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

I think I have mentioned that the skirt has darts in the front and princess seams in the back, that makes for quite easy fitting and seeing the way this skirt is turning out in fit, comfort and just plain good looks this skirt may be taking up residence as my go to straight skirt for awhile. I just used a normal straight stitch for the seams on a 25 stitches per inch setting and am happy with the way things are turning out. You can see the vent there as well as part of the seam and it is difficult (not impossible) to tell which is which in my opinion. It is early days but I have to say I am liking the underlining deal on lighter weight fabric as much as I liked it on the coats. I endorse it!

I did a simple finish on the seams by trimming the underlining away from the seam allowance, stitching a line near the edge of the seam and pinking shears to prevent extravagant fraying. So far it is working! The vent is still hand stitched down and I have yet to do the heavy duty steaming to set the pleat. Last time I did something like this I got it permanent pressed at the Dry cleaners but that was for a whole skirt of pleats, so I am undecided whether it is worth the expense for two.

So here we go; a skirt. Admittedly not a complete skirt but this is the stage I usually start having doubts about what I am sewing and a bit of a crisis ensues but I am not on this skirt. It does look a bit ill fitting on the mannequin but that is because she has a design flaw and I cannot get a proper fitting on her; either I have to make the waist too big so as to achieve a proper hip measurement, or the exact opposite and the hips have to be too small to get a fit at the waist, which is the situation we have here. Hmm maybe I am the one with the design flaw ...

I have to say the hem is lovely on the skirt, another thing I attribute largely to the underlining. I trimmed the seam closely where it would disappear into the hem and then attached binding made from one of the linings I am using. A narrow hong kong finish is the result after which I hand sewed it down to the underlining using a running or slip stitch as it is invisible behind the binding. Interestingly I was reading in a Clair Schaeffer book the hong kong finishes are much more of a home sewing finish than one that is used in the industry because of it's tendency to leave a visible lump, no matter how small....

... not this time Baby! This is truly an invisible hem and I am so happy with it. Yay!

The other thing I got done today was attaching the waistband. This took a bit of effort as I had to ease the skirt onto the band so there was some steaming and clapping (not as rude as it sounds) to get things to fit. I finished the band on the inside with my faithful pinking shears and everything looks tidy and neat.

Next on the list is the zip and the lining. I decided to try things this way as I always find the finish on the waistband a little clunky and unsatisfactory so I thought I would take the zip right up on to the waistband and finish it at the top with a loop and button on the inside. It is the first time I have done it this way so we will see what I think at the end.