Shiny Red Biased Skirt

I wasn't going to enter skirt week at Crafterhours until after I tried playing the organ in one of my skirts and couldn't see my feet. (hopefully one day I'll get to where I don't need to look at my feet but that day is a long way off). I rediscovered a blue skirt my sister gave me six years ago and realized it would actually work. It was cut on the bias and I used it as pattern. I made a practice skirt in challis and then went for the slippery stuff.

With my practice skirt I discovered it was very important to cut it exactly. One side turned out perfect and the other was so so, but still wearable with a long shirt.

The fabric was kind of tricky to cut and sew. I used lots of pattern weights (soup cans) cut and sewed really slow. I picked up these clover wonder clips from the store and they're great b/c they don't leave any holes. I had to be careful to not let them stretch the fabric out with their weight though! I used my walking foot for the side seams and I'm almost embarrassed to write this but this is the first time I pressed and steamed the seams to set them and then pressed and steamed the seams open with a very cool iron. (In my defense, the iron is downstairs and Ansley wants to come with me wherever I go so instead of taking 30 seconds, it took 5 minutes each time I had to iron something). I carefully zigzagged the raw edges (wish I had a serger!) b/c it tended to pucker and pull (I tried adjusting the tension both ways and didn't notice a significant difference) and steamed them again. I zigzagged the raw edges at the bottom and waistband, steamed, and folded under twice, since I don't have a rolled hem foot. Repeat steaming and pressing. I carefully stretched the picot trimmed elastic (it would look better with a colored elastic but I didn't have time to dye it and could only find white, since I waited until the last minute) and clipped it a bunch of times. I tried to sew over the first stitch line from turning the waist under twice and I did better in some places than in others.

Enough talk, here's the skirt:

Front




Back


Swishy motion (probably a better choice than all of my circle skirts in this crazy windy place)



Narrow hem close up


Waistband close up


I think I want to make one in linen or chambray next. :) Maybe it will be easier to sew and not slippery on the bench. . . .