Section One - Special Item One - Winter White/Ivory/Beige Wool Gabardine Skirt - Stage Two

As I am 92% sure that this skirt is going to fit as well as I can manage today it was time to bite the bullet and cut the fabric, as a good Roberta Carr disciple I grain the fabric by pulling a thread across the width of the cloth and cutting it to get a straight edge and then I pin and press the fabric into submission on the grain board. This fabric was willful as I expect gabardine to be ... it has a twill finish and the fibres are soft so it was a bit of a mish' to get things straight.

I forgot to take photo's of the actual cutting out but I imagine anyone interested in this site has seen their fair share of cutting out already ... it went without incident is all I can say about it. Then I did my usual mind gathering thing of writing an approximate sewing order. I find it helps me gather my wits, so to speak, and it also helps me to decide on changes I might want to make in sewing order or techniques. This time I am going to do the zip and waistband differently.

The waistband is going to have 4 layers of fabric. That seems ridiculous but as I want to try the underlining thing I will see it through and see what happens. There will be the fabric, the underlining and the tricot interfacing going full width and the tailors canvas going half way. I debated whether it needed the tailors canvas but I hate collapsing waistbands that crunch up and get wrinkly with wearing and the fabric/underlining/interfacing still felt quite light so I decided to go ahead. Again we are at the we will see stage.

So I tacked the tricot interfacing to the underlining then trimmed it away from the seam allowance before pressing the interfacing down. Next I repeated the steps with the tailors canvas, tacking it down, trimming the excess and pressing it down. Then I removed the tacking and recycled it for the next stage.

I used some of my Mum's ancient Sylko thread for the tacking, it is actually a really nice thread so I think I maybe wasting it but oh well. Once I had fused the interfacings and let them cool and set I tacked the underlining to the fabric at 1.3cm which is inside the seam allowance that is normally 1.5cm's. This means that when I clip back the underlining it will still be captured in the seam and also I will not have to struggle to pull the tacking out of the seam.

To mark the fabric I start by cutting all the notches and placement marks out of the pattern tissue.

Then I make the marks on the wrong side (the underlining) with a fabric pencil through the tissue, this ensures the most accurate placement of marks in my experience.

And then I trace the marks through to the right side with thread, this means I never run the risk of leaving unmovable tailors marker in visible places. It has happened ....

That all took half a day and I find this the most satisfying sight because now the horror parts of sewing are over for me; the cutting out and all that tacking.

And the first thing I do? Tacking. This time on the front darts. I am the tacking queen but only because so many times I have taken the short route and regretted it so I now have a little mantra "when in doubt, tack!" or "save yourself the stress, tack!" ... you get the point.

I use Roberta Carr's tip about dart ends. It feels like extra work but it's really not. Instead of doing all that knot tying etc. You unthread the machine and pull through thread from the bobbin which you thread up through the mechanism in reverse. One thing that probably only I would do is thinking I am smart I pulled through what I estimated was enough to do all the darts. Don't do that, after the first dart you are just back to the same situation of having to tie knots ... sighs.

And you need a guide to sew a perfectly straight dart. If it was shaped I would have gone to the bother of making a guide but for this one any old straight thing will do including a stray legend that might be laying around ... hehe

I decided that the whole deal was a bit heavy in the darts so I trimmed away the underlining. It turned out to be a bit fray-y but I have trimmed it about as close as I can now.

And of course the pressing makes it. I managed to purchase a clapper from a local seller and I use it everywhere, especially on wool. It gives a lovely sharp press without any of the problems of seam show through and shine damage. I also use my favourite pressing cloth, it is silk and so not right for the wool but I find it still seems to protect the fabric and as it is also a little transparent I can see through to press and steam exactly where I needs to.

And the finished item ... the fabric is a little soft and so the end is not as clean as I like. I am also wondering if I made a mistake trimming the underlining as one that I pressed before trimming looked cleaner and sharper, but it would have looked odd if I had left it so it got the chop like the others.

And this is how I left things ... Just kidding I am a tidy kiwi and cleaned up but it is always satisfying to create a mess during a sewing extravaganza it makes me feel like I am actually accomplishing something.