And so, I have now completed my patterned skirt and black top :-) But boy, aren't 'flat' clothes hard to photograph? I will get hubby to photograph a 'shoot at the end of the sewing, and until then I plan to post little 'taster' photos - well to be honest they are the photos that came out the best!!
Here is a little peek at my patterned skirt with the white lining and lace trim.
Just to recap, I used Simplicity 4221 view E size 24 for my skirt and Kwik Sew 3752 View A size 2X for the top. The skirt I love - I will need to get some better pictures as it looks waaaay better than these photos show. Noting much to comment about with regard to the skirt, so let's take a look at the black top.
Well, I like some aspects of it, but others I would change. Next time round I will shorten the top by 4" and decrease the width of the hip band by 2". But the good points are the cuffs are really neat - they fit like a dream and look lovely. Also, the neckline worked out to be much better than I could have imagined. It is a thin strip of fabric, sewn into a band and attached to the neck. Simple right? Well actually, yes it is!! I serged the neckband on and it looks absolutely fabulous. This was the only part of this garment that I was concerned about - I thought that I might have to put in a facing and did not fancy it at all. I managed to get a good close up - but the color it is not quite true - I had to play around with light saturation to show the details. In reality it is a lovely rich black.
Both of these items are so quick - for the skirt I serged the panel seams of the skirt and the lining (press), serged the lining and skirt together at the waist, serged the bottom of the lining and the bottom of the lining (press), turned up the hem on the skirt and sewed one row of stitching, sewed the channel for the elastic, threaded through the elastic and added the lace. PRESS!!
For the top I serged the hip bands, cuffs and the neck band into tubes, sewed the shoulder and side seams (press), attach the hip band, cuffs and neckband. PRESS! And that was it. Done.
Wow :-)
So, what's next??!
Your work is absolutely beautiful! I'm just returning to sewing after a 20 year hiatus and came across your wonderful blog. Could you describe how you finished the neckline. You said you serged it, and yet it looks hand stitched. I hope this post isn't too late to comment on.
ReplyDeleteThank-you for your kind comments - I was also interested to see that you have returned to sewing after a year or two away!
DeleteThe shoulder/arms seams were sewn along the top leaving a circular (ish!) neck opening. I then serged the neckband making it a very thin loop. The neckband was folded in half along the long edge and pressed. Finally I attached the neckband to the neck opening, stretching the band as I serged.
Because the neckband was smaller than the opening, the jersey stretched itself making the lovely, shaped neckline. I read somewhere that on jersey the neckband should be about 15-20% smaller than the neck opening for it to lay smoothly, and that worked out on this!
I hope that I explained that better - it is hard to describe without pictures! I'll take some photos of the white jersey top that I made showing the inside of the neckline, and put it on a future post.