Weekend Sewing

I haven't quite finished the purple blouse. I haven't started the skirt yet either. I know I need to get them finished before they are too big for me, but I'm just not feeling the love for the blouse so the skirt isn't feeling right either.

However, I need clothes to wear. I went through all my clothes on Saturday and pulled out two kitchen size trash bags worth of clothes to give to my nephew's wife. There are a few things that are going to Goodwill, and my t-shirt remakes all went into a box. I kept them for my trunk show that I present when I teach my Designer T-shirt class.


Instead of completing my purple outfit, I decided to make a denim type skirt. Since McCall's patterns were on sale for 99 cents this weekend, I picked up McCall's 5429. I checked out the reviews on patternreview.com and decided to make the short skirt, just lengthen it 6" because a micro mini isn't a good look on me, even though I do have nice looking legs. You can't tell from the drawing, but it's an a-line skirt. I like the seams and pockets very much. It has the fly zipper which is a must for a denim-type skirt.

I spent most of the morning making my alterations to the pattern. I added the length which was 6" plus 1" for a hem, I gave it a tilted waistline and I altered the waistband and skirt for my thick waist. I used the largest size, which is size 20. The pattern hip measurement was exactly my hip measurements for this size.


Most of my alterations were perfect. I know the skirt looks quite tight on me, and it is. You can see my not quite as big as before round belly outlined in the photo. However, I plan to sew it up in a stretch twill which will give me the ease I need. Muslin doesn't have any stretch at all. I have to say I'm pretty happy with the fit for the most part. I didn't put the pockets on the muslin since they wouldn't make a difference to the fit.


For the muslin I cut the center back on fold, but when I sew up the garment, I'll put in that seam. It looks like I probably added too much at the center back and will reduce this by 1/2" before I make the final garment.

I'm very pleased at how I got it to hang evenly at the hem and still fit my tilted waistline. I wonder if this tilt will go away when my big round belly goes away? Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?


If you're not already taking pictures of your garments to check out fit, you really ought to. I didn't see that the waistband was pulling toward center front until I studied the photo. I really shouldn't use a shaped waistband. They never fit right. The circumference is perfect, so I think it's just the shape of the curve that's causing all the pulling. I've decided to use a straight waistband for this skirt.

So, if I don't work tomorrow, I'll have a new skirt and hopefully a new t-shirt to go with it. Too bad it's supposed to rain on Tuesday or I'd have a new outfit to wear to teach class in. The students should be finishing their tote bag and will start on the apron. I'll try to remember my camera so I can show you their very first projects.