FO: Skirts for Eldest

Happy New Year to everyone. I am probably not going to do a review of last year as the latter half was not much fun. I have lots of catching up still to do with blogging my makes, so here are a couple of skirts for Eldest.

Skirt one was started (as in she cut it out) by Eldest two summers ago, I think, in a heavy denim from my Mother-in-law. It was finished by me towards the end of the summer 2014. We used Burda 9562 view A, which does not seem to be available anymore.

top stitching and pleats

It was very short so I added at least 5 cm to the length before we cut it out and it is still a bit short! We used age 15 to ensure it would fit her as she is quite curvy, however her shape is still changing plus she prefers to wear things on her waist rather than below, so I ended up putting elastic in the back of the yoke at the waist.

This pattern is designed to sit just below the natural waist, but with Eldest prefering to wear it on her waist, it makes it shorter than planned when worn!


Skirt two was inspired by this skirt in the window of J Crew:

 and this skirt in Johnnie B, the Boden teen section:

Photo from Boden.co.uk

I could see that it was a pretty simple design and that I could 'knock something up' pretty quickly.  I bought some chambray from a local shop. I think it was 4.95 or maybe £7 (I can't quite remember) a metre and nice quality. I loosely used this chart for sizing and this tutorial for making skirt - which I think has probably made the skirt too poofy for Eldest. I thought for a future skirt it may be better to have a plain front to the skirt with any gathering just in the back.  I intially hemmed the skirt to be 22" at the back and 21" in the front (her curvy bottom lifts skirts slightly and makes the hem uneven). This was not a flattering length, so I shortened  it by 2" all round.

I also put a welt pocket on the front.  It is not brilliant but it looks ok and fits her phone. I only did one as I made it up as I went long really, and didn't fancy trying to do a second one and getting the placement wonky!

She seems pretty happy with them both and has worn them, but I only have pictures of her curled up in a chair in the 2nd skirt and you can't actually see much of the skirt!

I have just realised that this ties in with my previous post of using RTW for inspiration!

FO's: Burda Trousers #105 11/2011 & Burdastyle Lydia top

I have 2 finshed items to show you.  Well, nearly finished... in that the trousers need a hook & eye, and the top may need a complete overhaul, but other than that....

Firstly the trousers.  I started these in the spring term of my sewing class, had major size issues, welt pockets, and invisible zips.  The fabric was super tricky to work with and frayed like crazy.  I think I may have cut down the size too much, certainly in the waist, and because it frayed sooooo much I thinks the legs might be a bit too slim. Also, one leg seems shorter despite my instructor very carefully doing the length for me.

front

side

back

  And now with an attempt at 'styling' them:

These last 2 pictures are the best views I could get. If I could spend all day standing holding on the the door knob, gazing whistfully of the window, I'm sure the trousers would look lovely!

Secondly, the Lydia top from Burdastyle.  I cut this according to my size on the chart, but, (and this I something need to remember for Burda) it is much too big.  It is a sloppy top, as opposed to a tight (form fitting top?), which is not what I was after.  The fabric was £1 a metre from my sewing teacher.  She has been selling off a collegue's stash after the collegue died and raised nearly £1000 for a local hospice.  I don't know the fibre content, but is very stretchy and I didn't really take this into account when I made the top.  I also forgot other sewists comments that it runs big, so should have made it a couple of sizes smaller.  Here it is as it fits at the moment.  I think it is ok to go under something (I wore it under a bright red deliberately oversized cowl sweater the other day) but when I got hot and took the sweater off, I suddenly felt enormous. It will be altered some how in the not too distant future - whether it will be hack-job or a careful reconstruction, I don't know yet!

front view showing strange folds of fabric over my bust

Possible sway back alteration required?

showing width of top

Pulling the top in for a better fit

 
Coming up, two nearly finished projects, both waiting for hems!

The evolution of the welt pocket...

The trousers that I am making for my sewing class (Burda trousers #105 11/2011), require a welt pocket. I have never done this before, but that is one of the reasons I chose this pattern. The instructions in Burda took a bit of working out and this was my first practice following the instructions:


I googled welt pocket tutorials and found this (it is quite long):


In the end I didn't use the tutorial, I followed my sewing intructor's advice. There is a lot of information out there, much of it conflicting or different enough to cause confusion!

So, here is the evolution of my pocket:

and finally, in the garment:


The fabric was quite tricky to work with as it is quite thick and almost spongy, but I think it turned out ok!

The next challenge is the invisible zippers.  There are three, one at each ankle and one at the waist.  I had to order an invisible zipper foot for my machine, which I rather hoped would come with instructions! Unfortunatley not, so I may be trying Youtube again...