My Idea of a Perfect Sunday

Sleeping in late after a DVD Sherlock night with the husband, getting some washing done, preparing dinner and a soup for work tomorrow, watching some telly whilst getting on with some serious business...

If you're thinking, "Isn't that the skirt she meant to finish in autumn?" Well yes, it is, I recommend your memory. And yes, it will make a fabulous spring skirt. I'm finally catching up with a lot of old projects which feels so good and the amazing sunshine outside certainly works to enhance the feeling. I'm off in a minute to enjoy it whilst having tea with a friend. Also part of my idea of a perfect Sunday.

In case you wondered, my baby quilts and sailboats were a huge success and my British holiday was just smashing. Such a lovely time catching up with my friends and cuddling and befriending their little ones. Bless. Such a wonderful thing to be speaking English 24/7 again and dreaming in English. Such a wonderful time treating myself to proper salt & vinegar crisps, bacon butties and a pork pie or two. Afterwards, I had two additionally days off work due to accrued overtime and can honestly say that I will return tomorrow happily and thoroughly relaxed. Now if only that didn't mean to get up earlier again. Let's see how I cope with that...but no, let's not ponder upon it, let's enjoy this wonderful Sunday.

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

Behold the final gift card skirt. Whoa, does it make me miss summer.

You guessed it, Burda 8176. Haha. Like last week's feature once more with a narrowed yoke and gathered rectangles for the body, yet shorter and with a black satin bias tape finish. Not that I'd planned that.

Yoke and French seams.

 

I spruced up this skirt by shifting the hidden zipper from the side to the back and adding a cute button closure. The button has tiny laser-cut flowers on it.

The zipper turned out really well on this one.

As for the unplanned bias tape finish - I'd left my skirt unhemmed on my sewing desk for a bit and made the mistake of cutting something else on top of it. I can't recall what. Suffice it to say that I managed to cut into my skirt several centimetres above the intended hemline. 'Twas only a teeny tiny whole but even that is too much. Silly silly me. How could I have been so careless?

Anyway. Let's move on. I realised that cutting above the hole and then turning under the hem would make the skirt too short for my liking. Instead I only chopped off a a bit and fixed the hem with bias tape which oth covered the hole and kept my hem at a nice length.

The fabric is extremely lightweight and oh so wonderful on the hottest days of summer. Yep, love this one.

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

Let me show you the second gift card skirt in a quick post.

You've seen the fabric before, namely here. I love this floral. Tons. It's not even an exaggeration.

For this skirt I used the yoke of Burda 8176. Are you tired of me, yet, tweaking the same old pattern again and again? Blogging my old skirts has made me aware of how often I've returned to it, if only parts. Not that I'm ashamed. It's great to have a fitting but blank model to alter again and again.

For this skirt I narrowed the yoke by a few centimetres. Instead of using the pattern's skirt panel I gathered the top of simple yet wide rectangles to the yoke. Extra volume!

The hem is simple but I stitched several parallel lines for a structured look.

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

For my birthday last year my husband gave me a generous 50€ gift card to one of my favourite fabric shops in Berlin. I saved it up for a while but burnt it all on summery fashion fabrics to enhance my skirt closet. With my superior, cough, math skills I managed to buy fabric for three skirts and even squeezed matching thread out of my gift card.

One awesome thing about fashion fabrics is their width of usually 140 cm/ 55 inches. If you're making knee-length, gathered skirts out of a non-directional print one metre will serve you more than well because you can cut up the fabric vertically into two 1 metre x 70 cm panels. But 80 cm or 32 inches were actually enough for me to create a nicely gathered skirt for my 40 inch hip. The difference can easily be used for a yoke.

The first skirt I made was a simple elasticated one, no yoke, out of an adorable brown floral.

It's simple enough to work with two rectangles and tutorials for this style abound on the net. It is slightly trickier to find just the right width for the encasing. If it's too wide you elastic will be all loose and twist a lot. If it's too tight it bunches up - if you get it all the way through, that is.

With this skirt my encasing was too wide, so it tends to twist a lot. It's manageable, however, if you sew down your fabric in the seams. That way you also ensure that the same amount of fabric (and gathers) will be in the back and front without you having to check up on that everytime. Also, there are better ways to finish an encasing than making a bulky seam. I've learned that by now.

My standard French seams.

A simple hem to finish a simple skirt.

I'll be back next week with the second gift card skirt.

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

This skirt is the first that I consider a failure though it's looking inconspicuous enough, no?

I made it late last spring using the yoke of good old Burda 8176. For the body I mad my own calculations. Having worked with quilting cottons on two previous skirts I felt somewhat safe in my choice. The fabric, however, was a lot stiffer and despite a gut feeling I hoped that once sewn up it'd all fall into place never materialised.

 

I used some favourite scraps from my first skirt project to line the yoke. You can see a lot of pulling on the pleat seams. It doesn't look as bad in this snap of the right side but it's still present.

I encountered a lot of trouble handling the fabric. It's a pain to iron, too. Here's a better snap of the disaster, featuring the hidden zipper and yoke. And to think I redid that zipper multiple times as well as trying to fix the yoke.

Even the hem decided against playing along and favoured puckering.

I wore this skirt exactly once because it simply doesn't hang nicely. I washed it several times hoping that'd make some of the stiffness go away but it didn't happen and it certainly didn't make the pulling go away. Defeated by fabric. It's exactly the disastrous project that many fashion sewists will have in mind warning you about using quilting cottons for clothing.

I still like the print but I'm not even sure I'd want it in a quilt because it doesn't have the hand I've got used to. For the moment it will stay in my closet to remind me to trust my gut feeling concerning drape but I might cut it up in the future if the right project comes along. Thanks to my previous experiences it didn't scare me off of using quilting cottons in non-quilty projects and simply became a valuable lesson learnt.

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

How often do we have the fabric before we can settle on a project to use it for? I'm absolutely guilty of buying fabric without having something specific in mind. Every now and then, though, I've got the project first and need to hunt for the fitting fabric.

Last autumn I was set to make a grey linen skirt, possibly with a few embroidered flowers. I had a tough time finding a pattern that worked with my vision and finally settled on View A Burda 7529. The next problem I enountered was finding a suitable linen fabric. I kept looking but it never materialised. Nevertheless, having bought the pattern, acetate lining, and trim already I did not want to abandon the project.

I came across Riley Blake's Wishing Flowers in Grey whilst working on a farewell present for my husband's colleague. I fell in love and ordered more yardage. Thinking the dandelions had a touch snowflake to them I wanted to finish my skirt in time for Christmas. Making presents for the family for the first time, however, took up a lot more time than I anticipated. So this project got put in the corner and was revived for spring.

Fully lined, French seams.

Quilting fabric is not wide enough for such a wide skirt, so I had to work with four panels and seams instead of two. This helped my decision to move the hidden zipper closure from the side seam to the back atop of which I added a hook and eye for extra security.

The same trim I used on my green slip and a fancy stitch.

I had some troubleworking the pleats with so much and two layers fabric. There's a little pulling here and there around the yoke seam, but as with most things the unprofessional eye doesn't notice it. I love this skirt.

True to my promise to show you my mistakes, too, I'll be back next week with my first big skirt fail! Are intrigued?

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

Hello and back again to my early fashion sewing exploits! The first skirts I made were all summer skirts and therefore unlined. So I made an elasticated slip to be able to wear the black and the mustard one with tights during autumn.

I'd snatched up a lovely piece of dark green silk for a bargain price which lent itself perfectly to the job.

French seams.

I picked a pretty black trim and even thought of using green thread on the bobbin. It's the obvious choice to me now but back then I felt really clever. Hehe.

I'll be back next week with a pleated skirt that I made in spring 2011 and from a fabric which features in a lot of my hexies. Guess which?

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

*This is a pre-written post as I assume I'm still knackered because of the big move yesterday. trying to be back with a few deets soon.

Two years ago, when the weather turned colder, my eyes got stuck on the cutest Alice in Wonderland print by Kokka whilst window shopping online at one of my favourite brick and mortar shops. I didn't run off to buy it immediately as I wondered whether at 26 I wasn't too old for it. I pondered it a while but once I paid the shop a visit to get some essentials and saw the print in all its beauty I simply couldn't resist any longer and had to buy enough for a skirt.

I love the details. Cheshire cat, Grinsekatze in german, is my husband's pet name for me because of my broad smile and my cat-like trait to need a lot of cuddling but at my own conditions.

I knew that I wanted to try out new things: a) lining so I could easily wear it with tights and b) pockets so I could carry around keys and tissues or whatever can need carrying. I wanted to create a contrast by making the pockets and yoke out of a solid brown but intended to use a fine cotton for a polished look and had already bought brown satin bias tape, too. Alas, for the longest time I couldn't find a brown fabric to go with the brown in the print. In the end I found a linen fabric which went well but made me abandon the bias tape because they'd have clashed.

I went back to my trusty old Burda 8176 but had to adapt the pattern because quilting cottons are narrower than fashion fabrics by quite a margin (44'' rather than 54''). Therefore this skirt has a little less volume. Also I had to make the pocket pattern. Spot the hidden zipper!

I used French seams for a neat look and feel. Lining can be somewhat slippery but once you grow accustomed to it it all works nicely.

After a couple of projects my stitching in the ditch had improved a lot and I could also turn under more fabric of the inside part of the yoke.

With so many other things to focus on I kept the hem simple once more.

And yep, this is what I wore for my sister's Childhood Icons themed birthday party which I mentioned here. I paired it with a teal jumper and a teal satin band in my long red hair and kept an old white bunny plush toy close to me which I'd outfitted with an old pocket watch. Here he is.

The all packed up now and more than 400km away but I'm still wearing it. At 28. Not feeling one bit too old for it. The majority of people don't notice the actual print and I absolutely adore it.

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

Welcome back to Skirts on Sunday which showcases my skirt exploits of the past 2.5 years, warts and all. Having finished two skirts I wanted to try new things. I'd stumbled upon the obi apron by prudencerabbit on burdastyle.com and made myself a lovely green apron from rather cheap fabric and my sister asked me to make her one as well.

So we bought some fabric at Ikea and I added trimmed pockets to the pattern. I took extra care to match the pattern. Here's me modelling the apron.

We're calling it the Dorothy apron because she wore it as part of her outfit for her Childhood Icons themed birthday party. Yes, it doesn't actually scream Dorothy but my sister looked lovely with a headband and a plush toy Toto in a basket. Teaser: To find out what I wore at this party you'll have to return for future instalments of Skirts on Sunday.

Even though it's high-waisted, which I tend to avoid because it draws too much attention to my bust and optically shortens my torso, I consider the apron very flattering. That's why I thought I should tweak it into a skirt. Being less than expert I just fiddled my way through it. I made the back panel narrower than the front, for instance.

The hidden zipper ends underneath the yoke because I couldn't quite figure out how to have it go up all the way and have a nice finish with the ties. Full disclosure, I didn't feel like spending too much thought and time on it. The ties go round in the back and tie in the front. These days I'd probably make them short and either tie them in the front or back only to avoid the twisting that naturally occurs in the back.

To keep everything in place I sewed on a hook and eye. Not very expert looking but it's doing the job!

I kept the hem simple on this one.

This was the first time that I used a quilting cotton (Dandelion in Mustard by Patty Young for Michael Miller) to make clothes. Obviously I didn't have the foggiest idea about differences in hand and had never worked with something similar before, being the newbie that I was (and often enough still am). I know that many wouldn't mix fashion sewing with quilting fabric but this skirt definitely encouraged me to do so and up to now I've only ever had one occasion when it didn't pan out the way I'd hoped.

I like this colour and print of this skirt and wore it quite a bit that late summer and autumn two years ago. It looks darn cute dressed up with  knee highs and low heels. The only downside is that it does sit a little too high for my liking after all but due to the ties cannot be worn underneath a jumper. So it's wandered into the back of my closet. I should have known, you say? Well, maybe. The again I just didn't expect how much turning an apron pattern into a skirt can change the way it hangs you. The lessons we learn!

Still, I haven't had the heart to throw it away and probably never will. I think I'll give it another go after the move. Now and then we need to leave our comfort zone. I've acquired a couple of new jumpers with pretty high necklines rather than my typical v that might just transform the look. And there's always the option of re-purposing the fabric into something new!

Happy sewing!

Skirts on Sunday

Husbandless since Wednesday afternoon. *sniff*

To take my mind off being alone and without cuddles and as promised, here's my second skirt. I'd started this on the side during my class because it was sooo exciting to make something. I used to think that I was more into muted colours and definitely not into bold prints. However, I was drawn to this print when I saw it on the bolt and haven't regretted buying it for a second. I've been wearing this skirt plenty for the past three summers, mostly with plain black tanks, shirts or spaghetti tops.

It was made from the same Burda pattern (8176) as my first skirt, although I made it a smidgen shorter. Together with the print it's much flirtier than the other one. It taught me how your fabric choice influences the vibe of a pattern.

The hidden zipper looks much better. I think I took the seam ripper to it about three times to make sure the yoke seams lined up and the zip would be hidden enough. My stitching in the ditch also got better.

For my seam finishes I stuck to zig-zag stitching.

Rather than having another go at bias tape, I chose one of the two fancy stitches my machine comes with. I simply folded the hem under and the stitching holds it all together perfectly.

Both skirts sit comfortably on my hip and the flare works like a charm to make it look a little wider making my V-silhouette a bit more like an hourglass.

Happy sewing!