I'm back...

I don't know if you missed me or not and sorry to be absent so long. I've got a huuuuge amount of work lately, worked late and used my time rather for sewing than blogging. Plus, the NATO summit starts tomorrow in Bucharest (presidents from all over the world arrive today) and the city is a mess because of that: security restrictions, many institutions closed and an awful-awful traffic.

Thanks to all of you who commented meanwhile and sorry for not being able to answer. A special thank you goes to Nedra who delurked and noticed a very important error in my placket tutorial: the placket should be 1" wide, not 1/2! (the imperial system is sometimes a handful for me) . Thank you, Nedra, now it's corrected.

Dawn, thank you so much for tagging me and leaving such a nice comment at my blog. I promise I'll try to name 7 random things about me as soon as possible. Please bear with me!

I've finished meanwhile three SWAP items and I'm going to show them to you, each one in a different post (so it's easier to link to them in my final SWAP review) . I would also like to apologize for the not so good quality of some of the photos (in this post and the next ones). My camera is quite old and I don't know why, some of the pictures took with the self-timer are a bit blurry or too dark. I know I should try taking them in natural light, but I only have natural light during weekends in my home and weekends are already filled with many other activities.

SWAP item #7 - Not your usual A-line skirt



This is the skirt from my wardrobe pattern, Vogue 2813 - a Donna Karan pattern. It is a very interesting pattern, as you will be able to see below. The front has some very interesting details, (see the drawing), there is a slotted seam effect. Each front piece has facings that are sewn and turned under, then front pieces are joined by means of an underlay and topstitched, once at 1/4" (approx 6mm) and the second time at 3/8" (approx 1 cm). The back darts are treated the same: cut open, faced and then joined with an underlay and topstitched. Well, it is a bit hard to explain, hope the drawing and the pictures will speak for themselves. If not, tell me and I'll take a photo of the pattern pieces.



Side view of the skirt:



View of the front slot seams:



Back (the line of the front seams continue in the back):



Back darts



The skirt doesn't have a lining. I chose to underline it using the same nylon sheer that I usually use for that. I laid the nylon sheer over the assembled skirt (yet unclosed at the center back seam) and carefully traced the shape of the skirt on the lining, then pinched the excess with pins, shaping darts.



Tip: If you want to sew an easy hem on a flared skirt and you are willing to bind the hem, here's what I did: I used bought bias tape and when sewing it to the skirt's hem, I stretched it as much as I could. Doing this, the excess flare in the hem was eased into the bias. After pressing, you get a nice binding and when sewing the hem, you'll discover there's no more fabric to ease in, gather, make little darts etc.



I used a decorative stitching on the binding. The same stitching is repeated on the waist facing.



The zipper is finished with satin ribbon (I don't remember right now if I read about this in Roberta Carr or Claire Shaeffer).