A few weeks ago I had posted about a skirt I was making for my daughter-in-law. It is a simple , nearly straight skirt, with a faced waistband. It is made with some lovely wool that is at least twenty years old and purchased by my mother back when we had actual stores that sold garment fabric in every city and town! What made this skirt a bit challenging is that we wanted slash pockets and, believe it or not, I could not find a pattern with no waistband and slash pockets, so I had to do a bit of drafting.
This ended up being a hybrid of McCall 3830 with the front edited for the slash pockets and pocket facings and linings drafted. We had to play around a bit to get the right distance away from the side seam for the pocket opening.
Because I didn't like the look of the plaid of the pocket facing and the front panel so close together (even though they matched), I inserted some flat piping from a nice black corded fabric I had in my stash. Sheryl didn't want the wool against her skin, so the waistband facings are done in black linen and not the skirt fabric. The skirt is lined with bemberg rayon.
I didn't want the pocket openings to stretch, so both the pocket openings and the waistband have
Sewkeys fusible woven stay tape over the seam line. This is the first time I've used Sewkeys and it is a beautiful stay tape -- very light weight. I found that when I was sewing my side seams, the wool was so smooth and soft that there was a small bit of slippage. Because I wanted the match to be as close as possible I changed to a dual feed or walking foot. Since I'm not a quilter, I don't often find the occasion to use this foot, but it worked so beautifully in keeping my fabric from shifting, that I may employ it more often.
I am happy with the result even though it was a bit of struggle since I was on unfamiliar territory with the pockets. I like when I can learn from something as simple as a skirt and between using the
Sewkeys stay tape for the first time, employing my walking foot to keep my side seams perfectly aligned, in addition to the drafting for the pockets, this simple skirt was a pretty valuable learning experience. We did two muslins so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it fits well! Hopefully she will get to wear it once or twice since it is still in the twenties here in New England!
Slan
