I made a thing (sort of)

Strictly speaking, I finished a part-done thing. And only a small thing at that. But I have so little time for sewing these days that I'm happy to take any successes where I find them.

Does this look familiar? No, me neither

I had completely forgotten that I had posted about this skirt before; last October to be exact. Then I only had the skirt and lining hems to do, and was expecting to post the finished item the next week. Somehow, this didn't happen. I got distracted by other projects - I know, I know, I'm as astonished as you are - and it completely fell off my radar. It resurfaced recently, and I decided to get it completed for a quick sewing win.

It's not a colour that I wear a lot, so I’m a bit short of tops to wear with it, but it does go well with my blue Wondrella cardigan.

It works well for a fifties look

It also gave me a chance to update the Stashometer.

Not much, but every little counts

On the subject of stalled projects, this week my socials kindly reminded me of a story I posted three years ago.

A memory from 2022

Shamefully the project in question, Butterick 7598, hasn't been touched since October 2023. But as I just haven't got the time or energy to start a brand new project, it seemed a good idea to revisit it. The straight lengths of sleeve trim have now been machined in place with two rows of stitching down the centre. It's been so long since I worked on this dress that I forgot that the edges then have to be invisibly sewn down by hand as well.

Apologies for the blurry photo

Current Elaine has had stern words with Past Elaine about why she ever thought that this was a good idea! The next job is the curved trim on the sleeve head. This is going to be a real challenge, and was probably the reason why I gave up two years ago! Here goes . . .

Short and sweet

Just a brief post this week, to demonstrate that despite decades of dressmaking experience I am still 1) capable of doing something really dumb and 2) bad at estimating.

Wearing my official 'going for a jab' outfit* with my Express Line cardigan last week prompted me to think that I could do with a few more separates. In my stash I have a few skirt lengths which were part of a lot of sewing stuff which I bought at auction, so I decided to make one of them up. It's a lovely vintage fabric, pure wool I think, in a brown and black check.

The skirt fabric

I used my self-drafted straight skirt pattern. I had used this pattern for my black skirt, which is now a little snug, so when cutting out I added some extra width to make the new skirt looser. Then, in what can only be described as a brain fart**, when sewing the pieces together I narrowed the seam allowances to make the new skirt looser. It was only when I tried on what was, by then, a remarkably roomy skirt that I realised what I'd done!

Fortunately I had made the skirt with an internal curved petersham waistband, not a sewn on waistband. Also, I hadn't added the lining by the time the Awful Truth dawned, so it was reasonably straightforward to unpick the petersham and redo the side seams of both the skirt and the lining. Despite this extra work I still thought, last night, that today I could finish the skirt and take photos before it got too dark to do the latter.

Reader, I could not. Somehow I always forget just how slowly I sew. So the big reveal of a not-very-exciting project will have to wait until next week!


* - I went for my covid and flu boosters this week, and wore it again. The combination of skirt, sleeveless top, and cardigan is perfect for the job.

** - Having done some research on brain farts before using the term (academic habits die hard!), I’m slightly mollified to discover that I may have made this error because of my decades of dressmaking experience rather than despite them.