Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Second day back

On my second day back to school work I wore a new uniform outfit that I'd finished making at the end of the school year before Christmas. Today promised to be hot, so it was perfect for wearing light summer work wear.

Embroidered skirt and Not Sorbetto top

Going back to work - doesn't it make you feel like you should be sharpening your pencils and nuggetting your shoes the night before? Yeah - neither of those things happened here, either.

Yes, it's another Simplicity 2938 top. I'm not even going to talk about it, except to say it's a very light chocolate-coloured voile from Spotlight and I quite like it.

But the skirt is something different. I drafted it myself. It wasn't hard. A rectangle for the skirt, and another rectangle for the waist band. I made the waistband to fit perfectly around my waist, and then played the rest by ear. In this case, I pleated the skirt. By ear. And then put a zipper in the back seam. There are no side seams as I cut the fabric along the length rather than across the width.

Embroidered skirt and Not Sorbetto top

The fabric is from Tessuti and I bought it online in early 2010 at the same time as I bought the White Flowers dress fabric. It is an embroidered cotton, and is very fine and floaty, except for the heavy embroidery which keeps it weighted down. I lined the skirt with a darker teal Bemsilk. Because I had no pattern I had to make up the lining as I went along as well. This whole skirt was made up as I went along. Let's be honest. But I think it kind of turned out OK.


Embroidered skirt and Not Sorbetto top

Of course I did a hand-picked zipper because I love them and not because I'm obnoxious. Oh no.

Having worn a self-drafted skirt for a whole day now, I can say that I was generally pleased with how it wore. However I wish I had made fewer pleats and made those pleats a bit deeper. I ended up with a small bubble of fabric around the bum, as there wasn't quite enough deep pleating towards the back zipper. I guess that's the problem with wearing a non-shaped rectangular skirt.

Embroidered skirt

My other mistake was running out of interfacing the day I made the waistband, and using that revolting stiff paper fusible interfacing out of a packet instead. It was in my stash. I have no other excuse for using it. It's not very forgiving, and as a result my skirt twisted around me all day meaning I was forever straightening it up. I think I've mentioned before that I have no feeling at all on the right side of my abdomen thanks to the surgery, so that may have contributed to the problem as I couldn't feel the skirt moving at all.

But really I'm happy with this outfit. It's very wearable, the cotton is perfect for a hot day at work and it looks good with red accessories. As a rule I don't wear chocolate brown as I find with my olive colouring and brown hair I tend to fade to invisibility while wearing it. But augmented with teal and red it seems to work OK for me.

For my next post I promise some quilting. Or cooking. I'm kind of over this dressmaking business for the time being.

9 comments:

  1. I am sucker for blu and brown. beautiful fabric- aren't you a clever cookie.

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  2. I soooo feel your pain - I went back to work today, teaching, and think I had withdrawal symptoms all day (from sewing, that is). Mad rush this morning to find a pen and the diary - so sure I had one somewhere.
    But wore old clothes to school as there was a heap of cleaning and moving furniture - not in my new Sorbetto!!!
    Love your outfit - the colours are brilliant together...

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  3. Love the skirt, the fabric is gorgeous. I no longer really wear brown because it doesn't go with my grey hair (!!) but you are right, the teal and red is a great pop of colour.

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  4. I wish the start of the work year was as exciting as I remember the start of the school year. I think I need one of those pencil cases with the slots to spell out my name in my life again...

    Anyhoo! Your outfit is lovely, I really like the blue/brown/red combo. The embroidery on your skirt matches your top nicely.

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  5. Swooning over your skirt. The fabric is gorgeous. Love the red accessories too - very stylish.

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  6. I've been waiting for you to wear this ever since you posted you had finished it. It looks really good! Sorry there's a few snags regarding the bubble and the interfacing, we live and learn eh?

    So what are you going to cook us all??

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  7. O how I love this skirt, actually the whole outfit. Beautiful beautiful!!! I particularly like how you've used the embroidered edge. The pleating looks fine to me by the way. Great idea having a new outfit to wear back on your first day, takes some of the depression away!!

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  8. It looks FANTASTIC! You have such a wonderful style. I love the red accessories. I would never think to wear red accessories with teal and brown. It looks so wonderful.

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  9. Congratulations Michelle! You're our lucky Japanese Pattern Book Giveaway winner....yeehah!
    Please email me your postage details where you would like the book sent to - fabrics@tessuti.com.au

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