Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Sewing Stuff - Blues Skirt Part 2

So because Monday was a holiday I actually had spare time to sit down and start my sewing project, something that I've been looking forward to ever since I made the first post about it. I put some fun swing music on and decided to get started. So here we go, step by step the construction of The Blues Skirt.
(Complete with hipster camera filter!)

Step 1: I laid out my fabric and folded it over, wanting to cheat a little and use the fold part as the bottom section so that I wouldn't have to hem it. I figured it would look cleaner this way and would probably lay straighter.

Step 2: I folded the fabric again, this time the opposite way and pinned down the sides. Creating a tube shape.
Step 3: I sewed up that line, being careful to pull the fabric as I sewed it since it was a semi spandex material. You can also see from the below picture a better view of the bottom fold/hem.
Step 4: I slipped it on to make sure I hadn't made it to small, so far so good but boy does that top look sloppy.
Step 5: Next up was to put the elastic top into the skirt, there are a few different ways that you can do this. I know my friend Melody sews it directly on and into the area but I always find that I fuck it up more when I do it that way. So my way, is a way my aunt taught me when I was little. You fold the fabric over and sew it, then you attach a safety pin to your elastic (which has already been measured to fit your waist/hips) and feed it through the loop. Like below.
Step 6: Once the elastic has been fed through the loop you sew it together and un-scrunch the fabric. So far so good!
Step 7: See? Looks much cleaner! I was tempted to leave it as is since god knows I love a good pencil skirt but I already have a blue one and the idea was to replicate the one I saw in the video so it was time to create the slit. I debated if I should put the slit on the same side as the sewing line but though it would look weird with the buttons so I marked where I wanted the slit to go with a bit of chalk and then pinned it so the fabric wouldn't slide around.
Step 8: I cut up that line and then out a little, creating a bit of a triangle shape. I tried it first with just the line cut up and hemmed but it started to bunch up so I cut out the triangle and it worked much better. It sat nicer on my thigh and looked intentional and not just like a sewing mistake. I then marked out where the buttons should go and sewed them on.
Step 9: It was right around this time that I forgot that I had been doing laundry while all of this and had to run downstairs to make sure no one was stealing my underthings.
But when I came back I slipped on my creation and took a look see at my handiwork.
Looks pretty good to me! But I wanted to test it out with something other than my slum 'hanging around the house' clothes.
And voila! A more appropriate hair style and white tank top and I think it is ready to be worn out on the town.

Total time to make: 2 hours
Total cost: 15$
Things I learned while making this item: using a zig zag stich on semi spandex fabric is better than a straight stitch, when making slits do a triangle and not straight line, and finally don't do laundry at the same time as sewing projects because you WILL forget and look like an asshole for leaving your stuff in the washing machine for over an hour.....

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