Scary Blue Lace - Simplicity 1717

I'm gonna say it again - Posture!!

 While Carolyn was visiting the one thing she wanted to do was hang out in the sewing room and mentor my sewing skills.  I've been sewing for years - but I'm often not very confident in what I am capable of.  Based on that - I tend to make lots of simple cotton skirts and dresses and loads of knit dresses.

This lace was bought back in March 2010 - so it's been precious for 5 years.  That's long enough, right?  The first thing we did after picking the fabric from the closet - was to start digging through the patterns.  Simplicity 1717 is one of their Amazing Fit line of patterns.  I spent some time with this myself back in the 2013 and made a couple of skirts.

Step One:  Because I'd already made this skirt - I pulled an old version of it out and put it on.  It was a big snug.  It was decided that I needed to add some room - but only in the front.  It's not uncommon for your front or back half (think splitting side to side) to be bigger than the other.

Changes were made to the pattern and I cut, serged and sewed the lining together before ever cutting into the lace.  Then Carolyn pinned it to me and we took some pictures.  it fit well -- no changes.

Next up - cutting that beautiful, expensive lace.  An inch was added to the length.  I'm hoping to just trim around the lace at the hem, letting the hem match the shape of the lace.

concentrate - don't forget to breathe

Once I was getting ready to sew the lace, that's when the convo about workroom vs. pretty sewing space came up - See - I didn't have any organza in my sewing room - well, I have some pink left over from my MOB dress, but how often are you going to use pink organza, really?  We also had to shorten a zipper because I only had long invisible zippers.  While I was stalling starting the sewing - I was playing with the cut fabric and notice the selvage - Carolyn trimmed it off while I sewed darts.  The selvage was used to stabilize the seams between the skirt and the yoke as well as the zipper and center back seam below the zipper.  Organza was used to stabilize the side seams.

I put a new universal 80 needle in and shortened the stitch length to 1.5.  I sewed slowly and had the strip of selvage under the two pieces I was seaming together.  There is lots of light at the needle on my sewing machine!

Once each piece was seamed together, I pressed it open, over the seam roll, using an organza pressing cloth to protect the lace.  Then I used the clapped to set that seam.  Repeat from the right side with a lighter hand.  Next up - silk thread and catch stitching the seam allowance to the lace.  Slowly and carefully - I've been working on the project.  Taking my time and doing my best at each stage of the game.

If you follow me on InstaGram - well you know the temporary outcome of this story.  The skirt is too big!  I have walked away for now - but I will not give up!


I'll let you know soon - what happened.