A simple skirt

I have been updating my blog and noticed that I wrote this post but did not publish it in April 2012.

Written April 2012

I am very excited to make this post as I have finished making my first skirt. Hurrah!

I have always liked the idea of making my own clothes however it has taken a while for my skills to catch up with my ideas.

This was my first time to work from a commerical pattern, and I must have bought the pattern about 8 years ago, took one look at it and get very confused. Being slightly older and wiser I was determined to figure it out.

The pattern I used is Butterick 6834, 'nine sew fast and easy' The pattern is for sizes 12, 14, 16, UK.

Firstly it took me a while to work out even how much fabric I needed and how it all works.

I am in my twenties and although at school have always used cm and metres, at home I used inches for this aswell, and always used ounces for cooking measurements. I often use inches for measuring as it is easier for quilting and sewing and most people talk of 1/4 inch seam allowance etc. However, I buy fabric in metres. 

So on the pattern we have imperial in English and metric on the French side. I used the cm as I find it more accurate, even though it is French. I digress.....

The skirt was to be an a line skirt with a lining, a zip at the centre back and 4 darts. The front is made up of 1 piece and the back of 2 pieces, joining at the zip line.

It mostly went ok, there was alot of reading and re reading, discussions with my mum on how it could work, and eventually I figured it out. I was pretty pleased with my zip insertion, and think it was ok for a first time in a garnment.

There was a band of intefacing which went inside the lining and that helped the skirt to have shape on the top.

I am pleased with the outcome, it fits well and I think I can wear it out an about without any strange looks. 

A couple of issues were that, you can see the top of the zip does not match up, I think this is to do with how I folded the top hem and that I had cut off some of the top of the zip while figuring out how the hemming and folding would work. I don't plan on tucking a top into this, so no one will see it.

Another bad point is that in the lining of the skirt, I have not folded back any of the seams (not sure of right wording for this) so the edges of the fabric are exposed to fraying. I realised this later on and therefore cut the interfaced band with pinking shears to make it fray less.

I also used navy blue thread as the flower fabric is blue, however my lining is black so should have changed thread when doing lining.

New techniques and materials used

* Reading a pattern, cutting a pattern.

*Sewing darts

*Inseting a lining

*Sewing a zip

Flower fabric, no name

Black lining fabric

Blue 7 inch zip

Gutterman polyester thread, navy blue.

Label

Shopping list

*Boyds, Lincoln

*Callyco, Lincoln