Skirt Fixation – Week 4 – Destash time

Here we are at the last week!

I actually have been destashing this entire time, as I have wayyyyy too much fabric on my shelves!  It was bad before, but then the nearest fabric store to me decided to liquidate.  Well…then…at 50-70% off it was hard NOT to buy more fabric.  I was like one of my kids in a candy store, and had a hard time saying NO!  Alas, here I am with too much fabric and not enough time to sew.

‘Tis a good problem to have, but…

Time to destash some of my horde!

This outfit is inspired by one from Alexander McQueen.  I love this (apart from the angry-I’m-really-hungry model face):

It was from a collection a few years ago, and I love the baroqueness of the mullet vest.  I don’t have an embroidery machine to do all that lovely gold stitching, so I am settling for a gold and black satin brocade that I bought for this vest (a few years ago…it is good and cured).

Plus…belted at the waist to accentuate the fact that I carry my weight there?  Yeah, no thanks on that bit, too.

Instead I drafted a pleated peplum back and fitted princess seamed upper part.  The collar is an extension of the middle front, and then a curved piece is attached from the back.  The back collar has some pretty stiff interfacing in it.  I drafted all of the pieces, and it was quite the endeavor.  I was drafting after I completed part of the vest, so I could get the right placement.  I even did a muslin of the upper part out of denim.  It is partially finished, and I hope to get it lined, too…eventually.

I only purchased 1 yard of the gold and black 45″ brocade, so obviously I needed to use it sparingly.  On the vest I used black satin and the satin brocade.   Plus interfacing.  Yes, another fully interfaced project.  I can pick them, I tell you!

I am not going to lie and say this project was a piece of cake…it wasn’t.  I had to rip out seams several times.  I apparently need to mark my pattern pieces better, because I put some in the wrong way.  Then, I forgot to cut one of the pieces and ended up cutting it out wrong.  Ugh.  Then…THEN! I got it all completed (zipper in and everything) and it was too big!

UGH.

I wanted to just say, “Screw it, good ’nuff”…but after all the time I put into it I wanted to WANT to wear the dang thing.  I took out the zipper, fixed four seams, put the zipper back in and VOILA…she fits!

And she is just lovely.

The inside is almost as pretty as the outside, too!  All the seams are fully enclosed.  No handstitching.  I was sure I was going to have to handstitch, but it came to me how to get it all put together right as I was about to drift asleep one night.  Of course.

Next, we have the skirt part of this outfit.  This is a fitted pencil until just above the knee and then it becomes “swooshy”.  I cut out a basic pencil skirt with darts in the back and a side invisible zipper.  I made yokes on the front and back from satin.  It is also lined down to where the “swoosh, or circle skirt, part begins.  I  trimmed the edges of the hem in almost bias-cut satin.  It was “almost”, as I didn’t have a lot of satin left.  I was cutting it at an angle to the grain, but not full bias.  I am not a big fan of the main black fabric, as it is a thinner polyester that I bought online.  I’d rather buy fabric at a brick and mortar store so I can feel it’s drape and thickness.  This was the only yardage in basic black I had, so I had to pull it from my stash.

The skirt went together pretty well, until I got to here where I cut it to make the front higher than the back:

Make sure it is the front you are cutting and NOT THE BACK.  *Facepalm*  I might have let a few F-words fly when I saw what I did.

So…I used a few of those scraps of satin I barely had left to add a panel on the back of the skirt.  It is now a design element.  Hey, it turned out alright, so that is the important part!

Glamourous modeling pics:

Today is voting day for the contest, so GO VOTE for your favorite.

So, some takeaways from this contest:

• It got me to sew some more for myself and get things on my “wish list” finally completed.  This week was an outfit that I had been wanting to make for quite awhile (like…years!).
• I tend to use the bones of a few basic patterns and modify them.  Four of the tops were from one princess seamed pattern block I drafted, and three of the skirts were modified from a basic pencil skirt pattern.
• I can get a lot sewn when properly motivated!  I didn’t enter this contest to win (which is good since I have been consistently in last place in the voting!), but to get me to sew up some of my overflowing stash.  Mission accomplished.

Now, I need to focus on getting my kids’ costumes completed for Comic Con.  The Girl is going as Elsa and the Boy wants to be a Wizard from Clash of Clans.   The Girl thinks she needs to be more blonde to be Elsa, but I think she is good. 😉