Finally Finished Skirt - New Look 6056

It's finally done, and to be fair, it is an easy pattern that took me far longer to do than it should.

The skirt is a circle skirt, made from two panels cut on the bias and sewn together, with a waistband and zip.  There are no real complex steps to this, however the sheer volume of fabric can be daunting.

My biggest issue was with the lining I decided to add.  The fabric, a lovely blue satin lining fabric from Pennine Fabrics (£1 per meter!) was a bit of a nightmare to work with, being very slippy. The hem that I did is dreadful, but I can live with it for a first real project.

For the skirt, I opted to follow this tutorial from Colletterie, which worked brilliantly and I have a lovely even hem.

I forgot to take a photo of the skirt close up, and will add one when I remember, but I chose to wear it to go to the Graduate Show for the Art School in Aberdeen, where a few of my friends were showing their work.  A few drinks may have been provided, and I found myself having great fun spinning around in my new skirt...

The skirt cost me around £25 to make once all postage is taken into consideration.  The main material was £2.50 a meter from Greens of Blackburn, who unfortunately appear to have stopped trading online.  As I said before, the lining was a steal at £1 per meter, and I really can't rate Pennine Fabrics highly enough.  I needed 200m of Gutermann thread and one zipper.

I got lots of compliments about the skirt, which felt great, there really is something about being able to say that you made it when asked what shop it is from.  What have you made that gets the most comments?

So, next project is a top to go with the skirt, I have some issues with the pattern, so I'll be addressing them as I go along.

Attaching my waistband to New Look 6056

So last night I finally got round to progressing my New Look 6056 skirt, which is from their Project Runway collection.

I had already done most of the work, it just needed the waistband attached and hemmed, but as it is a circle skirt, the hem is a little daunting.

The instructions to attach the waistband were clear, although I think I went a bit wrong on sewing the ends which form an overlap tab for a hook and eye, as they look a bit odd and are a bit too narrow.  Still, they will work and for a first attempt I'm happy with it.

The most difficult part involved stitching in the ditch.  This is where you sew in the stitch line of a previous step so that the new stitching is invisible.  This scared me a bit, and I decided to hand crank my machine rath than use the foot pedal so that I would have a little more control.  This was laborious, but worth it for the result.

The first step was to fold over the waistband and press it, making sure that the inside edge was slightly below the original stitching line.  This is very important and I got is wrong in a couple of places so had to rest itch it as the waistband hadn't caught the stitching.

Next, line up your needle with the 'ditch'.

 

I then hand cranked the machine all along the stitch line, noticing when the needle felt like it was going through too much and checking my alignment.

I'm really pleased with the end result, it looks pretty professional

This is the inside

The outside looks really neat too

Now I just need to hem it and I will have a finished skirt, hopefully by the end of the weekend.

What sewing do you have planned?