Curtains are Cool, Right?

So today I'm back on track sewing. I've been taking apart a skirt that fits me well to get the pattern - I know this is detrimental to my current lack of clothing, but I'm going to use it, I promise!

A friend gave me this skirt when it was too big for her, and it fit me wonderfully, exept the fact that it was a little tight for me on the waist. To combat this, I decided to trace the skirt onto paper first, make my initial changes, then make a mock up or toile before making the final skirt - this seems a lot of effort for one skirt, but after all this I will have a pattern that will fit me!

First I traced my original skirt onto paper. I lowered the waist slightly to give me more room and then extended out the side seams to give a slightly better curve to the hips.

I managed to put the zip in at the hem of the skirt twice before doing it properly!

As you can probably see here, the skirt was puffing out just at the side seams - clearly I added too much curve when extending them. After all, if you just add 1/4 of an inch to each piece on each side, that gives an extra inch all together, which might make a lot of difference to the fit of the garment.

A little alteration was all that was needed, but remember to always take notes on pattern changes when fitting a toile, so you remember all your changes after. I normally edit my pattern whilst I'm still wearing the first draft of it!

After all, you don't want to loose all your hard work, do you? 

When the pattern is ready, it's time to choose your fabric and get stitching.

I hadn't quite decided which bias binding I was going to use. I find that if you take a photo of both then look at them later you might be able to make your mind up easier, as you can view them one after another.

Curtains are cool, right? Everyone should be wearing curtains nowadays. The one thing I hated about this particular curtain fabric was...you guessed it, pattern matching. 

Not really a hard one this time around I admit, but none the less you have to get it right otherwise the garment will look wrong and unbalanced.

Now I was pretty proud of this one. Just 1/8 of an inch out! And who's going to notice, except me?

I decided on the green and added it to the bottom of the skirt, then got irritated with it as I was making cute and kitsch and handmade-looking things again. Not that I don't like stuff like that, I think it has it's place, I do. I just don't look at it and think, ahh, I want one of those!

I'm very inspired by designers. I do read other sewing blogs, I like reading them to see what my fellow seamspersons are up to and to read about their adventures in the world, but I don't read them for inspiration for my own sewing. I may discover a wonderful new trick that I have to try, but for visual ideas I look elsewhere. 

This skirt just didn't sit right with me (well it did, right on my waist!) after a biscuit and a warm soy I ripped the green off and started again. 

Grey, black and white go, right?

This is where I am right now and I've just started sewing the braid down each side seam. As there is a lot of it I intend to have it loop twice around the bottom and on the 'princess seam' lines, despite not having any seams there! I really hope I can finish it soon so I can wear it...I have lost a skirt to make this one, after all.

Happy sewing!

Toni