Made: birdseed skirt
Ever since I saw someone’s skirt (on the Flickr Sew What Skirts pool) made from Alexander Henry’s birdseed fabric in aqua, I wanted one. When a fabric co-op I belong to ran a contest for a spring skirt, I decided my skirt’s time had come. Unfortunately the skirt ended up being not really wearable, and so I’m left feeling really down about the whole project. I shouldn’t feel so discouraged, I know, but I like to have something that has a purpose every time, and so when it turns out like this, I feel really upset for awhile.
Note that the date of this post is actually the date of the project - I mention this because most of my posts have been done out of order and some time after the subject of the post.
Project Notes: I don’t have a lot of skirt patterns. I wanted something reliable as well, since I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it. I’d already drafted a couple of A-line patterns using Sew What! Skirts, and made muslins that fit, to boot. I decided to use the one I had drafted that was a copy of an Ann Taylor skirt. I used a 1/2″ SA and I also placed the pattern about 3/8″ away from the fold to widen it a bit. With a zipper closure this might have been just right, albeit high waisted.
Mistakes/Complications: This did not go too well. One small mistake was that when I was snipping one of my seams in half (to do an enclosed seam, I was cutting one in half and sewing the other, folded down, over it. You get 2 visible stitchlines instead of just one at the seam, but on the inside everything is enclosed and neat.) I accidentally snipped a little V on the other seam, the one meant to be folded over. Boo!
The big problem was simply that the skirt was too snug. When I made and tried on the muslin, it was meant to be a zipper closure, so I’d left a zipper length opening in a side seam when I tried it on. So the upshot is with this skirt, it is very hard to get on over my rear. I can do it, but then it’s maybe a little too snug. Now I do have a bit of a maternity waist going on, so maybe after the baby, this skirt will fit a little better. But since I already went wild snipping and enclosing seams, I can’t really take it apart easily and loosen the seams.
Looking back at the Sew What! book I see that the drafting instructions for an elastic waist are a little different, you would use your hip measurement for the waistline rather than your waist. Since this pattern I used was based on a skirt with a zipper, I think it was a little doomed from the start. I could have loosened the side seams a little but I think then the A-line would have flared too far from my body for my taste.
Notes for Next Time: Well next time I attempt an elastic waist skirt I’ll draft a new pattern using the elastic waist instructions from that book, or use a pattern intended for an elastic waist.
Also as far as snipping a seam in prep for the type of seam I was sewing, I think next time I should lay the piece on the cutting board rather than the ironing board, for more precision and control, so hopefully no cutting accident next time.
Tags: Sew What! Skirts, skirt, unsuccessful
Other than that however, the sewing went smoothly for this practice run.