Hi dearest Sewing Friends!
I've been sewing all week! It has been a revelation, really immersing myself in handwork, and in following a project to completion. I finished/ almost finished a couple of garments, so this skirt is the first one.
Another amazing buy from the 50c stall in Telese Terme, down in the valley from where I live in south Italy; I saw the fabric from a distance and pounced on it! This is one of those garments that no-one in this part of the world would have interest in ;-) Mostly clothes are terribly formal, dry and conservative here. But I rushed to grab it, anyway! And I'm getting more confident with buying things even if they are WAY too small or large for me - as I know I can be inventive and make it my size...
It began much longer (in length), and with this tiny waist. Like the plaid wool trousers that I recently transformed, it was either for a funky child, or a super-slim person - my hips and botty certainly wouldn't have been welcome inside the tiny top boundary. I cut the top off the skirt, and cut out the green silky lining material to begin the transformation.
It was quite easy to make a new waistband: I just folded down the ample fabric, once I'd cut off the top few inches and original waistband, into a triple-layered band. As always, I did this without measuring, as this trains the eye to be precise, and pinned it sacurely before sewing by hand. I love doing everything really slowly; sometimes I like to use the sewing machine if there are very long lines of sewing, but I do enjoy the long hours just putting one neat stitch in front of another - it is both a meditation and a means of putting prayer and positive affirmation into the clothing I wear.
The new waistband finished a bit squiffy where it met the zip, as the circumference was smaller from the higher up fabric and bigger from where I was fixing it into the main skirt. So I used material from the cut-off to create a small lengthening strip, and then sewed that into the top of the fastening.
I also decided to fit a new zip: the old one was nice - and a lovely colour of blue, but it was a bit long, and rather than waste the length (which might be just perfect for a later garment), I chose a new zip - and a new button. I love choosing new closures... the precise closure can really make a piece of clothing!
Oh, and of course I re-added the lining - it needed obviously to be shortened, but like linings of fairly vintage clothing, it also had a bit of wear and tear.... It was a nice experience, sewing it neatly in place, with the new length adjusted. :-D
I then made sure that the edges of the closure were all lining up nicely and neatly.
And then I stepped back a bit: it was all very wide - not because I hadn't measured, but because the skirt had more to reveal! Heheh! I ironed it and tweaked it here and there, to figure out how it might best sit right...
And in the meantime, I added a lined pocket at the middle front: I love pockets! And this skirt looked just about right for having a pocket visible in the middle... This was a nice part of its transformation: it was very fiddley, and took an age, but it got me into the fun of finishing it JUST HOW I WANT IT and not how others might expect it to be.
With the pocket in place, I could better see how the width of it could be altered temporarily, by pleating it and then adding poppers/ snaps to the insides of the waistband where the pleats were - allowing me to put the skirt on, and then fit it to my waist neatly with the poppers. Yey!
All in all, this is one of those projects that was relatively easy and comfortable to do. It got easier as I went on, and the finished result was very pleasing to me. I LOVE rainbow tartan-ish fabrics, and a wool skirt like this makes wonderful winter outfit, when layered over tights or leggings, and with boots and a shorter jacket. It will make me super happy wearing it out and about: warm, practical, fun, kind-of-Scottish, and lovely and heavy how it sits and flows when I walk (like a kilt does!) - woohoo - the perfect skirt!
Much love to you all - looking forward to sharing more with the other clothes I've finished this week! I've already completed a grey wool kilt repair, a favourite winter coat fix-up, and am working on this glorious jacket with very special buttons (yes, more super-special buttons!) but which was way too tight; I'm using an ambitious technique to add a big strip of almost-sculpted wool to the underside of the coat arms... :-D
www.claregaiasophia.com
