Spring has come...sort of...still cold!

Well, I have to say that 2 skirts involving the arrival of the vernal equinox has put me in the mood for French style prints.

Let me say, when I started these in mid-March, I had plenty of things on the go.  I was dealing with a school final exam, resident hummingbirds that sip me out of a house and home, work and the usual things that clog up our daily routine but I managed to keep trekking on with my projects.

First off, let me express my love for antiquated French prints.  One of them is Toile du Jouy, which has been kicking around since the 18th century and that are available in many textures and colours. So, this means it really has never gone out of style and it is so popular for home decorating that you can extend that to making garments because I know that some décor fabrics are not that heavy and is acceptable for garment use.

I also went back  to Hamel's Fabrics which technically is a quilting store, but, as I said, you can use quilting cottons for garments and I looked under the Floral prints and found this print:

Yeah, I'm the bitch that took the last of this printed cotton.

Isn't it lovely??!!!!  They have it a red-cranberry background which I will be going back for(well...duh) really soon.

Here are the company's view of the skirts:

 

And the Toile du Jouy that I bought which was a heavier cotton:

And, this brought forth 2 new skirts to make for the warmer weather look, looking chic, style appropriate, and an all round knock-out.

I can't get enough of Toile du Jouy it's sickening!  I also have my bedroom quilt in this and another skirt that I had made for me about 11 years ago, which is awesome and still wear today and my everyday go-to skirt.

For the grayscale Toile I used Simplicity 2257 in view C, which I changed some things in the general construction:

1. Made the belt carriers wider instead of sewing them more in the centre of the yoke front and back.
2. DID NOT add that gruesome wide trim they had on the cover picture.  It may have been better if it was not so wide.
3. Edge-stitched the yoke facings to the skirt seam as you would with a neckband on a blouse 
4. Serge finished all of my seam edges because this skirt wasn't lined.
5. Hand sewn my makeshift blind stitch.  I REALLY want a blind hemmer machine!

For the other skirt I chose to redo Simplicity 5259 view F in size 16. As you may recall it was 1 of 3 black skirt/white flower series but this time I just wanted a more simpler one which the fabric print can do the talking for me and not the embroidery statements I have done.

Here are the close-ups of the changes that I made to Simplicity 2257

Edge-stitched belt carriers on the seam for skirt and facing for a wider space
for belts of varying widths.
This method didn't cause my machine to spit, sputter and seize up  with the bulk of the carriers and the yoke!

Edge-stitched facing on the seam line like a neckband facing on a blouse

Left biased hand stitched blind hem.  (I am left handed)

So, that is it for this particular Spring run.  I have more coming! 

Stay tuned!!!

Simplicity 5259 Skirt completed!!

Yay!  It's done.

This is my second skirt from this pattern that I made.  This one is View F with the slit in the left front.  This was a very easy skirt to make, but in my case it always takes longer because I tend to do a lot of thread painting on my pieces which can stall a project for up to 3 weeks depending on my work or school schedules, so I usually give it a good 3 weeks to finish the handiwork anyway.

Looking at the envelope, the finished project is supposed to look like the one featured on the front, so,

And I made mine in black, not fushia(YUCK!!)

I had an idea come to me as I was thinking of making view F and thought about putting a white flower above the slit on the left front along the seam line.  I have lots of books with projects of white flowers and I came across one that I copied (with minor alterations to leaf structure)from Trish Burr's Redoutes Finest Flowers in Embroidery, that was labelled Le Lys Blanc and I had to do this one.  So for reference, here is the book front cover, in case anyone is familiar with it:

So, in having a nice white flower on the front it gave it a nice contrast which is what I was going for.  I did make some substitutions for colour schemes in the buds of the lillies, and I also didn't pad the work for dimension because I figured it would be kind of messy when it comes to dry cleaning time.

For this project I used:

1.5m of cotton twill in black
DMC embroidery floss in off white, ecru, optic white, varying shades of green, yellow, orange
1- 18cm invisible zipper (black)
black thread(I love JP Coats-always works for me)
black serging thread (if needed)
black medium weight sew-in interfacing for facing at waist level.

Now, onto the actual pictures:

Step 1:

Put the skirt fronts together.  DO NOT sew the 2 back halves to the fronts yet.  Finish the seam where the embroidery is going to go.  When you work on areas that have not been finished, you will lose your fabric to fraying.

Step 2:

Prepare your image on your fabric by using a trace of the flower.  Pin trace onto the fabric and use an appropriate fabric pen or pencil.  Since I have  black fabric, I need to use a white marker that will mark finer lines.  DO NOT use tailors chalk.  It's too thick. I suppose a tracing wheel might work but we got some very small detailing and fuddy-duddy areas, so, no.

Pin tracing paper onto the spot where you want

Step 3:

Start embroidering!!  Whatever method you use, it doesn't matter.  Make sure your hoop is drum tight.




Progress

 



Progress








Finished!

 

Step 4:

BASTE FIRST BEFORE SEWING PERMANENT STITCHS!!!

Sew in the invisible zipper in the centre back.  I always use invisible zippers on skirts because they are very easy to install.  When dealing with commercial patterns, they always give you 1.5cm allowance.  I usually use a wide serge finish that actually measures 0.5cm(5 mm), so, in placing the zipper in the centre back, all that needs to be done is setting the edge of the zipper tape with the serge finish.  This will only work if your serge is 5 mm, otherwise, readjustments need to be made. 

Now, when I sew Marfy patterns, sometimes I only add 1cm allowance for invisible zippers, which by itself is enough for invisible zippers, but commercial patterns have a lot of extra "room", so, that's why  do what I do with commercial patterns

Baste in the zipper.   I line up the zipper tape with the edge of the serge finish to line up the seam below zipper

Step 5:

Apply interfacing to the facing along the waist area. 

Since this pattern originally intended the outcome to be unlined, we need the facing. If you want to line this puppy, all that needs to be done is reverse the skirt front and back for the lining right sides and sew together as you would with the fashion fabric.  Then, since you are sewing the lining to the bottom part of the facing, you may need to cut the top part of each skirt front and back below the top so that the distance will match the bottom distance of the facing.  I think the top of the skirt isn't as wide, so I will get back on that later, and I will explain more in detail.

Otherwise, I left this unlined because I didn't have anything of aesthetic value to add to this, nor do I have enough of what I had.

***I will line this.  WHY?  It will preserve the life of the embroidery from wear and tear.  I am on it!!!***

Step 6:

As for the hem, it is a simple matter.  3.2cm(1-1/4 inch) standard hem from commercial companies is common, so I don't have a fancy blind hemmer machine and I can't get my blind hemmer stitch on my machine to be of any use to me,  so I hand stitch it.  It is so fast!  It looks like a cross between a herringbone stitch and a whip stitch, but it works!

The slanted hem stitch from R to L because I am a southpaw



And that sums up this project.

Bye for now!!  Stay tuned for the lining!!!