Bright stripes cord skirt - pictures

I promised pictures for my cord skirt, and here they are!  Thanks to my sister Esther who took these on our shopping trip to Bath the other weekend - giving my long-suffering husband a break.

 

 I think it's just the thing to brighten up the winter days!

Bright stripes cord skirt

I look the opportunity last weekend to finish off my New Look 6030 skirt. All I really had to do was finish the yoke and install the zip - both techniques which I've become a bit more familiar with recently! One thing which I do like is the way the patterns recommend finishing the yoke - by stitching through the existing seam, so that there is no top stitching visible when you are sewing the yoke facing to the front. I then finished the back with a zig zag stitch, just to neaten it up.

This has probably been my best (and most pain free) zip installation yet - I managed to not sew random bits of skirt into the zip, and the little flap to cover the zip looked good too. I'm happy that I'm finally getting the hang of this one...!

As the skirt is quite neat fitting, I've decided that I need to reinforce the all the seams with some top stitching, as I did on the front seam. I probably should have done that right at the start, but the pattern didn't suggest it.

I wore the skirt out that evening, and no-one pointed and laughed - always a positive sign! It's been hard to get decent photos - when I leave the house in the morning it's dark, and when I come home again at night it's dark again - horrible! I'll hopefully persuade the hubby to take some for me at the weekend when I finally emerge to get to glimpse a bit of sunshine - so those are to follow!

Sewing with a striped pattern - and with cord - has been a completely new challenge. When working with stripes, the yoke is something I'll definitely be thinking about in the future, and whether the curve should be relaxed a bit, or whether I want to cut another piece, and 'hide' the seam under my belt carriers.

One other thing which I didn't think about when preparing my fabric is that cord fabric has a nap to it - check out this helpful post to understand what that means, and this one when thinking about sewing with cord. Basically, all the pattern pieces should be cut out in the same direction. This was not something I considered! However, now that it's all together, I notice that the brown stripe on the front of the skirt looks a little darker on one side than on the other.  If you were to turn the skirt upside down - it's the opposite way round. The skirt also feels softer in different directions - on one side it feels softer if you run your hands up, on the other side it feels softer when you rub your hands down. This is because I cut my pattern pieces out in different directions, and so the nap is wrong.

To be honest, this isn't a massive concern for me - the colour thing isn't particularly noticeable, especially as the stripes are so bright, and neither is the feel. But it's something that I will definitely want to get right next time around when I make it for Esther - so I'll be referring to those links again.

Watch this space for photos...

Work in progress: New Look 6030

I realise that I'm putting up a lot of 'work in progress' posts and it looks like I'm not quite getting to the finished product - the good news is that the blind is up, but I need to do a little bit of final tweaking before we get the official post, and the pretty pictures :).  In the meantime, I've been sewing another skirt - as if I haven't made enough of those!

This one was on my to-do list though.  I've promised my sisters I'll make them skirts, and Esther found this pattern, the New Look 6030, that she really liked.  It took ages for her to find, as it's out of print - but it made it to me in Bristol eventually.  I wanted to make a little skirt with the striped cord I got in America, and considering I haven't made too many items from a pattern I thought I'd have a go at my version first - then I would have a bit more confidence when trying to sew it for someone else.  The other issue is that Esther won't be over until the end of the month so my plan is to measure her up when she's over and then make sure I'm making the skirt the right size!

Anyway, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

To be honest, I'm glad I tried my one first - and not just because I like sewing for myself.  As usual, measuring myself led me to pick a size that was...generous!  As a result, I put in very broad side seams and trimmed them down to size, to get the skirt to a more reasonable fit.  I also put an extra inch and a half or so on the bottom of the pattern.  I definitely don't have the legs of the model - neither in length or in width, unfortunately - but the pattern pieces leave you with quite a short skirt, so that extra inch or so is very welcome.

Broad side seams

I've tended to be a bit lazy with my seams - basically, because you can't see them I'm inclined to just cut and leave them, but that does mean that when you wash handmade clothes you can end up with quite a few threads hanging off.  As I don't have an overlocker, I just used the zig-zag stitch on my machine, and it finished off my seams really nicely.  It's worth taking that extra few minutes just to get a good finish on the garment.

The pattern for the skirt has pockets, but because of my (garish) fabric, and the stripes, I decided just to forget about them.  I'll be adding pockets for Esther's version.  The stripe has been a bit problematic when preparing the yoke and belt loops though.  As you can see, the pattern pieces for the yoke are curved.  This has meant that the stripe gradually moves from vertical to diagonal as you go round the waist. It also meant that my belt loops are a bit 'off' looking, which is annoying.  A lesson regarding the choice of fabric, I think!

I have hemmed the skirt, and put in the darts in the back piece, so the only bit left to finish is the inside of the yoke and, of course, the zip.  I can't wait to finish it - I think it will definitely brighten up my winter wardrobe!