It’s Indie Pattern Month at the Monthly Stitch. As is my tradition, this is the month that I dive into the Indie Patterns that I have collected over the last year. I have always wanted to try Sewaholic’s Hollyburn skirt but was always looking for the right fabric. Me Made May showed me that I do not have a solid red skirt and I have so many tops I could wear with one, so I decided to put the two ideas together.
I trotted off to my Fabric Shop and purchased this fabric. It’s hard to tell from this photo, but it is a beautiful red Ponte knit.
Unfortunately I forgot a matching thread and zipper. Digging through my Fabric Stash I found a plastic bag in a bin that contained not only a matching thread and zipper, but MORE beautiful red knit fabric. Thus, the Evils of having a Fabric Stash. Now not only do I have 3 meters of beautiful red Ponte knit, but I have the additional 3 meters I just found in my Fabric Stash!
Patternreview is having a Fabric Stash contest so I decided to use my Fabric Stash red, probably a polyester, but who’s to know after all this time, and put my 3 meters of new red Ponte knit away in my bin – to be forgotten I am sure.
I guess if you buy the same fabric twice, it means you really, really like it?
I suppose I have a strange way of approaching PDF patterns. I started to lay out the 60 + pieces on the dining room table and as soon as I saw a whole pattern piece appear I stopped to tape and cut it out, then I moved on until the next pattern piece appeared. I just read on Sew 2 Pro that some sewist use a glue stick to put their pattern pieces together. That’s going to be my “new thing”! In the process of putting together my Hollyburn PDF I ran out of sticky tape and masking tape! Glue sticks are in abundance in this house for some reason.
Sewaholic’s A line skirt pattern is the greatest and I really like her instructions. I automatically under stitched my inner pocket piece, then I thought oops! I really should follow the instructions and lo and behold Sewaholic gave instructions to understitch the inner pocket piece!
and the right side.
This fabric was very soft, with lots of drape, but not too lightweight. I tried sewing in the zipper (a couple of times). I was able to sew it in properly into the waistband, but not in the skirt. So I did my first hand picked zipper and I was quite surprised with how easy it was! I pinned the zipper in and hand sewed it with a backstitch down one side and up the other, making sure that the right side had a tiny stitch and the wrong side had a stitch about 1/4 inch long.
I was pretty happy with my first hand picked zipper. There were only a few squiggly thread lines showing through, I think.
Stretch lace on the hand sewn hem.
Again, my challenges getting photos. I think this time I only took about three dozen shots with my camera/tripod to get these two shots. This time my son “helped” me smile.
If you are interested in reading about my top, I blogged about it here.
How did my Son help me smile? I was nicely posed at the fence waiting for my timer to go off (where’s the click, can I move yet?), then I heard the click and headed for my camera to have a look, only to have it go off again – with my Son whooping and chuckling in the background! (Apparently the first “click” was him.) Well after that I just couldn’t keep a smile off my face. Thanks for the help, Son! 🙂
So what have I learned?
- Check the Fabric Stash first!
- Try using a glue stick on my PDF’s!
- Don’t trust my ears when my Son is around!
- The Sewaholic Hollyburn is my TNT skirt.
I have some lovely black fabric in my Fabric Stash. I wonder if I can squeeze out another Hollyburn?
Have you got a TNT skirt pattern?
Happy Sewing!