Sewing tip: the grainline of skirts affects the flare!

Having a couple of nightshifts right now, these are the days when I tend to focus on sleeping, working (and a bit of reading or knitting) instead of being active doing other things. The darkness outside doesn't help either. In the morning there is still dark when I bike home and when I wake up in the afternoon there is usually getting darker. Anyway, I decided to reveal the Vogue skirt and my Top Honours jumper (when finished) together. In the meantime I have an interesting sewing trick for you:

While I wasn't making a circle skirt I've found interesting information while browsing through my fav. pattern-making book: 'Pattern making for fashion designs'.

did you know... 
..that grainline matters when sewing a (circle) skirt?

The following information + the illustration below are borrowed from the book 'Pattern making for fashion designs. The line-drawing below is made by me, based on an illustration in the book:

Flares tend to fall gracefully whenever the grainline is on the bias. Changing the grainline can control where the bias and the flare fall.

• grainline 1: 

flares fall toward the side and side front - straight grainline

• grainline 2:  

flares fall to center front and toward center side seam - placed between front and side seam

• grainline 3:  

flares fall at center, side seam and in between placed 3/4 inch from center

You can see the grainline-difference not only on circle skirts but on other flared skirts as well. An example of grainline 2 is my Lonsdale dress where the flares are distributed quite evenly and of grainline 3 the Ceylon dress, where there is more flaring towards the sides:
   

The 3,5 hour skirt challenge! Vogue 2885 from 1944

The idea of the 3,5 hour skirt-challenge comes from the TV-series The Great British Sewing Bee. In the first episode the contestants had to make an A-line skirt in 3,5 hours. Back then I thought 3,5 hours must be more than enough for a simple skirt with a few darts, seams and a zipper closure, but for the contestants it turned out to be a tuff challenge.
Have you ever kept a stopwatch when sewing? Me neither, but ever since I wanted to give it a try. Of course, instead of a really basic skirt pattern in a sample size I choose one with a bit more construction details, a pretty V-notch in front, fitted for myself: Vogue 2885. Have I managed to finish the task within the 3,5 hours? Let's find out!

00.00 start!

00.22 min
Copied the pattern on tissue paper and adjusted (shortened) the skirt length. Kept the flare at the bottom but didn't change the width of the triangle insert at the back.


00.47 min
Finished cutting the jeans fabric pieces. (did in one layer at the time as always). Unbelievable how quickly time is passing by!


01.30 hour
Sewn all darts and seams plus decided to put the zipper in the back instead of the side seam. First fitting round! Luckily, there were no swayback issues, the fit was quite good actually. Yes, I'm back on track: not even halfway there with my time!
Below some construction details of the back pleat:
   

   

   

01.42 hour
OMG, what happened? Where is my facing?! Apparently, I totally forgot to cut it. Quickly searched suitable fabric, how about those pretty roses? Used fusible interfacing, as always.


02.49 hour
Finished stitching the facings! After the fitting decided to take in the sides above the hipline (so that is tapering from size 12 to size 11 now) and also decided to transfer the zipper to the back opening instead of the left side. I just don't like putting a zipper in a curved seamline.
Of course, by the time I was this far I've already cut the back facing and interfacing in one piece. To adjust it I've cut it open in the middle and attached a piece of bias tape to add enough fabric for the seam allowances:
   

   

Understitching facing (can you tell I practiced?...)


Finished V-cut in the front. Simple but effective, a pretty detail:


41 minutes to go!
Things to do: placing the zipper, finishing the raw edges and hemming. I guess I need to hurry!
Well, we al know that seam finishing takes time. I quickly decided to do it the quickest way possible, with an ordinary zigzag stitch. I quite like how it looks on the flower facing. A bias seam finish might look better on the other seams but this is functional and old-fashioned as well (I haven't seen my grandma use any other stitch for seam finishing)


For the zipper I choose a traditional one instead of my go-to blind zipper with the thought of saving some time (wishful thinking!) Where the heck have I left my zipper foot?! Again, precious minutes lost....


03.21
By the time my zipper was placed I only had a minute of 10 left.
I had to realize there was no chance to finish this skirt within the 3,5 hours.

03.30

Not finished!

didn't have time to hem the skirt. Was halfway with pinning though...

in retrospect
So what went wrong?
- Mainly, organization I guess...
First I forgot to cut the facing pieces, then I had to adjust the back facing pieces. I lost time with searching the zipper foot of my machine (among other things...) and spent quite some time on neat finishing the V-notch in front.
- This was the first time sewing up this pattern which meant I had to figure out the V-shaped notch in the front and the construction of the back pleat. I'm sure it would go better for the second time.
- Actually, I quite enjoyed working under time-pressure! I guess I keep trying to stay within the magic 3,5 hour when I sew my next skirt.

Of course, after half-finishing the skirt I went back to the seams and finished the raw edges with bias tape and decided to leave the skirt a bit longer, covering the knees instead of ending above them.
New pics of the finished garment are coming up next week!

Sewing a skirt to match my jumpers

Let's continue this week with a little bit of sewing!
Two weeks ago I ran into 2.3 meters (2 yd.) leftover jeans fabric for 9 euro's, and thought it would make two great skirts for autumn!
The first pattern that came to my mind was the one I used for my green corduroy skirt back in 2011. I must say, that is probably the most worn item I've ever made! I remembered that the waist part needed heavy modification so I decided to interchange that part. Little problem: somehow I lost that particular issue of the sewing magazine. Luckily one of my colleagues has it and I can borrow it.
But still, in the meantime I had this 'urge' of making an A-line skirt, so I went through the other skirt patterns I have and pulled out this pretty 1944's Vintage Vogue suit pattern:

Vintage Vogue 2885 (out of print)

Although the skirt seems to be fitted it is really an A-line skirt:
"Slightly flared skirt has a contour waist, back pleat, hook and eye, side snap or zipper closure."

Theoretically, the only modification I needed to make is to shorten the skirt to my go-to just-above-the-knee length while keeping the width and the flare of the lower part. The original length is around 70 cm which is an unflattering length for me, with the hem hitting my calves at the heaviest part.
The original skirt doesn't have a lining. Wartime restrictions made it easier to wear skirts with separate underskirts. Since I have a lot to do around the house I decided to try the British Sewing Bee challenge and finish the skirt in 3.5 hours! Have I managed to do it? Stay tuned for the answer and construction details.

Finishing the hem with bias tape

How to finish a hem if you don't have a dress form?
Having a dress form can certainly come handy if you are at the last phase of making a garment, the hem finishing. It makes the measuring easier. I don't have a dress form, but I figured out a way to get the hemming right very quick and accurate. I like my skirts just falling on/above the knee.
I like to finish a hem with a contrasting color bias tape or ribbon. On my blue dress I used a dark blue bias tape, since the shop run out of the pale pink one I started with (isn't it ridiculous?)

How to get the length right?
- I pin the seam allowance of the hem in place
- I put the dress/skirt on and adjust the hem seam allowance one side of the dress in front of a mirror (just with a few pins)
- I take the dress off and measure how long the skirt should be at the mid front, mid back and at the sides (For me it is usually 1 cm shorter at the mid front than at the sides and back)
- I pin the hem again, measuring at every 10 cm from the waist down
- I put the dress on and check if the front and the back length are even and the right and left side are even
- Take the dress off again

Bias tape finishing:
- I press the hem from the wrong side of the skirt (with the pins in place)
- I remove the pins and cut the excess fabric, leaving 2 cm from the fold:

- I sew the bias tape with the usual seam allowance of 1.5 cm (5/8''), placing the bias tape with the right side to the right side of the skirt:

- Cut 1/2 of the excess fabric (0.6 cm=1/4''): 

- Fold the hem and press again:

- Catch-stitch the bias tape:





This leaves small dots of thread on the right side of the fabric, practically invisible from a distance, but I really like the way it looks:

Making an a-line skirt for the Burda dress

I want to make a flared, basically an A-line skirt for this dress.
First I made a muslin with the original pattern which is a pencil skirt. I took the same size as for the dress, which 1 size smaller than my measurements.
I only sew up the upper part of the skirt because I was interested in the fit around the waist and hip area. The fit is good. It has slightly more ease than a skirt would have but that's because it is made for a dress. It doesn't have to sit tightly around the waist...
To draft an A-line skirt I used my Mom's diagram here (she did a pattern drafting course somewhere back in the eighties and she gave me her notes)



- One thing I corrected first is that I've straightened out all of the lines from the hips below. As I mentioned the original skirt is a pencil skirt which is narrower at the bottom. - Then I opened up the dart and cut the pattern open straight from the dart point down.
By pivoting I closed the top points of the dart, this opened up the lower part. This way I basically transferred the extra ease to the lower part of the skirt:



- I added extra 4 cm (1.6'') to the side seam at the bottom and from there I drew a line up to the widest part if the hips:



- Filled the empty spaces up by attaching another piece of paper. This is it! The measurements of the new pattern are exactly the same as the original one.
A good tutorial, which basically explains the same is to find here.
(Note: The tutorial in the link instructs to take 1/2 of the width of the inserted piece after closing the darts. For me it is the same as the 4 cm my mom's book istructed)



Just to be sure, I made a muslin of the new skirt pattern. As usually I only made the top part to get to see the fit around the waist and hips. I also basted a zipper in the dress muslin to get a better view.  (The wrinkles are caused by the zipper which I only basted but not securely inserted.)
The only thing I need to change is to slightly lengthen the bodice back in the middle. When sewing I already added about 6 mm all around in the length. On the pics below looks like it is perfectly straight but in reality I need to add about 1 cm. I guess it is  a minimal swayback adjustment. The skirt looks perfect, the side seam lies perfectly in the middle:

   

'Waiting for the fall' - Knipmode skirt finished!

Fabric: cotton corduroy
Pattern: Knipmode (Dutch magazine) 5/2011 model 22

- It is a summer skirt pattern but I was attracted by the little flared model and the huge pockets and thought it would work great for a heavier skirt which I could wear with boots for the fall. This is the first skirt I make which is doesn't have a lowered waist which I normally prefer.
- I used a corduroy fabric which I had cut up about 10 years ago, remaining with a bunch of UFO's
- I like how the hem stays out a bit because of the stiffness of the fabric
- The instructions given in the magazine weren't really clear, I figured it out anyway...

- To perfect the fit I had to add 2 darts both in the front as in the back
- I used leftover butterfly fabric from this project for the facing of the waistband

- The original pattern instructed making belt loops too, which I eliminated, just because I don't want to wear a belt with this skirt.
- The only thing left is to make a muslin for the waistband - am I working backwards??? The reason: I really love this skirt but I can't make another one since I did all the changes along the way on the fabric while sewing. To start with, I'm going to try to cut a size smaller, because I had to take in about 4 cm in the waist, plus added darts witch took out another cm of 3...



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Skirt - finishing the waistband and the hem

I'm planning to finish the skirt today!
I didn't make a muslin for the skirt because I thought that fitting problems could easily be solved here. The fit wasn't great here, it was okay on the hips but way to big above that:

So I decided to place darts both in the front and the back. The fit is already better with the back darts here:


I used the leftover fabric from my Butterfly garden dress for the facing. I love the contrasting colours! The zipper isn't inserted yet:


Understitching on the inside:


I stitched the upper part and the sides of the facing (right side on the right side of the skirt) and then turned it back. Now I have to topstitch on the right side:


The inside after the topstitching:


Since I have an old sewing machine there is no buttonhole making program on it. I had to experiment a bit to get it right by using zigzag stitch. The try-out buttonholes are not so pretty:



And here they are! They aren't perfect, but work just fine! I marked the place of the buttonholes with a contrasting colored thread first.

   



Since the facing of the waistband is bright colored I decided to use a contrasting colored bias band on the hem. The combination of dark green - pink fascinates me somehow!

(I used plain zigzag stitch to finish the other seams. Just because the fabric is too thick and didn't want to add more stiffness.)