A Work in Progress

Hello again! It’s Simply Saturday!

Today I’m sharing a project that I started a few days ago using this pretty, floral, cotton fabric. The project hasn’t actually been finished, yet (hence the title) so I thought I’d post about where I currently am in the process.

This is the pattern I’m using. I was actually going to use a different pattern from this company, (which I’m not sure you can buy anymore) but then I decided that this one fit my style much better. 😉 Prepare for a hopefully informative, and picture-heavy, ramble!

I began with cutting out twelve of these gores. This step felt like it took a very long time, what with the ironing, measuring, pinning, cutting, and repositioning again and again.

I ended up with a dozen of these gores, which I sewed together in groups of two. In the pattern they didn’t specify the order in which they should be sewn together. It read as if one should just sew one together, then the next, etc, but I thought that it would be harder to maneuver that way so I did it like this instead.

Pardon the wrinkled skirt pieces… Here are all of the gores sewn together. The pattern calls for a 5/8″ seam allowance. In order to streamline the process, I clipped the gores together, making sure the edges were even, then I drew the in the seam allowance length with a pencil. (I actually cut a 5/8″ little slip of paper so that I didn’t need to use the tape measure to get the allowance right. It went a lot faster that way!) Then I pinned along the pencil line before sewing together the gore. Repeat that step about twenty-two times more and you too will have the result that I did! 😉

After the gores were all attached to each other, it was on to the next step: topstitching! I picked out the maroon-ish colored thread pictured above, since it would add some interest and also tie into the darkest shade in the flowers of the print. What followed was a cycle of pinking the edges of the seams, ironing, stitching both sides, etc. It was a little tedious, but I love how it looks! It was sort of difficult getting through so much sewing with a machine that threatens to break down with every stitch, but so far it has survived! 😉 Now all I need to do is finish the topstitching, waistband, zipper, and hemming…

And that is where I’ll have to leave off. I hope to feature the finished skirt in an outfit post sometime soon as long as it turns out well! Talk to you later ~ Emily