Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Procrastination: BWOF 3/2007 #122 Skirt

Now I have about 6 UFOs in the sewing room: the sleeveless summer dress for which I was lacking supplies (I am no longer lacking supplies, but am now lacking motivation, having waited too long); a turtleneck for Mario; 2 baby dresses for a friend (both almost done); a pair of cargo pants based on the Jalie jean pattern (cargo pockets all constructed, feline assistant knocked the butt-pocket placement off and I got sidetracked prior to fixing) and now I have the threat of theater sewing descending upon me.

So what did I do this weekend? I made a skirt. I didn't pull one of my unfinished projects out. As a matter of fact, I shoved them all (somewhat neatly) down to the far end of the table and made a skirt. A skirt I'd had no intention of making at all until someone's snoring kept me awake Friday night and I started thinking about spring clothes again.

This is BWOF 3/07 #122, a skirt I liked enough the first time around to have made it in March 2007. I like it for several reasons: first, I don't have that many long skirts anymore, but I think this one is flattering, and also because the piecing - yoke and 3 panels front and back - gives me an opportunity to play with fabric. Which needs to be done, seeing that BWOF recommends using 3 yards of fabric for this skirt, and I only had 2. The same happened with my 2007 version; I ran out of the sequin-embroidered cotton before I cut out the yoke, so that was cut from a matching brown textured stripe and I appliquéd leftover sequined flowers to it.

This time, I just used one fabric, a silk/cotton gauze from Paron's (about 2 years old). I loved the print itself, but the stripe is a little close together, which you can see from the cutting layout. Using it horizontally or vertically wasn't going to work, so instead I cut it up in all directions at once, and liked it much better. Some of the pieces are cross-grain, some are straight, and I cut the yokes on the bias so that I could border them in leftover bits of the stripe. I had one long piece of the stripe left (40", the strange width of the fabric), and I gathered it and sewed it on to the skirt front from the yoke bottom to the side zip. I added an extra stripe to the back as well, but didn't ruffle it as I was running low on scraps.

Since the fabric is so lightweight, and because I cut the yoke on the bias, I underlined just the 2 yoke pieces with some lightweight cream linen left over from last summer's Chocolate Swirl dress. Because I didn't want any shifting, I also stitched along the stripes in 2 places on the front and back, just for extra stability. This baby's going nowhere!

This was not at all what I intended for this fabric when I bought it, but it's apparently a better idea, since I came up with it and finished it in 48 hours.

Sometimes you just have to listen to the fabric. I wish one of my UFOs would pipe up and say, "Finish me!" I promise I'd listen.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

love the skirt! Wish I had the pattern. It looks so fun for spring.

Maureen

Linda L said...

Cute skirt!

Little Hunting Creek said...

So pretty!

Lisette M said...

Really fun skirt Karen!

Irene said...

Lovely skirt. A very interesting use of stripes.

Kitty Couture said...

I really love your skirt!

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

I would really like to see this on you because the draped pieces probably have such a nice flow to them!

Anonymous said...

Love the placement of the fabric. Gosh this is inspiring!

gwensews said...

How cute! I love all the angles. The thing about UFOs--they will remain that way for you until (or IF) you want to change them.

SEWN said...

Great skirt!!! Yeah, let's see it on you please.