Yes I know amazing isn’t it!
I used to do loads of dressmaking about 25 years ago and I want to start making clothes again but I need to find my confidence. Back in the day I was a standard skinny 10 so dressmaking was easy now I am not so skinny and certainly not standard or a size 10 so more challenging. However, the advantage of making your own clothes is that you should be able to get a good fit but then again to do that you need to have an idea of what you are doing and I have forgotten more about dressmaking than I can remember. Anyway, having made a simple top a couple of months ago and some dolls clothes I decided that I was brave enough to make a summer skirt for my holiday.
The observant amongst you will be thinking hang on didn’t she go away the other week and you would be correct. I bought the material and pattern in plenty of time but then I wasted many hours worrying about getting the pattern to fit properly. I attempted to measure myself and the pattern indicated I was between a medium and extra large. This made not sense as even I know I’m not that large but it also sent me into a flat spin about how to get the skirt to fit especially as I had bought reasonably expensive fabric. In the end I cut out the medium pieces from an old sheet and tacked it together and decided that it fitted fine and I really needed a lesson in how to measure myself properly. By this time there was no time left before we went on holiday to make the skirt and it has taken until now for me to get my courage back.
Anyway, today was forecast to be a wet day so I decided before I went to bed that today would be a sewing day and I would try to get the skirt made. The pattern itself was fairly simple – Kwik Sew 3951. The material I bought from Gone to Earth and they are both Joel Dewberry designs.
Once I had cut the pattern out the skirt sewed up really quickly. It is a simple wrap skirt with two buttons securing it at the top. The hardest part was trying to remember how to do buttonholes on my sewing machine – it took about 6 attempts before I had managed to succeed with a practice one.
I am quite pleased with it, though I wonder if I should have lengthened it but we shall see. I think it will look quite nice with a black or navy top and navy sandles. Hopefully the weather will now improve and we will have an Indian summer so I can brave wearing my creation to work!