Pencil Skirt Obsession

Starburst Skirt Burda 05/2012

I'm not going to lie to you. Ever since I got this particular Burda in the mail I have been lusting after it heartily.     I even want it in this tangerine color. I probably won't, but STILL.  <3 I love high-waist anything now (full convert) and pencil skirts are my signature item at work.  I only have one very good one, and one passable green one.  Both are the same pattern, Vogue 8672 View E  but the green one was out of a ponte knit and I didn't take into account the amount of stretch needed or how much it shows tucked in clothing.

Which leads me back to the above skirt.  Its for stable knits and has no zipper drafted into the pattern. A thing I did not notice until my friend Ilanka said "Wow, that's a tight skirt!".  Uh... she was right. Ooooooh.  Its for knits.  Which led me to the conclusion that they must of photo-shopped out a lot of lumps and bumps cause that blouse is going to show through, I don't care how skinny you are.  Drat.  So it went on the back burner.

So, during long tedious nights at work I've defended myself but going to my happy place, sewing. I've been thinking about how to construct this skirt to make it as sculpted as it looks here but still retain its allure with tucked-in blouses, and not go OMG PANTY LINE! The only answer I've come up with is underlining.

Aaaah yes. Underlining. You are my new best friend. Its almost impossible for me to make a garment out of woven now without underlining it.  Or at least thinking about underlining it. But this would be the first time delving into the realm of underlining a knit of any type, though ponte knit would be the most sensible one to try first, me thinks. In this case it would need to be a fabric that has as much stretch as the ponte itself, and I would probably use make sure the waistline facing had ridgeline stays as well. I realized I could use a silk stretch charmeuse after hitting up the Dharma Trading Co. for my evening gown underlining. I didn't add the stretch charmeuse to my order. I may go back and get some more later in August, depending on how much I can get done on what I shall hence forth refer to as The Gown.

I still haven't done a full post on that yet. *sighs*  I shall. Very soon.

So what sewing challenges have you been puzzling over lately?

For the Vintage: Interlining

Hello! I see I have recently gained some new readers. Welcome to my little corner of the asylum world. See, I had signed up some time ago to be a part of the Great Vintage Sew-a-Long. Supposedly we were to have our project done by the end of February. HA! That was funny.

I did a good bit on fitting adjustments, I already had my fabric picked up and I had to do an interlining. I have another project in the works where I was going to help some long-distance friends sew there first dress. One of them mentioned the fabric being semi-sheer. I suggested interlining and so now I'm here to explain what that is.

As you can see, my fabric is a somewhat sheer cotton lawn. I decided to use a light weight cotton batiste* for the interlining.

First I cut the pattern out of the interlining. Then I placed that on top of my fashion fabric (or shell, whatever you want to call it). I know I could have been a bit more frugal in fabric placement, but in this case I wanted the design to line up a certain way.

In most instances one would hand-stitch the two pieces together in the seam allowance. However, that takes forever (and machine stitching makes the two pieces to bunch and not line up properly). So I took a page out of Gertie's book and used fabric glue in the seam allowance instead. Works like a charm! Also, I put all my markings on the interlining before gluing and cutting.

Now I just treat them like they are one piece of fabric and sew it together!

*Please note that the color of your interlining can effect the appearance of your fashion fabric. I highly recommend taking the fashion fabric with you and trying it over several different colors. One can also use silk organza or really any other similar/lighter weight fabric. It really depends on what you want the end result to look and feel like. I personally can't stand polyester anymore as all it does is stick to you in hot Georgia summers. And my skin complains by breaking out. Not fun.