Kickin' it Old School

Well I reached my personal goal of eight skirts in two weeks. Yippeee! This is my "Kickin' It Old School" skirt. This skirt is the real deal. Yeah, I'm talkin' "Polly and Esther." I bought the fabric at an estate sale about three years ago. When I was looking in my fabric closet it cried out to be used! I used my now TNT skirt pattern Butterick 5566 View A without the overlay.

Of course I matched the side seams

And the center back with the invisible zipper

I still want to make a navy skirt as well as a solid black one but for now I'll start looking through my pattern stash for blouse patterns to work with my new skirts!

Skirt #7

Here's a quick picture of skirt #7. I think I'll wind up making more than eight skirt! I've got at least three more fabrics lined up. Of course now I'll have to make tops to wear with the skirts!

The skirt is Butterick 5566 view A without the overlay. The fabric is a moleskin python print. I've combined it with the Vogue 8815 peplum. Keep an eye out for skirt #8.

Carnival of Skirts Again

I'm just popping in to say that I am full steam ahead on my skirts. I am currently working on skirt #7! Only one more to reach my goal. Here's what I've got so far...

The denim, animal print and herringbone all came from the reamnant bin at JoAnns. The animal print was originally $20 a yard but was half off making ti $10. Because there was was a half off clearance sale going on it was half off the $10 taking it to $5. With my 15% off teachers card the final price was $4.25! You an't beat that for a skirt. The other fabrics were even cheaper.

My carnival of skirts

I'm still continuing my carnival of skirts. Today I hope to finish up skirt #5. I've also realized that I'll probably need a carnival of blouses to wear with the skirts! Here's some quick pictures.

 

View E

 

 

View B

 

View E w/New Look 6130 view C

 

Butterick 5566

I've just finished my third skirt using Butterick 5566.  This time I made version E. My previous version were A without the overlay and version B. I have just been having a field day at JoAnn's with remnants. It takes a little under a yard to make a skirt and at 1/2 off remnants, the skirts are costing me under $10 including zipper, thread and interfacing.

It didn't take any time to make the skirt. I didn't use the directions. Does anybody for a skirt? I used contrastng gold thread and my machine's "triple stitch." I knew the finished garment would need some tweaking but this one almost stumped. I never have the issue of my skirts hiking up in the back because I cut the center front about 3/4" lower at the waist seam. Then it's usually just a matter of pull the sides up as needed if any.  When I tried the skirt on it was a total mess. The center back was hiking up and the front was ballooning away from my body! No matter how much pulling up or down I did it was not a good look. From the side I looked wider fromt to back than I did side to side.

Naturally I dug into my arsenal of "fit" books and none of them addressed the "hiking up" issue. On page 183 of Fit for Real People, there is a small paragraph addresses the alteration but it wasn't quite what I needed. I know there are some sewers that add a wedge to the back of their skirt patterns but I don't agree with using it. If you get in the habit of added the wedge, what happens when you have to match a design. You'll undoubtly wind up not being able to match a pattern or ehe posibility of your center back hemline almost forming some kind of weird "V." I finally called it a night and slept on it.

Before church on Sunday I first decided to narrow the hemline  of the denim skirt by taking the side seams in. That sorta worked but not enough. After more contemplation I decided to take a wedge in from the center back hemline to a couple inches below the zipper. Guess what? It worked like a charm. I don't know why but it did. I hope to make a navy, gray, and two black skirts by next Wednesday. Wish me luck and I will be posting pictures soon.

I'm in pepper HELL

I really want to work on a skirt I cut out earlier in the week but I can't because...

I am in pepper Hell.  What you see pictured is only a fraction of the peppers that I have to wash, slice, remove seeds, chop and freeze! Somebody that my husband knows gave them to us. I'm not complaining too much because I love using them when cooking. It's just that all this work is cutting into my sewing time!

Simplicity 1760 Pattern Review

Yesterday I was extremely productive. I cleaned off my cutting table which involved putting away about 21 yards recently purchased that had already been washed and dried. Next I sewed another pair of leggings which only took about 30 minutes to sew. Finally I sewed a skirt that now only needs to be hemmed and it'll be ready to go. Doesn't that sound productive?

Pattern Description:
Misses' skirt in two lengths
Pattern Sizing:
6-22
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?Exactly

 

 

 

Were the instructions easy to follow?
I never even looked at them
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I thought the center lace pattern was particularly interesting
Fabric Used:
A polyester blend from my stash
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I made a short version but added two inches. I should have added three because as it is I only have a one inch hem. I added hem tape
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I will absolutely sew another. I'll have a black version before the month is out.
Conclusion:
Super easy and stylish. I plan to wear it with the Vogue 8815 peplum top.

 I'm already starting on another skirt. Butterick 5566. Stay tuned.

Boot Refashion

I'm not sure whether internet sewing friends are good for you or bad. Sometimes that put all kinds of ideas in your head the may or may not get you in trouble! Faye and I were having a discussion about boots. Here problem is that the calves on boots are ALWAYS usually too big but on me they are ALWAYS too small. A while back she sewed a pair up to make them smaller. That got me to thinking. I'd purchased a pair of wide calf boots nearly six years ago but the calf was just to wide. I wore them only once and thank goodness I didn't trash 'em.

Last night I dug the boots out of the closet and the "boot refashioning began!"  I want to preface this by saying, "please excuse the crummy pictures." You still get the idea.

BEFORE

AFTER

I probably could have taken them up a little more but the after is way better than the before. I'll can't wait to wear my "new boots."

This is how I did it.

Step #1
I cut through the inside elastic down the calf

Step #2
I trimmed some of the padding from the calf inside along the part I intended to overlap

Step #3
Using regular sewing thread and whatever needle was already in the sewing machine, I stitched the overlap down switching to a zigzag stitch at the bottom to be sure to catch both sides of the leather.

I guess I can thank Faye for my "new boots!"