Vogue 8363 Archives - Page 2 of 3

sage skirt, sage skirt, ivory top, orange hand warmers

31/08/2016 1:48 pm \ 29 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve got a small handful of new stuff to ~~show off~~ present … four things to be precise!

Firstly, two sage green/pale coffee, checked tweed skirts. I inherited this beautiful quality piece of wool tweed from my grandmother’s stash after she passed away. Although I earmarked it straight away as two skirts for Cassie and myself I just hadn’t got around to it and have sat on it all this time. It was one of those fabrics I couldn’t bring myself to cut into… you know, inherited from Granny, plus exceptionally good quality, equals inevitable thoughts of sewing tragedy followed by eternal self-damnation…. but I’m making myself get over that nonsense nowadays. Make it! Enjoy it! Live dangerously! So, finally… it helps too that I think Cassie has now grown into fabric of this calibre 😉 not that she didn’t deserve high quality fabrics before, but you know what I mean! it’s very much a grown-up fabric and makes a very smart little work skirt for her now that she has a serious and professional career. The fabric really is beautiful stuff… fine and evenly woven, and there are flecks of all sorts of colours in with the sage green/coffee check… blue, red and gold, caramel brown, forest green, and a hint of purple and black. It has no identifier on it but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a fully English tweed. My grandmother was very much into that sort of thing 🙂
Also, this is possibly the first time that my fabulously neutral garage wall has failed me in showing up a garment nicely!! it blends in way too much here! Maybe the gorgeous fabric shows up better in Cassie’s picture, below. Here, she is wearing her skirt with this caramel coloured merino tee that I made for her previously.

Both skirts are pretty much identical, apart from the size, of course!! Both made using Vogue 8363; the waistbands and pocket linings are cut from cotton calico, and the lining is a beige polyacetate. Ivory/beige invisible zips in both skirts, closure by a wide hook and eye, and I cut the linings big and eased the extra fullness into the waistband with big pleats, for some wearing ease. As always, I like to hand-stitch the waistband facings and lining down on the inside, much neater I think and the fabric deserved a really nice finish 🙂

Next up, a little top for Cassie! we bought this ivory/grey cotton French terry while we were in Japan recently… and can I just say… OmigawdthisfabricisthemostGORGEOUSstuff and I would sob with pitiful happiness if only I knew I could go back to Japan again… *sigh* When Cassie moved out of home she left this fabric behind and I almost started to factor it into my own plans mwahahahahaha… but of course she hadn’t forgotten it, o no! The reason she had deviously left it behind was so that I could make something for her with it! HA! She chose the wings top from Pattern Magic 3, modified so as to have the wings gone; I’ve made this for myself once previously too, and I like Cassie’s new one so much I’m now wondering why I threw mine away! I left the lower edge raw so it curls up nicely, and the sleeve edges and neckline I overlocked the raw edge, turned it under once and did a nice discreet little zig-zag to finish it. It looks quite nice, I think.

Item number four, and actually this is nothing to write home about really… I refashioned the fabric from an old woollen jumper of Craig’s into cosy new hand warmers for me. I have my nice sheen green knitted hand warmers, that I’ve been wearing all winter, but! It’s still cold, I’m bored to tears with all my winter clothes and I just really fancied a new colour. And the jumper was such a divinely rich tangerine-y colour and going begging because it had developed a large moth hole in the front. Also, it had felted and shrunk a little bit when some careless person had accidentally tossed it in with too hot of a wash, tut tut *whistles innocently* and I have NO IDEA who that could have been, hum de hum!!! Anyway!! I cut open the whole jumper, assessed for holes, and cut out two rectangles, carefully avoiding said holes and a few stains. I kept the ribbing intact for the bottom edge, and cut holes for my thumbs, overstitched those all nice and secure, and sewed the long side up. I put them so the seams are on the outside because I liked the bobbly look of them, then sewed a little casing in the top edge and inserted a ring of elastic so they stay up my arm. Bam! and bob’s your uncle. New hand warmers, and making use of an old thing that would have otherwise been tossed out. WIN!

Details:

Item 1)

Top; Burdastyle 04/2014-111, white bobbly stuff, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363, sage green/coffee check wool tweed
Tights; my own pattern, black stretch stuff, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; made by me, my own design, details here

item 2)

Top; drafted by me, caramel coloured merino wool, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363, sage green/coffee check wool tweed

item 3)

Top; the wings top from Pattern Magic 3, ivory French terry cotton knit

item 4)

Handwarmers: made from an old jumper
Tshirt; self-drafted, dyed black cotton jersey, details here
Skirt; Vogue 1247, dyed purple denim, details and my review of this pattern here
Cardigan; Miette knitted by me, details here
Cowl; knitted by me to my own design, details and my original pattern is here
Tights; my own pattern, black stretch stuff, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; made by me, my own design, details here

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Cassie, daily outfit, handwarmers, Pattern Magic 3, Sienna, skirt, top, Vogue 8363, Wardrobe Refashion

a palace skirt

16/01/2016 3:37 pm \ 50 Comments \ Carolyn

The latest instalment in my quest to “fun up” Cassie’s work wardrobe…

I dub thee the Palace skirt. Fabric a soft, heavy, slightly stretch sateen from Fabulous Fabrics. Of course. Pattern; Vogue 8363, my other favourite skirt pattern. Those discreet, yet deep, slanted pockets; so chic and so useful!

I had to buy quite a bit of the fabric in order to get the full printed panel and so as to have it centred on the skirt both front and back, and I only just managed to get the pieces out! Meaning, there was more wastage than I can normally tolerate… oh well, them’s the breaks when you choose an obvious large-scale print like this! The only downside.. notoriously fabric-hungry. 🙁 I only have the most awkwardly shaped scraps left. Oh well, it was worth it. I absolutely adore the print and am so damn happy with this skirt, I think it looks just gorgeous on her. I want one too!!

So I’m sending my daughter out into the world with naked men printed on her clothing… It’s art, ok?

And also, don’t you just hate it when people boast smugly about their perfect pattern matching?
*proceeds to boast smugly about my perfect pattern matching*

Actually, the print placement at the back gave me serious pause, and I’m talking specifically about that door there, ahem. I didn’t want to have the print off, I really wanted all of that magnificent palace room to be there on the skirt as beautifully as it appears on the fabric and just could’t see any way around the door, or any way of eliminating it either, but it just had to be there, right boom in the centre back of the skirt. The best way I could think of doing it was just to have it there, no apologies,and to make sure the print matched up as well as I could.

Pale silver-grey invisible zip from Fabulous Fabrics as well, all raw edges inside are overlocked inside to finish, and I finished all the edges before sewing the seams, so as to get maximum lee-way in matching up the print on the side seams as well. I managed to cut the pockets from the self fabric, only one had to be pieced at the bottom due to the difficulty in cutting out around that print satisfactorily. The pocket lining, pictured above, is silver-grey polyacetate lining fabric, scraps from le Stash.

The final verdict from the recipient…? “I can’t wait to wear it to work on Monday!”

Details:

Skirt; Vogue 8363, stretch sateen, my original review of this pattern here
Tshirt; Cotton on

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Cassie, skirt, Vogue 8363

the difficulty of black lace…

27/07/2015 8:51 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

… is in getting it to show up in a picture. My new skirt looks completely boringly plain in these pictures, which just proves it; the camera does lie! Actually it has a rather beautiful lace appliquéd tulle overlay. I guess I just fail at photography.

The appliquéd tulle came from the remnants table at Fabulous Fabrics and is so lovely that I was helpless to resist it when I saw it there. Then again, I rarely do. My relationship with the remnants table is somewhat akin to that of a vulture to a carcass, ahem.
Anyway, there’s not much else to say about the skirt except that it is fulfilling a desire for a black lace skirt that I have had for a loooooong time! so it’s kind of funny to me that it’s taken me this long to realise that desire. I think I’m generally more of a whimsical seamster than a methodical or practical one, although I try very hard to be the latter.
It’s actually a very comfortable skirt. The appliqued tulle is underlined with a black rayon crepe, a quite heavy and substantial fabric; both fabrics are quite crease-resistant too which also makes it almost… practical? dare I claim that for a lace thing! 🙂 and I lined the skirt with black polyacetate lining fabric. All fabrics are from Fabulous Fabrics.

I used Vogue 8363, one of my favourite skirt patterns. I say; “one of the favourites” meaning like top five material, easily. I’ve just counted and I’ve made eight skirts from it! not too shabby if I say so myself, not too shabby. This pattern is a terrific one; with lots of variations and different views. This skirt is a version that isn’t any one particular view, but I used the pattern pieces that gave me those lovely and very deep, front slanted pockets, an un-pleated one piece front and a back with CB zip.

I aligned the lace motifs to match each other up around the skirt and at the CB seam as best as I could, and used up all of my remnant bar a couple of scraps. Yay!
I cut the lining using spliced together Vogue 1247, cut longer so it sits just 2.5cm shorter than the skirt.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 8363 lined, black lace and black rayon crepe, my review of this pattern here
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, of dk olive linen, details here and my review of this pattern here

Also I have been doing a tiny amount of unselfish sewing… I made a caramel-coloured merino wool top for Cassie, using fabric we bought in Melbourne’s the Fabric Store during our last girly trip away. I used a pattern that I have custom-fit to Cassie; based upon my own custom-fit Tshirt pattern; itself originally based upon a Burdastyle Tshirt top, the details of my “custom-fitting saga” here. I thought I had lost my own pattern, which was a pretty heartbreaking state of affairs, but I recently found it again. I had just stuffed it into the wrong pattern envelope, seems so obvious now but still I could have wept for joy when I discovered it. I’d been thinking hmmm, really should get onto properly fitting that Tshirt pattern again, but it just seemed insurmountably difficult so I’d kept putting it off. Plus it’s winter, and too cold for all that, too.
Anyway, I found it!

The Tshirt does look a whole tonne better on an actual person with arms, however its intended person had to suddenly hurry away for an important social engagement and I was too impatient to wait for her to return to perform modelling duties. It has long sleeves, a scooped neckline finished with a folded band as described in my tutorial here, and with sleeve and hems finished with my twin needle. There was an awkwardly small piece of merino left over which was too small for anything on its own but too big and too nice a fabric to throw away. So I cut the ends square and straight and now it is a scarf.
I might borrow the scarf occasionally 😉

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, daily outfit, scarf, skirt, top, Vogue 8363

Patched pockets

20/03/2014 8:20 am \ 42 Comments \ Carolyn

Just to provide further proof of my predilection for unusual clothing … please allow me to present my new skirt.
This skirt is the love-child of four old pairs of jeans. They were a bit battered but in favourite colours, and had fabric in some areas still in pretty good knick. Charcoal denim (Cassie’s), olive green corduroy, olive green moleskin and chocolate moleskin (Craig’s). The chocolate moleskins had previously been nibbled away at to produce the Brown parliament.

The skirt pattern is another offspring of Vogue 8363; yes, the very same as my previous big baggy pockets skirt. Quite different, yes?! That’s the beauty of a well-drafted good basic pattern like this one, you aren’t limited to the plain unadorned versions, which obviously have their place in any well-rounded wardrobe too! but my point is that you are only limited by your imagination 🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed making this. For a start it’s re-using old unwanted textiles, always an activity dear to my heart. I am in the fortunate position that when my family is tossing out cruddy old clothes they tend to lob them my way first.
And I love puzzles, and making this skirt was a fun puzzle. This was a joyful and totally engrossing project where I happily zoomed along, cutting out on the laundry floor, up and down, rushing to the sewing machine, the iron; slicing and piecing away without any thought to time passing. Bliss…

I used the pattern variation that allowed for front slanted pockets, and made whole skirt front and whole skirt back pattern pieces from newspaper, re-drawing the side seams on both front and back to be just slightly more flared and A-line than the pencil lines of the pattern although not quite as pronounced as for my big baggy pockets skirt.

I unpicked and re-used the waistband from the charcoal jeans and made use of its resident buttonhole although I sewed on a new flat button that won’t dig into the small of my back when I’m sitting back in a chair. I also re-used the waistband of the chocolate jeans to finish the lower hem, putting its button and buttonhole at the front. It wasn’t long enough to do the full hemline of the skirt, so I made a filler piece and a few extra belt loops and repositioned all the belt loops to distribute them evenly and hide the joining seams. I also saved the fly front off the olive green moleskins and re-used it for the skirt closure at the centre back, although retrospectively I’m not in love with this. It’s quite a bulky fly with a heavy duty jeans zip, but I guess the look of it is in keeping with the whole cobbled together, rough-and-ready look of the skirt.

I cut the patches so as to keep lots of pockets from the various jeans. The skirt actually has eight pockets in total!… in addition to the two regular slanted front hip pockets that I sewed as part of the pattern; there are two patch pockets, three welt pockets and one curved side pocket in it. I only did this for fun, for the aesthetics of them, but they are all still functional.

It’s just a bit of silliness really, but I like off-beat random patchwork-y stuff like this 🙂
Inspiration? Well, I’ve pinned like a tonne of this sort of thing… this Isabel Marant dress, this mystery jacket, and also Yoshimi’s jeans from a few years ago. Also, while I was busy laying down patches and switching around different shapes and sizes, this cottage kept popping into my head. Now a cottage probably seems like an off-the-wall (ha!) inspiration for a skirt, but let me explain; superficially, the re-cycled nature of the materials is an obvious commonality between the cottage and my skirt, as well as artistically, in the random and irregular grid of their design. And in purpose, pockets in clothing have a correlation to windows in architecture. Pockets and windows are a visual feature of a thing, but also a functional component of that thing; specifically as an opening to/in their respective objects but not the entry point to that object.
So in that vein; can one consider a pocketless garment to be like a window-less building; and are zips and button-bands akin to the doors/gates of a building?
Discuss in one thousand words or less and submit by the end of class.
(only joking)
Sometimes I think it would be lots of fun to have a group to discuss and dissect clothing and fashion theory; like a book club, only far more frivolous.
(sigh) A pipe dream…
This skirt is another swap item.

Details:
Top; top “a” from shape shape by Natsuno Hiraiwa, white cotton, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363 modified, made from 4 old pairs of jeans, my review of this pattern here

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, own design, Sienna, skirt, SWAP, Vogue 8363, Wardrobe Refashion

Big baggy pockets…

24/02/2014 3:11 pm \ 40 Comments \ Carolyn

… with bonus skirt.
It is an unusual skirt, admittedly. That’s OK. One description could focus on the fact that it is softly creamy in shade, ever-so-slightly crinkly in texture, interestingly layered in construction, and easily breezily comfortably summery as a whole. Another could point out that it is made of flippin’ curtaining off-cuts for crying out loud, and features ginormous flappy saddlebag things. Well let’s not over-romanticise, hmmm? But I like it, nonetheless. And I don’t mind curtaining fabric; in fact, one of my most useful and reliable favourites is another curtaining skirt..
I started out with Vogue 8363, a plain, waist-banded pencil skirt with simple variations; and altered it to make it a bit more A-line, cutting the side edges like so; both front and back. And then added my little added designer-y flight of fancy in the form of those big wrap-around bags.

They are basically sacks; like envelopes or pillowslips, that are sewn within long long extensions of the narrow waistband. These cross over at the centre back, wrap around my hips and tie loosely at the front. The skirt closure is the regular kind, by invisible zip in the centre back seam.
I was inspired by this skirt. Does anyone else have a go at actually doing something with their pins? I have pinned LOTS of things, but have only followed through on nutting out making a few. I have big BIG plans for making tonnes of things from my random unbridled pinnings; but the same ol’ story; so much inspiration, so little time. And there’s only so many clothes that one can in all good conscience add to one’s wardrobe. Striking a balance is key, my friends, striking a balance. However I do feel pretty good about this particular skirt since it’s pretty much a freebie; made from the off-cuts of Cassie’s curtains. I’d found the absolutely perfect thick calico curtains on super special in Spotlight. Correction; the fabric was perfect but the top had been made as pencil pleat curtains, which I loathe and detest with a fiery passion. So I bought them too long and cut off the tops, keeping the hemline intact, and re-sewed the top edge with my preferred triple pleat curtain tape, so they match nearly all the other curtains I’ve made for our house. And was rewarded with a few pieces of leftover fabric… which I have now put to good use 😉 Double, no… triple win!

Details:
Skirt; a modification of Vogue 8363, thick calico curtaining fabric, my review of this pattern here
Top; the loose drape top slightly modified, from drape drape by Hisako Sato, white crinkly cotton jersey, all details here
Sandals; Franco Burrone, from Marie Claire boutique

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: curtains, daily outfit, own design, Sienna, skirt, SWAP, Vogue 8363

Thoughts on hem lengths; linings and slips

18/09/2013 6:54 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

One of my wardrobe renovations performed lately was to shorten this skirt by a good several inches; a super quickie reno, but one that nevertheless completely transformed this skirt for me from something that almost caused me to shudder whenever I happened to catch sight of myself in a shop window reflection, to something that I have been wearing with a lot more pleasure and more confidence in how it fits nicely in with my style now. Although I made it to wear this winter, it didn’t really “go” stylistically with any of the tops and cardigans, heck not even any of the shoes and boots that are the mainstays of my current winter wardrobe. When I trialled pinning it up a few inches; hey presto, problem instantly solved.

I do have this theory that when it comes to skirts we all have a personal Ideal Hem Length; that is good for YOU, and it could be a bad idea to mess around with it too much. For me, I think I prefer winter skirts to be EITHER about 10cm (4″) above the knee, OR quite long at midi-length, like roughly 20cm (8″) above the ankle. These are lengths that just look better with all my tops, all my shoes and that suit my personal style. Obviously I reserve the right to change my mind about that one, at any moment, according to any and all fleeting fashion whims.

Good thing I can sew for myself, hmmm? 😉

I had already finished the lower raw edge with violet bias binding, so to unpick and re-stitch it up a coupla inches higher was an ultra quick renovation… and the extra length is still there, should my wardrobe tastes migrate to embrace the aesthetics of different hem length.

now that’s a nice deep hem!

And now to another topic, slightly related…

Kathleen wrote a comment bringing up the topic of skirts; specifically, to line or not to line? That is the question! which I thought worthy of further exposition.

In the photo above I am actually wearing a full slip underneath my outfit, not that you can see it, which is the point really!

I line the majority of my skirts but not all of them, and it is always something to consider, how do you choose which gets lined and which does not?

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the horrible experience of your unlined skirt slowly and inexorably riding up your stockinged legs, as if driven by some strange evil impulse of its own… which is why a lining is a good idea. But for many of us in hot climates a lining can be a pesky thing that clings hideously to your sweaty legs for most of the year. So what do you do if you want a bit more versatility, for your skirts to see more active duty, to be an all-seasons item as it were?

The answer is of course, a separate slip or petticoat.

I chose to make this skirt without a lining because I wanted it to be transitional thing, to wear on both winter-y days and warmer bare-legged days too. And on cold days when tights are on, as above, I have a few slips, or petticoats that I can wear underneath, that do the same duty as a lining. In the outfit above, I am wearing a pale blue silk petticoat, chosen because the colour went with the rest of my outfit, not that you are supposed to see it! but still, just in case 🙂 I like my colours to “go”. So when re-hemming the skirt I was careful to hem it to a length that I could still wear my petticoats underneath it.

It’s always really good to have several petticoats or slips on hand from which to choose. I have eight full slips or petticoats in total, half of which could pass as little summer dresses if worn with extras: this pale blue one, a pale pink one, a beige one (easily my most useful one), a cream broderie anglaise one and a black one, shown long here but I have since re-hemmed it quite a bit shorter, and also three long and full-skirted ones, in yellow, pink and a white Metalicus one. I don’t have any half-slips… but then until I started listing them for this post I didn’t realise just how many petticoats I actually had and maybe I have an abundance already!
So, in summary: To Line, or to Slip? that is the (paraphrased) question…

Later edit: for those looking for a pattern; the lovely and clever Sherry of pattern scissors cloth (I miss her!) designed and uploaded the Ruby slip, a pattern for a simple bias cut slip with the option for a lace bodice, and also generously provided extensive and super helpful instructions. Available for free download here

Details:

Top; Vogue 1115, blue denim details and my review of this pattern here

Skirt; Vogue 8363 heavily modified, green cotton corduroy, more details here and my review of this pattern here
Petticoat; Burda 8071, pale blue silk, details here

Tights; self-drafted, blue denim-look jersey, details here

Shoes, Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 8071, daily outfit, lingerie, my views, random life stuff, skirt, Vogue 8363

Just a spot of emerald

17/03/2013 12:04 pm \ 48 Comments \ Carolyn

Top o’ the ~~mornin’~~ evenin’ to you!!
St Patricks day seemed an appropriate occasion to pull out this length of emerald green corduroy from the stash and make it up into something. Anything. I bought this fabric from Spotlight, last year. Of course it’s kinda ludicrous for me to be wearing a corduroy skirt today since it is a warm 31C here in Perth! but here ’tis, all the same. A corduroy skirt is not so much weather-appropriate right now as it is weather-anticipatory… but I’m sure I’ll be grateful for it when more winter-y temperatures kick in. And hey, isn’t Emerald the Colour of the Year, or something?? Woa! Definitely a good day to be adding a little emerald green to my wardrobe!
I wanted a skirt that was a little boxy, blocky and oversized, rather than the usual, streamlined little A-line/pencil hybrid silhouette that I usually go for… so I started with a favourite basic pattern Vogue 8363 and played with the proportions. I cut the skirt pieces a lot wider; probably roughly equivalent to a size 18 front/20 back; and a waistband to be my usual size 10, and folded the excess width in pleats into the waistband; two single pleats at the front and two box pleats at the back.

I put in those fabulously deep, slanted front pockets in the pattern and left off a lining, since I think the oversize factor, or looseness of the skirt will help stave off any tights/skirt static electricity problem. I’m thinking of making a separate petticoat if the tights adhesion issue does rear its ugly head.
Perusing the zips; usually an invisible zip would be my first choice but all the available colour options looked terrible with this rich emerald green; either too dark or too bright. Nothing looked right. The best colour match was this bright green dress zip, and I finally decided I could live with a dress zip in a skirt; sure, it is a casual choice but so is corduroy a casual fabric. It’s been ages since I’ve put a dress zip in a straight seam without a fly, and I had to stop for a second and think it through again!
I got creative with the insides. Do brightly contrasting “fun” interior details bother you? Then look away now! I’m afraid, without going out and buying new fabric, and I am trying to shop my stash as much as possible this year; the least offensive option was this violet/mauve shot cotton, leftovers from this top that I made for Mum. I finished all the raw edges with HongKong seaming, and the waistband facing and pocket linings are also cut from this fabric. The ultra good news: I have barely any scraps at all leftover from these two lengths of fabric now!

I’m very very happy with my boxy new skirt: I think it looks stylish and smart and it feels very easy wearing and comfortable. I think it will look terrific in winter; with my fitted cardigans, with button-up shirts tucked in, and tights and boots underneath.

Details:
Top; top “a” from shape shape (fornerly known as Unique Clothes Any Way You Like) by Natsuno Hiraiwa, white cotton, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363 modified, emerald green cotton corduroy, my review of this pattern here
Shoes; c/o Misano

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, skirt, Vogue 8363

Pisces II

26/02/2013 3:30 am \ 63 Comments \ Carolyn

… the other fish! Because we all know Pisces has two fish, right? 🙂 although I’m afraid the best I could eke out was one and a half fish from the length I had!

I made a skirt for myself from the remains of the sparkly silver sequinned fabric. I do think that when it comes to the problem of wearing a
fabric of a colour and/or texture that you don’t really feel suits you: then having it in the form of a skirt, thus away from your face, is a terrific solution!

Although I am not sure as yet as to the wisdom of drawing attention to my hips, the widest part of my body by dressing them to closely resemble a disco ball, but we shall see…

I used Vogue 8363, and made the skirt to be a single
pieced, double darted front, with deep, front slanted pockets, and a two piece,
double darted back with a central invisible zip closure. It is fully lined. Basically the same as the little black skirt I made for Cassie, except that I made the silhouette a tad more A-line,
rather than pencil.

I have another piece of … er, dressmaking advice? a thought? for this sequinned fabric: I didn’t want to blunt my good dressmaking shears on those sequins so I tried using my ordinary, cheap household scissors, that I use for paper, sticky tape, cutting open plastic food packaging and just about anything and everything household-y. They worked like a charm! And I saved my good scissors 🙂

The pewter/silver silk dupion I used for the
pockets, pocket lining and waistband was a scrap from the bundle of fabrics,
given to me by my friend C from her late mother’s stash, and the grey polyacetate
lining fabric was a small leftover piece from this maxi skirt; made years ago
and long since passed to charity. btw, I switched back to my good dressmaking shears again for the “proper” fabric 🙂

The darts in the lining are not stitched but simply folded at the top, and the fold sewed down in the waistband stitching line. This is a good idea when sewing skirt linings, it reduces wearing strain on the thin lining fabric.

I even had the right shade and length grey zip and hook and eye closure
in my stash too. So this is a
terrific little stash buster skirt, using up a three smallish, different but
nicely co-ordinating pieces of fabric which were individually awkward but whose
joining together created a harmonious whole arguably more useful than if they
had remained a pile of nicely co-ordinating scraps.

And barely a skerrick of
fabric is leftover.

Well, maybe just a skerrick…. 😉

Details:

Shirt; Burda 8497, white cotton, details here

Skirt Vogue 8363 fully lined, silver sequined
stretch fabric, with pewter silk dupion pockets, pocket lining and waistband,
my review of this pattern here.

Sandals; Misano