Well, predictably I did not get 5 garments completed in one weekend, but I am still pretty happy about how much I got done. Here’s the final report!
Pajama pants: DONE. I even managed to remember to interface the buttonhole area and clip the side seam about an inch or so below the waistband so I could fold back the waistband seam allowance nicely. Yay for me! I love it when I remember those little details. Shows not all my brain cells have died, eh? 😉 These are all ready to pop in the mail to my favorite SIL. Merry Christmas Mat!
Uniform pants for my favorite 9 year-old: DONE. I am super happy with this pair. I used the TNT Sandra Betzina fly front zipper installation process – awesome! Dead simple and foolproof.
The first pair I made for her did not turn out as professional as I wanted, especially the waistband/back elastic. Guess that was because I winged it a little. Maybe a lot! Anyway, pair one is coming back for a little R & R (repair and resuscitation) and pair 2 (completed this weekend) is heading to said 9 year old tomorrow. Hope the waistband fit is perfect on this pair!
Knit dress pour moi. Nada. Zip. Zero progress. Didn’t even get the instructions out of the envelope. Meh.
Black wool crepe skirt number 1, using Vogue pattern 7937. For this skirt, I am making view A but without any tabs. Not done and wearable, but lotsa progress!!! Really!!
To be fair, all the skirt panels were stitched together sometime last spring when I started on these 2 skirts. This weekend I put in a lapped zipper using a very cool tutorial from Louise Cutting. The tutorial is on the 10 Years Threads magazine archive, so if you don’t have the DVD, the link I could share won’t help you, but I will add a tutorial on this process later this week. I LOVE learning new techniques, and this one was a real winner.  Next I got all fancy-pants and decided to hand overcast the seam allowances to the silk organza underlining to control raveling and keep everything in place. Very couture! I really enjoy hand sewing, but 6 seams equals 12 seam allowances to overcast. By hand. Did I mention I overcast them ALL BY HAND??
Black wool crepe skirt number 2, also using Vogue pattern 7937, but this time making view D. Prior to the marathon, the skirt and underlining was only cut out. So I basted the silk organza underlining to each piece, stitched all the panels together, and tried on for fit. Yeah, even tho the other one fit I did double-check the fit of this new view. I also did the hand overcast, only for this version there are 9 x 2 seams because of all the back panels. I watched Radio on Netflix while getting this task done!  I ran out of steam before getting the waistband on the skirt…..so it is now ready for the facing and zipper installation. I love the straight front and swooshy back on this skirt!! I know the pix is not perfect – but go ahead and use your imagination a little. Someday I might post a pix of me IN the skirt.
I didn’t meet all my weekend goals, but I definitely moved a few projects off the “staging area” in my sewing room. Hope you had a great weekend – I did!
Happy sewing!
Maris Olsen