It’s pretty much the easiest to make as you can cut a rectangle, gather it, and then slap a waistband on. My instructor though, had us expand the blocks outward to make the skirt bigger.
And the plus of these tiny skirts is that I can make all the mistakes. In this case, I didn’t realize I had sewed together the wrong sides until it was time for the waistband , but I just added the waistband and moved on.
Mental note: do a better job marking front and back.
While most skirts have incorporated one element at a time, this one took the flared skirt, made a high/low hemline, and added a ruffle. And goodness do ruffles take time.
Especially so now that I’ve run out of the blue sheet. It didn’t shed, so I never finished the hems. But this white sheet I’m using immediately starts to unravel when I cut it, so I have to do at least a one-fold-over hem. And I don’t have to tell you that a hem on a ruffle is a thing that takes a lot of hemming.
I would not wear a skirt like this at this time; I’m more into covering my legs than exposing them. But it was fun to construct.
And I’m enjoying my collection.
I don’t think I took a picture during the construction of the flared with yoke, but that one is my favorite so far. Flippy cheerleader skirts in my youth had yokes, and I’ve always liked them.
I think the first time I actually dyed something was a towel in high school. We were supposed to use strips of black towel for mutes in our saxophones, and me being the only girl, I was elected to do the dying of the towel for the rest of the group. Why did we not collectively buy a black towel and cut it up, you ask? Good question. I have no idea.
But! Today is the first time I have dyed items that I would like to turn out well.
I got my instructions from the Rit website, and noticed that Rit probably doesn’t employ a copy editor.
How does one stir “slowly and continuously” AND stir “off and on”? “Continuously” voids the “off,” and “off” voids “continuously,” so which is it?
I didn’t have a big enough pot, so I boiled water and put it in a 5 gallon bucket in the sink.
The results seem well. The gray shirt is now blue, and the white underwear I made is now a lighter shade of blue.
I may have had too many items in at once; the dye on the underwear is not as uniform as the dye on the shirt.
Still! A good result. Next: my linen pants will become brown. (She says confidently)
