I am so excited! Sewing for the current spring/summer season actually commenced TODAY. I bought some uh-dora-bell white cotton eyelet at Nancy’s Sewing Basket last August, and today it started on a path to becoming a wearable garment. Amazing!
I don’t remember the last time I sewed on eyelet – but it definitely has been a while. I decided to use French seams, partially because I love the look of them, and partially because I wanted a narrow, completely finished seam inside. Sheesh! Stitching straight on heavily embroidered fabric with lots of holes requires focus, people. And lotsa controlling the fabric going under the presser foot. I couldn’t sew at my usual warp speed, that’s for sure.
This skirt is dead simple. A front, a back, and a waistband. Since I cut the front and back cross grain and both eyelet selvedges are scalloped, I don’t even have to hem it. Sweet! Well, there is a lining too, but still – not a tough project. The invisible zipper went in without a hitch. Here are my tips for making this a foolproof process.
Lay a strip of water soluble stabilizer on both sides of the fabric, and then pin the zipper on top of the stabilizer. The stabilizer really made the stitching smooth and stable.
After both sides of the zipper are stitched, trim the seam allowance so that it is even with zipper tape and overcast the edges together. Might be a little hard to see in this pix, but I love how neat and finished the zipper looks on the inside.
I clipped the seam allowance below the zipper tape so I could continue my francophile ways and make a French seam below the zipper. Nice!
Here is the finished zipper, and it looks perfect!!
The white cotton lining is mostly completed and ready to go inside the skirt. I want the lining to hang free so that the eyelet holes are really visible. Probably I will have to whip the lining seam allowance to the zipper – at least at the very bottom – and possibly also down both sides of the zip. But I still think the floaty lining inside the skirt will look best. I hope I can finish it tomorrow…wish me luck, dear readers!
Happy sewing!
Maris Olsen