Skirt--it fits and it is finished!

Goal number three on my June list was to make myself a skirt. I'm taking a trip and could use a few clothing items. While my weight has changed little--I fight five pounds all of the time--, my body shape has changed. I'm round where I used to be flat and more round in the curved places. Little fits in ready made to wear items. I hate shopping and I DETEST trying on clothing.

Fabric

Last month, my friend, Sandy, gifted me a lot of her sewing fabrics, books and patterns as she decided that she would rather paint than quilt. I even have some of her unfinished projects. One of the fabrics was this gorgeous sheer fabric and she had a skirt pattern to pair with it. There was also a blouse fabric and pattern too but, that is for another day! 

I looked at the pattern and thought that I could easily alter it to fit me. That pattern had one seam, a hem and an elastic waist finish. I thought I could make the skirt in an afternoon. Once again I underestimated the amount of time it would take me to make the garment. 

The pattern

Day one--First, while I had fabric, pattern and thread, the pattern wasn't large enough for me. My friend is smaller than me. After taking my measurements and comparing them to the pattern, I realized that I needed to draw a new pattern. 

Because I didn't have pattern material, it was off to Joann Fabrics to purchase some. Then I drew off the pattern which included the alterations.  

Day two--Next up was cutting out the skirt. My friend is shorter than I am. The yardage wasn't enough after I had made the alterations to the pattern. I spent a day contemplating options. In the end, I pieced the lower skirt. I was able to cut out the skirt.

Finished skirt

Day three--I started sewing, thinking that in a few hours, I'd have a finished skirt. I sewed a right side to a wrong side. I sewed a top to a bottom--I wouldn't figure this out until at the end of the day! There was a lot of ripping. This is a polyester fabric and it wouldn't press on the synthetic setting on my iron. I turned the iron up; but, I wasn't able to actually press the fabric. Honestly, I wasn't brave enough to continue turning up the heat as I was afraid that I would melt my fabric. I was using a scrap; but, I didn't want to have to clean the iron! 

At the end of day three, I was putting the outer and inner skirts together when I discovered that I had made the sew a bottom to a top error. I ripped out half a hem and two French finished seams. Ugh!! If I were to make this pattern again, I would add notches to the waist edge so I didn't repeat that last experience!

Day four--I began the day sewing the waist of the skirts together. I sewed them wrong because the under skirt ended up on top! More ripping happened. I repined. . .correctly this time and re-stitched. A little trimming, a casing stitched and elastic inserted, I FINALLY had a finished skirt. 

Hand dyed fabrics

This project used five yards of fabric. But, I ordered seven yards of hand dyed fabrics so total of fabric used from my stash is negative one and quarter yards! I ordered the fabric from Vicki Welsh over at Colorways by Vicki. Ordering the fabric was goal number nine on my June list. Vicki makes the most luscious hand dyed fabric and is a gem to work with. She is a GEM!

I have some bigger finishes in the pipeline. I'm linking to Cynthia and Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework because I needed to piece the scraps together to make this skirt!