So, cushions done, pyjamas done, zipped cushions done - it was time for my next piece of homework, making a proper, going-to-wear-it-in-public skirt. Yikes! The stakes were high, can't walk around with a tattered skirt that holds the risk of falling off any second. But a girl has gotta practice.
I neglected to take step-by-step photos of this expedition, so you will just have to picture it. The first challenge was to re-size the pattern, the Delphine skirt from Love at First Stitch. By now you know about my disproportionate hips versus waist issues, but this pattern allows resizing, hurrah! I wanted the skirt to sit lower than the picture so I measured that part of my waist, then my hips and then combined to draw a new size.
This time I decided to try a new method of cutting as well - I pinned the cut pattern onto my fabric and then cut it directly rather than re-drawing. I definitely saved time and I don't think it was less accurate, so I might stick to it in the future.
It was all going smoothly, sewing the different parts of the main skirt together, fusing the interfacing to the waistband to make it stiffer, all good. Until I got to the dreaded zip. I didn't blog about this last week, but I had a hell of a time trying to understand how to sew a zip on, as different people seem to do it in completely different ways, and my pattern did not explain what you are supposed to do when you get to the head of the zip (to avoid damaging the needle).
But all that practice helped (that was the intention anyway) so I felt ready to tackle the concealed, or invisible, zip. I even bought the special foot (attachment) for my sewing machine. Yet, when I opened the zip pack, I got confused: what I was holding in my hand did not look like what was on the photo (despite the fact that I selected concealed zip on the menu). The zip teeth were meant to be hidden in the front, but on my zip they were hidden in the back....
So, guess what I did? I winged it, again. I guess I could have ordered another concealed zip and done it properly, but I decided to just attach the regular zip and see what happened.
And it sort of worked. I do have a skirt and it doesn't look like it is going to fall apart any second now. My zip is completely misaligned though, I have no idea how, and why, that happened but hopefully not too obvious.
The main problem is that the skirt does not fit me well at all. It does not sit where I intended it to, it sits where the pattern intended it to (ie high up) - I imagine that to get it to sit lower, I should have made the hips one size bigger? But the issue is that because it is high up, it is actually gigantic!
The funny thing is that the pattern helpful suggests a point where you can try the skirt on (before finishing the waistband) to see if it fits and if it needs any alterations. However, for some reason when I tried it on then it was too tight around the hips so I decided it was not actually going to fit me at all and I should just finish it regardless.
I neglected to take step-by-step photos of this expedition, so you will just have to picture it. The first challenge was to re-size the pattern, the Delphine skirt from Love at First Stitch. By now you know about my disproportionate hips versus waist issues, but this pattern allows resizing, hurrah! I wanted the skirt to sit lower than the picture so I measured that part of my waist, then my hips and then combined to draw a new size.
This time I decided to try a new method of cutting as well - I pinned the cut pattern onto my fabric and then cut it directly rather than re-drawing. I definitely saved time and I don't think it was less accurate, so I might stick to it in the future.
It was all going smoothly, sewing the different parts of the main skirt together, fusing the interfacing to the waistband to make it stiffer, all good. Until I got to the dreaded zip. I didn't blog about this last week, but I had a hell of a time trying to understand how to sew a zip on, as different people seem to do it in completely different ways, and my pattern did not explain what you are supposed to do when you get to the head of the zip (to avoid damaging the needle).
But all that practice helped (that was the intention anyway) so I felt ready to tackle the concealed, or invisible, zip. I even bought the special foot (attachment) for my sewing machine. Yet, when I opened the zip pack, I got confused: what I was holding in my hand did not look like what was on the photo (despite the fact that I selected concealed zip on the menu). The zip teeth were meant to be hidden in the front, but on my zip they were hidden in the back....
So, guess what I did? I winged it, again. I guess I could have ordered another concealed zip and done it properly, but I decided to just attach the regular zip and see what happened.
And it sort of worked. I do have a skirt and it doesn't look like it is going to fall apart any second now. My zip is completely misaligned though, I have no idea how, and why, that happened but hopefully not too obvious.
The main problem is that the skirt does not fit me well at all. It does not sit where I intended it to, it sits where the pattern intended it to (ie high up) - I imagine that to get it to sit lower, I should have made the hips one size bigger? But the issue is that because it is high up, it is actually gigantic!
 |
| Too big! |
 |
| And in case it wasn't clear in the previous photo |
The funny thing is that the pattern helpful suggests a point where you can try the skirt on (before finishing the waistband) to see if it fits and if it needs any alterations. However, for some reason when I tried it on then it was too tight around the hips so I decided it was not actually going to fit me at all and I should just finish it regardless.
No comments:
Post a Comment