The Super Bowl of Skirt Sewing - a Colette Ginger, a Pamela's Pencil, and something metallic!!

Between Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon, I made 3 skirts!! Two had already been cut out - I'm not that fast. And they're all pretty simple. Now I've got my fill of skirts and its time to move on.

First I made a pink tweed Colette Ginger (again) that I had cut out a while back and never sewed.  Yes, I said pink. I don't really wear pink, but I bought a 5 yard discounted bundle from Gorgeous Fabrics to make a gift for someone, and have quite a bit of leftovers.

I made the usual size 6, added boning to the waistband like the Kokka cat version, and this time made version 2, which is the scalloped waistband.  I added a small strip of horsehair interfacing to the zipper seam allowance to avoid "zipper-ripple".  I turned up the hem twice instead of using lace hem tape because this fabric was fraying all over the place. 

I zigzagged this and then added Fray-Check on top of it.
My kitchen floor looked like I had a brawl with a Muppet or something in here.  

The results:

It's quite pink!
But I think I like it.....
Crappy indoor photos because IT'S RAINING.  Woohoo. 
Interfacing the zipper seam seems to help the ripple issue.  Live and learn.


Overall, I like it, even though it's pink! I really love the scalloped waistband, I think it's my favorite variation.


Then I sewed up a pencil skirt using the Magic Pencil Skirt pattern from Pamela's Patterns. I had wanted a pencil skirt to balance out all of my fuller Hollyburns, and I made a muslin for the Charlotte skirt by By Hand London. The front of the muslin looked great - the back had about a 4" gap. I remeasured myself, rechecked the pattern - but something wasn't adding up. Since that was more of a special occasion pattern than a wear-everyday pattern, I put it aside to revisit and started buying other pencil skirt patterns, including Pamela's. 

I used a nice gray ponte knit from Mood fabrics that was poly-spandex:

I cut a size M, even though my measurements put me at the high end of a size S. I'd rather take it in than look like a sausage. I've been burned before...  
The instructions have you baste the darts and sides, then try it on. When I did, it was a tent! So I took it in 2" on each side and tried it on again. This time I put it on inside out and pinned it to how I wanted it, sewed it again.  All in all I took off about 6", so next time I'd make the S, or maybe the XS? I think there is a fair bit of ease in these, and since its a pencil skirt, I want it more fitted. I also shortened it a bit.  My pencil skirt:
Some minor issues near my butt/hip area. I think I need to move the darts - see below. 


This ponte is really soft. Only $10 a yard, only need 1 yard to make a skirt!!


I fit it as per her excellent instructions, but still have a little bit of swayback sag.
Just a little extra fabric....usually my swayback pooling is much worse.
The darts are a bit wide - out on my hips.
I think next time I'll move the back darts in towards the center a bit, which should help with the extra fabric in back.

It's made with Fantastic Elastic - a garment industry-grade elastic also sold by Pamela.  So far I'm impressed! The waistline looks very smooth.  I will definitely make this my go-to elastic. It's $8 for 4 yards, is 1 1/2" wide, but can be cut to any thickness without unraveling.
Happy with my pencil skirt!
Finally, I made a fun silver skirt using the Lonsdale shape as a guide.  This is some silver metallic lame from Califabrics.com that I'd used for a Jalie scarf top.  I really liked the pleats and wanted to make a skirt that would show them off.  From the Lonsdale skirt, I extended the waist to make a built-in waistband (Magic Pencil Skirt style, since I'd just finished that one), interfaced it, sewed in a zip, and that's it!  

So shiny!




Just something fun, to finish up my 24 hours of skirts!



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