New Look 6843 view E-ish, my HNL-NYC skirt.

So, since she outed herself in the comments of my last post, I will confirm that it was Mary who told me to get my sewing pix out of the bathroom....here's the big 3-session photo shoot for the skirt I made this week.

So, the another comment I got at PR weekend from another attendee is that I should wear more light colors, especially blue or turquoise....here you go!

The fabric:
The exterior fabric is aqua eyelet from Kaimuki Dry Goods in Honolulu, purchased during my day with Shannon.  I think it is mostly cotton, but has some poly to it, based on the fact that it does wrinkle but after hanging the skirt up after wearing it all day, the wrinkles all magically came out on their own (unless The Fairy Ironing Godess showed up while I was sleeping Monday night).

This piece escaped the pineapple juice treatment, and looked like this after laundering.


The interior lining fabric is a super soft Italian cotton voile purchased at Parone in NYC during my day with Maria, that I bought to match the aqua eyelet.  That was the last stop of the day and I carried it home with me and washed it with all my light clothes the next day.

It bled into all my light stuff, including white pants and my favorite white shirt.

Cue frantic laundering of light stuff all over again, minus the lining fabric, several times, then washing my lining fabric again with my aqua towels.

Anyhoo, this is why it's my HNL-NYC skirt!


Ironically I wound up using thread I already had in stash, but I did use the SIL Thread zipper.   The thread is not exactly serger cone sized, it's smaller than that, but it's like it needs the serger cone insert to keep it from moving all over.

The pattern
The pattern is NL 6843, pretty much view E except:

• I lined it
• I did not grade any seam allowance with the waist band
• Instead of a center back seam, I cut the CB on the fold, by folding the pattern in at 5/8"
• I used an invisible zipper

I have made this skirt before, blogged here.

The Sunday photoshoot

So the pix taken with brown purchased tank top were taken Sunday night in the 8pm hour after a rainstorm.  Taken two days after the longest day of the year, it was so incredibly light out!  At this point the skirt was mostly finished, though I had not sewn the lining to the zipper.



I like this photo a lot---the walking away shot--and I'm holding my laminated zipper pouch.

I also like this side walking shot too...
And this shot that highlights my swayback:


The Monday morning photoshoot

I awoke in the 5am hour and immediately set about doing a few maintenance items:
I sewed one side of the lining to the zipper (here it is, fully done).
For this I did a slip stitch as Diana Rupp instructed in her Craftsy class "Sewing Studio", which also highlights the way to make perfect knots (also in her book, Sew Everything Workshop, which I bought from her at PR weekend 2012).

I'll admit, I have NEVER sewn a slipstitch before, even though I thought what I had been doing all these years was slipstitch. It wasn't.  And her knotting technique is pretty amazing.

Then I did a little 45 degree fold and tacking of the side SA down at the side seams, to keep it from poking out at the scalloped edges.

Can I just say, my serger *hated* the eyelet with a passion and the right needle thread kept breaking, I think from hitting the eyelet in a thick place.

While we're checking out the inside of my skirt, let me show you the rolled hem on the lining. I love the rolled hem foot. LOVE. I used the larger size rolled hem foot.

Here is the interior of the skirt, back view:

and the front of the skirt, interior

Ok, so back to the outdoor photos:

side view:

Or whatever view...


The Monday night photo shoot
These are the "after work" pix. Those of you who know me well know that I hate working with 100% natural fibers because of wrinkling! I don't think it's 100% natural like I said, but here you can see the wrinkling from sitting in it most of the day.  and after hanging it on the hanger overnight, most of the wrinkles disappeared!

I don't know what I'm doing with my hands here:

or here

Monday night I finished slipstitching the lining to the other side of the zip. and took more pix on my Izzy:

Can you see here how I got the eyelet scallops to line up at the side seam?


I think the only disappointing thing was one of the scallops is unravelling, and it happens to be in the front. I hadn't noticed that when I cut it out. I tried a little bit of Fray Check on a sample and am so glad I tested it first as it actually stains the fabric. So I will probably mend this section sometime later if/when it unravels more.



In Summary:

• I felt that I really enjoyed this process and took my time with it, from selecting the right fabric lining and zipper to actually taking the time to make sure the eyelet scallops would hit at the right place on my knee, so I could use the scallops as the hem. Having made this skirt twice before (once a little short, once a little long) I split the difference.
• I love this pattern as it sits at my waist, which I find more flattering to my body shape than the 95% of skirt patterns out there today that sit 1" or lower below waist
• I found the pattern on the eyelet actually started to veer off grain on one side of the fabric!  Interesting find!  So I cut it on the side that was "on grain"
• I had lined the waistband too (no interfacing, used the lining fabric in place of interfacing) but did not need to do that....once that waistband is folded over and attached there are 4 layers of waistband and two of skirt plus lining.  I didn't want to grade seams so I used my hammer to flatten it down.
• Used my Stitch Nerd ham to press darts, and Stitch Nerd seam roll to press the seam allowances
• Used my Angela Wolf clapper to set seams.
• Used my serger to serge raw edges, using turquoise serger thread Antoinette and I bought in NYC way back in, gosh 2011..
• Used my old Baby Lock because I have the rolled hem for it (I don't have the rolled hem foot for my new machine)
• Clipped every thread as I sewed.
• Ironed every seam as I sewed.
• Used wax tracing paper to trace the darts.
• Learning the slipstitch technique  
• I found that I am super-inspired by the fabric I bought at Kaimuki and want to sew ALL of it up before the end of September!

Taking the time to do all of that resulted in a skirt I am fully proud of!   YAY!

Sunday night rainbow (faint, but it's there...)



So what do you think of my backyard pix???  Better than the bathroom pix, right??

Be well!!