Weekend Sewing: D'oh! Meh. WooHoo!

This weekend I was sewing, as I often am, and had a project bomb, one that's wearable but uninspiring, and one that I'm really happy with.

D'OH

This is actually the second attempt to use this fabric. I salvaged enough from the first failure to cut the pieces for a button down shirt. I used the pattern from Sew U. I had success with it the first time I used it so I merrily was on my way cutting the pieces and getting ready to sew.



When I got to the collar stand I ran into a glitch. I don't know if I cut the body pieces too big or the collar & stand too small but either way, the collar stand & collar are at least 2 inches too small for the neck opening.

D'oh.

Oh, and did I mention I used every last square centimetre of the fabric for the pieces I cut out?

I think I can salvage it by completing the shirt without a collar. I'm thinking more like a U-neck and just hem the opening. (hem? that's not the right word for the neck opening) For the time being it's in time out. If I can't salvage it the fabric will be used for something else along the way. I really like the plaid.

Meh.

When I realized the first shirt was a d'oh I pulled out a light weight knit print I had found in the clearance section of Fabricland a few weeks ago. I decided to go with the t-shirt pattern I had success with earlier this summer and got going. It's wearable but there's something I'm not totally thrilled with.



I haven't finished the hem and I want to re-do the elastic in the sleeves. The fabric was really slippery for some reason and I found myself frustrated with it. It's a really nice weight though and I think I'll finish it up tonight or tomorrow.

WooHoo!

Another skirt! This is exactly what I pictured when I found this lightweight cotton in Fabricland a couple of months ago. It had this beautiful embroidered edge and I immediately saw a skirt.



I drafted a simple 4 panel skirt using math that even I can do. I've used this technique before to make a 6 panel skirt. Please to enjoy my fancy diagram created in my word program.

There are many tutorials online, some of them even have pictures AND descriptions and weren't created in a word program that has no business doing illustrations!

I lined the skirt with the un-embroidered half of the fabric width. The skirt was a bit thin and I didn't want to bother with a slip when I wear it.

I'm fairly proud of the zipper as it's enclosed between the skirt and lining. It's not terribly neatly sewn mind you, but it is enclosed between the skirt and lining and that is the accomplishment we are focusing on.

I still somehow managed to make the waist too big. I seem to do this with any skirt that doesn't have an elastic waist. Better than too small but it sits a bit too low. Overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

You may have noticed the sudden obsession with skirt making (I have another one I haven't shown you yet). My office-mate & I had challenged ourselves to wear a skirt at least once a week for the summer. It's a little out of the ordinary for me to wear skirts but I'm finding that I quite like them for work in the summer. I realize this is old news to most of you but I'm generally a jeans & t-shirt kinda girl.

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I have to travel for work this week. I normally don't leave my office but I need to go to Houston to train someone in our office there to do my job. Well, not my job but how to do the job that I do. You know what I'm trying to say. I'm glad for the change but a bit nervous about going. I'm pretty much a hermit lately and I'm always nervous meeting new people.

Also, I live in Calgary. It was 26 Celsius (79F) today and people were talking about how sweltering hot it is. I have lived in hot/humid before but to go from not-humid/barely-hot to really hot/extremely humid in one day will be... uh... challenging I'm sure. The hotel has a pool, where I hope to spend most of my time while not in the office. (Houston, you are welcome in advance for the visual of my awesome shorts-tan)

I'll only be there for 3 days so any amount of low-grade worrying is seriously unnecessary but there you have it. I won't be able to sew (obviously) so I'm planning to take a sock to knit. I'm travelling with a coworker and I'm sure she would be mortified if I had anything larger to work on. I expect I'll be reading a lot on the flight/trip also. Anyone have any good book recommendations? I've been on a spy-novel kind of kick but would be open to suggestions if you've read something really engrossing.

Wow, long post. Okay so hope you all had a great weekend. Oh, and thank you for your comments on the last couple of posts. (I haven't fully worked out how to reply to people yet and sometimes I can't find an email address when people comment from a different blogging platform.) It really is encouraging.