I made quite a bit of progress on 7885 this weekend. I don't have pictures up yet but I will. The skirt is together except for the waistband, hem, and seam finishing, and the bodice is awaiting sleeves, the waistband lining, and buttons and loops.
I'm making the version on the right.
I'm making the version on the right.
Out of this:
This is a genuine, honest-to-goodness, hand-painted batik, straight from Indonesia. The birds are about eight inches tall; it's a very large print.
I had originally planned to use black for the waistband and facings but when I went back to look at the fabric, it was a lot more black and a lot less burgundy than I'd remembered. I decided to go with burgundy instead, even though I didn't have a clear mental image of it. Now that I've gotten some bits sewn together, I'm really glad I picked burgundy. Black would have disappeared into the body fabric and all the detail would have been swallowed up.
In general, I've behaved myself--ironing, basting, measuring, cutting triangle markers, interfacing what should be interfaced--but I still managed to make a mistake of history-book-worthy proportions. I decided to make two changes:
1) Add side-seam pockets
2) Cut the front and back skirt on the crease instead of in two pieces each, to preserve more of the fabric print.
This all sounds like good planning except that, since I've now occupied two seams (the side seams) and eliminated two more (the front and back center seams), I should be wondering . . . where the heck do I think I'm going to put the zipper?
Yeah. Zipper fail. Big time.
There wasn't enough fabric to re-cut, and I've only ever done one placket in my life, with mediocre results. After some silent cursing and a lot of mulling, I settled on a solution that was acceptable only because I was sewing a black zipper into a mostly-black skirt, where it wouldn't show very much, and because said skirt would be worn with a top that had a peplum, which would literally cover my butt.
(I'll have pictures of this later.)
I drew a zipper-length line down the center back of the skirt from the waistline. Then I measured and drew parallel lines 1/4-inch on either side, with a triangle at the bottom. I pinned the skirt to the ironing board cover to hold it in place, then carefully cut down the center line and the sides of the triangle to open the slit. I folded the side "flaps" and the triangle at the bottom of the slit under and ironed them into place.
Then, I slipped a flat ruler under the slit for support, and slid the zipper into position in the middle of the now-open slit. I basted the zipper in, then topstitched the edges of the slit to the zipper tapes.
The results, I'm sorry to say, were far easier to obtain and are far more tidy than any properly-installed zipper I've ever attempted, but the zipper teeth, of course, are completely exposed on the outside of the skirt. Highly functional but not very classy.
I had originally planned to use black for the waistband and facings but when I went back to look at the fabric, it was a lot more black and a lot less burgundy than I'd remembered. I decided to go with burgundy instead, even though I didn't have a clear mental image of it. Now that I've gotten some bits sewn together, I'm really glad I picked burgundy. Black would have disappeared into the body fabric and all the detail would have been swallowed up.
In general, I've behaved myself--ironing, basting, measuring, cutting triangle markers, interfacing what should be interfaced--but I still managed to make a mistake of history-book-worthy proportions. I decided to make two changes:
1) Add side-seam pockets
2) Cut the front and back skirt on the crease instead of in two pieces each, to preserve more of the fabric print.
This all sounds like good planning except that, since I've now occupied two seams (the side seams) and eliminated two more (the front and back center seams), I should be wondering . . . where the heck do I think I'm going to put the zipper?
Yeah. Zipper fail. Big time.
There wasn't enough fabric to re-cut, and I've only ever done one placket in my life, with mediocre results. After some silent cursing and a lot of mulling, I settled on a solution that was acceptable only because I was sewing a black zipper into a mostly-black skirt, where it wouldn't show very much, and because said skirt would be worn with a top that had a peplum, which would literally cover my butt.
(I'll have pictures of this later.)
I drew a zipper-length line down the center back of the skirt from the waistline. Then I measured and drew parallel lines 1/4-inch on either side, with a triangle at the bottom. I pinned the skirt to the ironing board cover to hold it in place, then carefully cut down the center line and the sides of the triangle to open the slit. I folded the side "flaps" and the triangle at the bottom of the slit under and ironed them into place.
Then, I slipped a flat ruler under the slit for support, and slid the zipper into position in the middle of the now-open slit. I basted the zipper in, then topstitched the edges of the slit to the zipper tapes.
The results, I'm sorry to say, were far easier to obtain and are far more tidy than any properly-installed zipper I've ever attempted, but the zipper teeth, of course, are completely exposed on the outside of the skirt. Highly functional but not very classy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My mystery fabric arrived. The seller advertised this as 2 1/3 yards of 60-inch cotton fabric. Sixty-inch fabric is usually, in my experience, either muslin for quilt backing (in plain white) or upholstery or awning fabric (in heavy weight and not 100% cotton). But I liked the blue stripes so I emailed, anyway. It never hurt to ask, right?
The reply described it as "shirt weight", and the seller didn't sound totally clueless, so I crossed my fingers and bought it now.First of all, it arrived in, like, record time. Second, it's a totally awesome piece of cloth. French blue/soft navy blue stripes, yarn-dyed (not printed), in a sturdy chambray-type cloth. Fabric Heaven. It has a little too much body for my soft 1930's dresses but, if I can squeeze all the pattern pieces on there, would make an awesome 1940's shirt dress or housedress.
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