Happy August, campers!
Before I begin, I have to tell you a story. As you might have guessed, I have been incredibly busy recently. Between business, family, summer and just stuff, I haven’t had a lot of mojo. Last weekend I decided to do something about it, so I made this skirt. I know – in the past I’ve said that I don’t wear skirts, and I don’t – at least not during the business day. But I need one for nicer occasions, and I decided this would do the trick. I got everything done in less than a day, and took a break for a few days before hemming. Well…
Rant? Or Review? That is the question
This morning, two things happened. I was getting ready to head to the gym for a class, when DH called me to tell me there was no power in the building. Doh! I hate missing an exercise class. So that put me in a bad mood. Just as I hung up the phone, an email newsletter came in. In it, a sewing “expert” had a picture of a garment that had a humongous problem that was obvious to even the untrained eye. Well… my spin-deprived and coffee-fueled righteous indignation saddled up its high horse and got ready to clock some heads when…
The power came back on at the gym.
So I tootled over, took a spin class, came home and showered and went to the office. While working, I thought about the aforementioned spin-deprived and coffee-fueled righteous indignation and realized something. Who am I to judge? I mean, really. I have enough self awareness to know that I’m not perfect. I’m pretty damn close, but still, not quite there. And I recalled a blog post recently where a respected hobby-sewing blogger railed against a newcomer to professional sewing celebrity. The hobby blogger’s points may have been valid, but the resulting pig pile of anti-newcomer-to-professional-sewing-celebrity hatin’ (in which I did not partake) made me rather nauseous. I certainly didn’t want to feed into that negativity, so I decided to hem my skirt during my lunch break rather than saddle up my high horse and clock some heads. All of which is a roundabout way of getting to this:
Vogue Basic Design – Alas, it’s Out of Print
Pattern Description: MISSES’/MISSES’ PETITE TOP & SKIRT Fitted top has neckline variations, princess seams back zipper. A,C: button trim. A,B,C,D:sleeveless. E: above elbow sleeves. F: below elbow sleeves. H: short, self-lined sleeves. G,I: long sleeves. Skirt (4 lengths), has contour waist, back zipper. J,K: straight. L,M,N: fitted, tapered, back slit. O,P: A-line. I made View K, the longer (knee length) straight skirt.
Sizing: 6-18. I made a 14
Fabric Used: Floral Stretch Twill in Deep Pinks/Brown/Aubergine from Gorgeous Fabrics (of course) – alas, sold out.
Needle/Notions Used: Stretch 75/10, thread, invisible zipper, petersham ribbon (not grosgrain, like the pattern suggests).
Tips Used during Construction: And Now, a Word from the Pressinatrix (or if you prefer, the video “Press that Bad Mamma Jamma!“)
Did it look like the photo or drawing when you got through? Yes
How were the instructions? They are standard instructions for a straight skirt, which is to say I didn’t use them.
Construction Notes: I used rayon petersham ribbon instead of the suggested grosgrain ribbon. You can shape it into a curve with an iron and steam, which I did here.
Petersham is a much better choice!
Petersham will shape to your body better, and it’s more comfortable to wear. I also used a couture hemming technique that I learned from Susan Khalje to make sure my hem was invisible. This particular fabric is a little persnickety and will show machine hems easily. I didn’t want the hem to show, so after testing a few blind hem stitches, I opted to do it by hand.
Can’t see the stitching.
Likes/Dislikes: This fits the bill perfectly for what I wanted. Here’s a picture of it on Shelley:
Finished Front
And here’s a picture of it with some silk jersey that I’m going to use to make a top. I think that will make a very nice date night outfit.
I love this combination!
Would you do it again? Would you recommend it? Yes and yes. I love Vogue Basic Design patterns. They are classic, well drafted and easy to sew.
Conclusion: A winner! And the moral of the story is, when you are feeling over-caffeinated and want to clock some heads, do a nice hem first. You’ll feel much better.
LOL. OK, now for starters, I want to know why this was not sent to me for editing first!
Just kidding. Now, working my way backwards, that silk jersey made my knees buckle. I have just one top made in silk jersey and it is my absolute, #1 favorite top. Next, my opinion of your skirt: Ultra Fabulous Fantastico, and girlfriend you have the figure for a statement skirt like that.
Of course, I have to say, I do agree with you about piling on and how that always feels bad, can you tell me who sent the newsletter? ha ha.
And finally – YES to exercise. I need a thorough thrashing everyday or I am just not fit to live with.
Oooh, pretty!
Love the skirt, what “gorgeous” fabric.
Very Pretty fabric! It’s great to see a post from you!
That fabric is yummy and the skirt looks great! BTW, I read the particular hobby-sewist’s rant and was disgusted. Very sewier-than-thou.
That fabric is stunning and it sure does make for a lovely skirt!
Beautiful skirt! And I love the Color of the silk jersey
How lovely! You’ll look fabulous wearing it!
Love the date night outfit! And I’m hearing Robin’s comment about silk jersey… Silk jersey or bust!
Love the skirt, Ann! And I’d rip that silk jersey out of your lovely hands if i were anywhere near it!
Fabulous skirt, Ann…and with that red jersey top….KNOCK-OUT Gorgeous!
Love the skirt and the very creative solution for avoiding head clocking!
Love the skirt. Can’t wait to see it with the silk jersey top.
Perfect fabrics for your date night outfit! Quite pretty and I’m sure you’ll love wearing it. So glad to hear you managed to avoid a controversy. There’s just a touch too much of that going around for my energy level these days. Better to just duck and spin and sew, I say.
Oh my but I so love the fabric you used for your skirt. *sigh* Can I say that again! *LOL* The combo of silk jersey and skirt is so beautiful and will be a wonderful date night outfit!
Wonderful skirt! “Clock some heads” !!!! lol. I love it!
I always handsew my hems. I find it relaxing (much more so than struggling with the blind hemming foot to try to make sure it’s not taking too big a bite of fabric). My grandmother taught me how to do them, and there’s always satisfaction in knowing that one thing on my garment is perfect!
Love the skirt, that fabric is so pretty!
It’s a beautiful skirt and that jersey is just perfect with it.
One of my pet peeves is people who should know better think that petersham and grosgrain are interchangeable. I had this discussion with a milliner who, looking at the inside of some pants I’d made using petersham as my waistband facing called it grosgrain. I said, no it was petersham and she said, yeah it’s grosgrain. Buy grosgrain and that’s what you’ll get, buy petersham and you get the lovely shapeable grosgrain. All petersham is grosgrain but not all grosgrain is petersham. Of course if you buy it at Pacific Trimming it’s called rayon grosgrain.
It’s like plant names. Buy by the common name and you don’t really know what you are getting, buy by the botanical name and what you call it is what you get.
Beautiful skirt, luuuurve the fabric! This will be a stunning combo. I agree with the comments regarding petersham; I have had similar discussions with shop owners here who think they are the same.
The skirt/top combo will be a great date-night outfit!
I must have missed reading the hobby sewer kerfluffle post… or I’ve read it, thought “huh.” and moved on.
Beautiful skirt. That fabric is “Gorgeous”. Too bad you don’t have anymore of it. I would love some of it. Can’t wait to see the top. I’ll be especially interested in how you do the FBA. Thanks, Cennetta
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