This weekend, I was all organized to make a whole outfit from the April Burda- nice easy sewing, a long 6 gore skirt with welt pockets, worn with a short sleeved mock turtleneck top. I picked out the fabrics, and was all set to go on Saturday, except that I could not find the magazine.
2 hours later, I had an unnaturally tidy sewing room, but no Burda. I was a bit annoyed.
Instead, I had this McCall's pattern, which I last made in 1989. It would be out-of-date.
Risking datedness and dowdiness, I went ahead with the McCalls skirt, view A, adding about 3 cm to the longest length to mimic my vague memory of the Burda model photo. Unfortunately I did not have quite enough fabric. It was cut at an angle, so that I thought I had enough fabric, but was actually about 10cm short at one end. 1 of the side gores was too short. To make the skirt symmetrical, I trimmed back another 2 gores, then added a 10cm band to the bottom of the 4 side gores.
My next rather frustrating episode was the attempt at the welt pockets. The fabric is a rayon/poly woven. I bought it over the internet thinking it was a knit - entirely my mistake. It is a woven. A ravelly, not very stable woven, with a faux suede type hand.
I had some trouble with the ravelling whilst attempting a ribbon welt pocket, per Kenneth King. The short ends were unco-operative at turning under. Instead they disintegrated when I breathed near them. There was also a 1/4 inch operator error in the application of the welts. To overcome these nasty issues, I satin stitched over the short ends, and decided that I had really intended to have an exposed zip with sort of weltish things at the sides only.
It almost looks intentional.
Next I applied the waistband. You may be amazed to hear that this was quite straightforward. I started to think that the sewing Gremlins had done enough work for one day, and might have knocked off. I used the vintage button for the outside, and also attached the inside underlap of the waistband with a less pretty button. I used an invisible zip for the side seam fastening.
Overall, I am not sure if this skirt looks more 2011, or 1989.
I suspect the latter. Regardless, it will be a nice warm skirt for a trip down south, if worn with a petticoat and my Wellington warm tights. (You can't see the welt pockets because they are almost on the side seams - my husband took the photo, so no side shots, I am missing my teenage photography team)
Next I am making a long sleeved mock turtleneck from Burda Style 09-2010 - unless my April Burda shows up before I cut it out.
