Waiting

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.