Sewing on and off the List

Every year I try to start off strong with my stash busting plans. Usually I'm in the mood for it and it's good to get the numbers down before my inevitable fall off the wagon in June. Warm weather makes me buy novelty prints, lots of them.

I admitted in the last post that my sewing plan for January was to sew all the things that were planned in December. When I say "planned" I really mean things that were floating around in my head. Things that I might have bought fabric for during Black Friday sales. Yeah, this girl is a horrible stash buster at the end of the year too.

The December but now January sewing list.
1. Red circle skirt
2. Black circle skirt
3. Another red pencil skirt
4. Plaid shirt dress
5. Plaid top of some kind

While I was hopped up turkey it seemed completely possible to sew all this stuff plus a Christmas dress. Yep, there needs to be an oversight committee for my sewing plans. "Excuse me Mrs. Beckley. Are you planning on never sleeping during the month of December?  Or maybe you are exploiting a small gang of furry frogs as sewing slaves?"  Exploit?! They have all the baked goods they can eat!

Annnyway, back to those sewing plans.  Ugh plans. I hate real plans in writing because they suck all the joy from my sewing.  No one tells me what to do with my hobby, not even me! So after looking at the sewing list, I went off and cut out a fruit print Edith blouse.  Suck it list!

That was all well and good except the fruity cotton was a small vintage cut of fabric. There wasn't enough yardage for me to squeeze out self bias binding for the armholes. What to do, what to do?  Oh wait, I have black cotton poplin for that circle skirt. That would work great.....except I'll need to cut the skirt out first. Crap, guess I have to sew from that stupid list. (Cue sad horn)

I went the easy route and purchased New Look 6056 after seeing Margo sew it up.  Sure I could have messed around with maths and drafted myself one. Honestly I didn't have the head space for that after Christmas + germs. Take my 5 bucks and give me some mindless tracing.

I mindlessly traced the size 18, the one which corresponded to my waist circumference.  Surely I didn't need to worry about extra ease in a simple circle skirt. Who wears a circle skirt on their hips? Guess what, New Look thinks you should because I found 4" of ease needed to be removed. Lord have mercy.

I was a bit put out about having to rip apart what was supposed to be a quick project.  Then Froggie pointed out that I could have taken...oh 5 minutes....to measure the waist area on the pattern before starting.  Fair point.  I shall don the ribbons of Shame along with the ribbons of Laziness.

The one good thing about having to rip apart a garment, is that you might as well make some other changes. I decided to widen the waistband so it would look "nicer" if shirts are tucked in. Instead of cutting one waistband piece, I cut two and used one as a facing. The waistband still closes with skirt hooks on the side. This works fine but it's not my favorite finish.  If I remake this pattern I'd attach the zipper to the waistband as well.

Here's the full deets on the pattern...

Pattern
New Look 6056 (Now OOP, but still pretty easy to find)

Fabrics used
Kaufman Organic Cotton poplin from Fabric.com.  I bought this version because of it's wider width.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Removed about 4" of ease from the side seams.
2. Cut the waistband out twice and sewed the upper edge at 3/8" seam allowance. This gives me a 1 3/4" wide waistband.
3. Did not use either suggested length from the pattern. Instead I cut the skirt to be a finished length of 28".

Confessions/Advice
- Don't be like me, measure the waist circumference before you begin!

- The skirt was cut cross grain to get the pattern to fit at the longer length. In this light weight fabric that worked fine.

- The waistband facing and the hem were all done on the machine.

- I'm wearing my Christmas petticoat under the skirt in these photos. The pattern looks equally well without it.

Husband Comment
He didn't have anything to say about the skirt, but this comment about the Edith blouse was too good not to share. "I like fruit on a black background. It's like your shirt is a dangerous jungle at night."

My Final Thoughts
Sewing a black circle skirt is a terrifically boring project. I coped by putting an audio book in my ears and machine finishing nearly everything on the garment. At least the cotton poplin was most cooperative with my time saving efforts.  That stuff don't get uppity notions about moving around after you pin it.
OK, I belly ached about a lot of things in this post, but do I like the finished garment?  Yes, it's great to have a black circle skirt in the closet. Too bad it couldn't magically appear in there without my involvement. What am I paying my slave frog work force for anyway?

On that note I'll leave you with the obligatory circle skirt swish photo. Yeahhhh petticoat swishing is awesome.

P.S. If you're new to the blog and want more details on Edith then here's the original review.