Category: Simplicity 4186

The first project I worked on during sewing week, was not a new project at all but a modification of an existing garment, on that I had, in fact, made last year at sewing week.

The first picture is from 2006 when I finished the skirt.   I loved the skirt.  I have other skirts that length which I also love, including a pleated wool plaid skirt this exact length which I wear constantly, but I don’t wear this skirt.  Although this is my favorite Simplicity skirt pattern (the same one as the blue eyelet) somehow, it is a poor match of fabric, style, and skirt length.  It is exactly what I thought I wanted, but apparently I was wrong.

I took the skirt to sewing week in hopes of finding some way to make the skirt work for me.    We decided to add a band at the bottom of the skirt.  My guess, just from eyeballing the skirt and guessing what width of band looked good with the fabric, was  that I needed a 5 inch band.  Sandra’s more scientific method, based on having me try on the skirt and then measuring where she thought the hem should fall, was for a 5 inch band.  Perfect agreement.

I like this skirt much better.  Technically, I think the length hits my leg at a point that is not the most flattering, and is more difficult to pair with the right shoes/hose.   But I like wearing the skirt much more.  I like the length, I like the way it hangs, I like the feel of the charmeuse hem band.  All in all I think it is a success., although not perhaps with the sweater set shown, for obvious reasons. (updated to add that I am reconsidering the sweater set.  I does go with the skirt, but I am not sure if it doesn’t make me look curvier than my comfort level allows)

I think the skirt will be nice with boots in the winter as well.  I still have the fabric for the planned jacket, and now that I am happier with the skirt I have ideas for that as well.

Navy blue eyelet skirt.

Fabric from Kashi at Metro Textiles.

Pattern:  Simplicity 4186 now OOP, but still available on the simplicity website. 

This is pretty much a TNT pattern for me now.  The only alteration I have made to this pattern is to lengthen it from 22 to 25 inches (shown above) pretty much my standard length for this pattern
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I had originally planned on lining this with navy bemberg rayon, which, it is true, would have been boring and would not have enhanced the eyelet.  Instead I used a light beige-taupe silk/cotton blend that I purchased at Britex Fabrics in San Francisco.  I am very happy with the way it turned out.  I liked the fabric so much, the way it washes, the way it feels when being worn, that I went and bought a bunch more to add to my lining stash.

Since I used the eyelet border as the hem, the skirt was easy-peasy.  I sewed one side seam and put in the pleats before putting in the invisible zipper, and I constructed the lining as much as possible also before joining the two pieces.  Then I sewed the lining and the skirt to the invisible zipper in one step, only having to finish that last seam and join the pieces at the waist.  A narrow band, just wide enough to cover the waist seam, finishes the skirt.

There is precious little to show for my time at camp, but what is there is "cherce".

Pattern:  Simplicity 4186, the same pattern I used for the maroon cotton skirt in August. View D.

Fabric:  Green, pink, and wine wool challis

Lining:  Dark green bemberg rayon

The skirt is meant to sit about an inch below the waist.  This one actually sits about 3 inches below my waist because I forgot that I had lost weight since I made the previous iteration and therefore failed to cut a size smaller.  It still looks nice.

Although I did lengthen the cotton skirt made in August, I did not lengthen the pattern for this skirt.  I wanted this skirt to be shorter than the cotton skirt, about mid-knee, as I have seen several soft pleated skirts in stores and magazines this fall, mostly shown at about knee length.  Although I love a paisley skirt, I felt a longer length would look dowdy and dated.  Hopefully this length, worn with a jacket will look elegant but also fresh. 

Since I used a hem facing (see trim discussion below) the skirt is still longer than specified in the pattern.  The pattern is cut for a 22" skirt; mine is 23".

To make fringed hem, I cut a hem facing piece using the bottom of the skirt pattern.  Then I cut two strips of fabric the same length as the width of the bottom of the skirt.  I seamed the strips together and inserted them between the skirt and hem facing when it was attached.  Then I simply fringed the insert piece.   The facing piece adds weight to the skirt and helps it hang well and also means that the fringe does not need to be permanent.  I can remove the inset piece at any time.

Since this skirt sits on the hip I also felt it would be best not to have a waistband.

First I attached the lining at the invisible zipper.

Then I sewed the lining to the skirt at the waist and pressed it well. 

Next I sewed the washed, and shaped petersham to the seam allowance at the waist, being careful to position the top edge of the petersham so that it would be located just at the turn of the fabric when the skirt was turned right side out.  This kept the seam from being too bulky but still provides stability at the waist.  I think it looks neat and simple.  The paisley is so busy that the finish almost disappears.

After grading and pressing the seams, I made two rows of stitching around the top of the stitch to hold everything in place.  I think it looks very simple  If you click on the photos they should enlarge and you might be able to discern the stitches on the paisley.

The invisible zipper looks clean and finished.  I could have sewn it a little closer and more neatly, but since I tend to err on the side of sewing my invisible zips too close to the zipper teeth, I tried to be cautious here.  Even with a stabilized zipper seam, the challis was fairly ravelly and I was of no mind to deal with ripping out zippers.

And finally, here I am in my finished skirt:

I don’t yet know how it will look with a jacket as none of the jackets I thought would go with it fit.  Apparently I have not lost weight in quite the same distribution as I put it on.  I do have fabric for a jacket, and I suppose I will have to move that further up in the sewing queue, but that can wait for another post.

Finishing the skirt didn’t take much time once I was awake and paying attention.  The delay in posting was mostly caused by finding time and energy to take pictures, that and figuring out which top to wear with it.  I thought I had several things that would go, and I do have quite a few garments in the same colors, but most of them did not work either due to size or shape issues.  Still I have this knitted top for summer, along with the requisite summer tees in several coordinating colors.  I also have several fall sweaters which will work and the color of the skirt will allow it to transition into fall quite well I think.

I like the way the skirt turned out.  I will be using this pattern again for some fall skirts as it was easy, fit well, and is flattering.  I have a couple of pieces of fabric in mind. 

As is my wont I started with a cheap inexpensive cotton fabric, one that I feared might be too light for a skirt, but by the time I finished I ended up with a rather nice garment.  The added piecing at the hem band helped weight the skirt nicely, as did the fact that I faced the hem with the same cotton fabric.  You can see the faced hem below.

The outside of the hem band is on the folded up hem, showing the hem facing with its striped binding is on the right.

I also used the striped fabric to make the narrow waistband:

The fact that it matches the lining so well was just an added bonus.

I lost the sewing spirit for a couple of days there and then, as tends to happen, the weekend was upon us and life got busy once again, going hither and yon.    Sunday was a relatively quiet day however and I got a few hours to play with my ideas for the hem band of the maroon printed skirt.   I played with some striped pieces of Kaffe Fasset cotton and this is what I ended up with:

I had intended to finish the skirt and photograph it today but it was not to be.  Obviously I have been out of the sewing groove far to long as t here were setbacks. 

Most importantly at this point is that I am out of thread:

This was not anticipated.  I had a full unused spool of thread which should have been enough, but last night, either because I am out of practice or I was not paying attention I wound a new bobbin and messed it up, creating a long tangled knot of thread that was not on the bobbin.   I probably have more bobbin thread than I need at this point, but it is easier to just run down to S&S later today and buy another spool or two, especially considering I need a thread stock refill anyway.

I still need to finish the hem band, the inner band has not yet been sewn to the skirt.  I also have to attach the lining and add the waistband.  None of these projects is time consuming or difficult, but they all require thread, more thread than is currently available.

I would sneak up to the sewing room when I had a chance yesterday and look at different fabrics and trims, thinking about the solution for the maroon skirt.  Whenever there would be a lull or a pause in whatever I was working on, my mind would slip away and ponder the possibilities.  Miriam’s suggestion made me think about the skirt in a new light and several alternatives presented themselves…..

but still they weren’t quite right.

By early evening I was ready to escape to my own little fiber refuge and resume construction.   I got the skirt put together and the pleats sewn and the skirt fits beautifully and looks lovely. 

I  certainly have no complaints about this pattern: it is very nice; it goes together easily (its a skirt for goodness sake); it looks nice; it fits exactly the way the pattern says it will for the size chosen; and it looks just like the drawing on the pattern envelope.  That sounds obvious, but often it seems patterns don’t turn out so simply.

As I went downstairs to watch THE CLOSER with George and knit a bit, I suddenly envisioned how I would finish the skirt.

I came back to the sewing room after the show and thought I should finish the seam allowances before I played with the hem.  I didn’t want to serge the seams and I didn’t feel like cutting bias strips from the lining fabric to  bind the edges.  I remembered that I have a roll of rayon seam binding that I found when I cleaned up the sewing space.  It is a beautiful dark green, not the same color as the skirt, and it coordinates beautifully.  As I started to apply it to the skirt I had a sudden vision of it bleeding over my skirt after I put all this effort into it, even though I know it is supposed to be colorfast, so I stitched a bit on a remnant of fabric, washed it, and left it to dry overnight. 

Better safe than sorry after all.

This morning at 5 AM I was relieved to see that the seam binding neither shrank or bled onto my fabric so I promptly went to work meticulously folding the seam binding, pinning it to the skirt and sewing it on.  It looks nice. 

I realized, after I did all this, that my Bernina must have a foot that will accomplish the same task in far less time than I did working by hand. So by 7 AM I was on the web perusing the sewing machine foot options.   Shortly after 9 I phoned S&S, my local Bernina dealer, to see if they had any of the feet I wanted in stock; it did not surprise me that they did not, I doubt they have much call for feet that either fold and apply binding or apply prefolded binding to seams.  So I ordered them, along with a couple of flat fell feet as well, the smaller and the larger one, figuring I might as well order several things at once.  They usually place orders on Thursday and I should have my feet next week.

I can make an apply binding by hand.  I can flat fell seams.  But why make life more difficult than it needs to be.  I keep forgetting that I have a new machine that does all these things that my old beloved machine did not.

Now, why I didn’t think to wash the fabric that I need for the new bottom band last night when I washing the seam binding sample is beyond me.  So I sit.  I washed two fat quarters of Kaffe Fasset striped cotton and I must wait for them to dry.  I did consider running them through the dryer just so I could get back to work right away, but even I am not that profligate with energy that I will run an entire dryer cycle for 1/2 yard of fabric.

I didn’t put on the waistband or attach the lining.  I might want the waistband to match the bottom hem.

But here is the skirt so far:

I like it, I really like it.

After thinking about sewing a few summer skirts, I finally got the ball rolling this weekend. Here we are, summer mostly past and I am finally making another skirt.

Do you remember this fabric?

I originally posted about it on May 28th.  And that seems frightening to me, that I planned on making a simple summer skirt and I am just now making it, nearly two months later.  Where has the summer gone?  Well, I actually do have a few ideas, but let’s not dwell on that.

This is the pattern I am using, Simplicity 4186.  It is a very simple, one pattern piece skirt.  There are two options, pleats that run straight up and down, and pleats that are angled out from the center.

I have no idea which skirt will look best on me at the moment.  I haven’t made a pleated skirt for some time so I opted for the straight up and down pleats.  That is one of the interesting things about sewing, it is always a guessing game.

Saturday night I traced the lining pattern and sewed the lining.  So far so good.

Sunday night I traced the skirt pattern, and cut the skirt.  I kind of have mixed feelings about the skirt.  I love the fabric but I am not sure I will love the skirt yet.  It was an inexpensive cotton from JoAnn Fabrics so I figured that if the skirt works and I like the pattern I have a skirt I can wear for the summer.  If it doesn’t work, either fabric-wise or pattern-wise, I have at least made a muslin, and hopefully, learned something.  I am always hoping that I will learn something, especially when I don’t end up with wearable goods, but sometimes I have my doubts about this.

OK, on to the skirt.

Saturday I traced, cut, and sewed the lining

Sunday night I traced the skirt pattern and cut the skirt fabric.

I still had doubts, but went ahead anyway.  I made an extension for the contrast band to go at the bottom of the skirt and started cutting the green fabric.  When I placed the first piece on the skirt, I did not like it.  Yet, ever hopefull, I cut the remaining strips.  Still not good as you can see below.

The green is much too bright and does not go with the skirt.  I wonder what I was thinking when I purchased these two fabrics together.  Did I not see that the green was too bright?  Obviously not.  It seems I was running with the vision in my head, completely oblivious to the fact that the reality of the materials were not going to yield that ever-elusive dream result.

I do not have enough fabric to recut the skirt, but I do have enough to add bands of the same fabric at the bottom.  Perhaps I have a decorative ribbon that I can use at the seamline between the two pieces.  Perhaps I have another piece of fabric that will work as a contrast band?   Perhaps all these options were overwhelming my poor, tired, frustrated brain.

When you hit a wall, go to bed.  Words to live by.  And so, I did.

Today, I will construct the skirt and see if Iit fits and if it looks good on me and I like it.  Then, having passed those three critical tests, it will be time to see what can be done about replacing the bottom piece and bringing the skirt to a wearable length.