McCalls 3830 In-The-Flow Skirt!

A few weeks ago Vicki let me come over and paw through her stash in an effort to divest herself of some of her precious silk fabrics (i.e., her spring cleaning exercise).  It came at an opportune time since I am thoroughly uninspired by my own stash.  (Which probably means it is time for a good clear-out myself and get rid of those fabrics I know I'll never use.)

Vicki's stash was oh, so more interesting than my own - silks, silk blends, and lining fabrics, oh my!  I took three good size bags home, mostly of silk blend suiting fabrics.  Back when Vicki was working she made her own suits, and she has excellent taste.  One of the fabrics I snagged a black and ivory herringgbone houndstooth silk/cotton blend which was sort of a dream come true, because it is very much in style these days, (or "on trend" as everyone says), and I looked for something like it back in the fall but couldn't find the quality I wanted.   Now I had four yards in my hot little hands, and I suspect Vicki had planned a jacket with it, but I wasn't feeling that ambitious.  My MS was kicking my ass, and I wanted something simple and fast.

I actually wanted to make some more trousers, after my success last time, but thought of matching all those herringbone houndstooth rows made me tired.  So I settled on a simple, straight skirt, McCalls 3830:

This pattern is essentially the same as my TNT A-line skirt, McCalls 3341, just straight instead of A-line.  No waist band, two darts front and back.  I originally got it to make Goodbye Valentino's ribbon skirt, but lost interest when autumn arrived.

I cut this out the day after I visited Vicki, but was too exhausted to begin sewing, so it sat for a week until I entered the sewing room well rested and ready to go.

This skirt was a joy to sew.  The fabric was wonderful and I was just in the zone while making it.  I even put in an invisible zipper, which if you have been following along, is not my favorite zipper application.  It turned out great.

I began by interfacing the back edge with light interfacing cut in 1.25 inch wide strips:

This is the lightest weight interfacing I own; it is intend for silks and other light fabrics.  I wanted to provide a little stability to the area, but not make it stiff or allow the interfacing edge to show on the right side of the fabric.

Next, I used the basting tape I got off of Amazon.com after I saw the Palmer/Pletsch DVD, "Jeans for Real People" to hold the invisible zip in place before sewing:

This stuff is fantastic.  It is extremely sticky and kept the invisible zip completely in place while stitching.  You need to be careful that you place it so that you don't stitch through it because it will gum up your needle and sewing machine for sure, but it works.  I want to buy it in bulk.

It allowed me to achieve the holy grail of invisible zipper installation:

Perfect matching!  Horizontally, the fabric matching is dead-on.  I'm pleased.

Vicki gave me a bunch of linings and I decided use some watermelon red lining just for fun:

Here's the finished skirt and the lining:

And here's a selfie wearing it:

I wore it with a hot pink sweater, so I don't think this violates my no-black rule.  I love it.  It doesn't wrinkle and it is as much of a pleasure to wear as it was to sew.  Look at the rest of my matching:

(right side seam)

(left seam - OK, this one wasn't as good, horizontally, but I'm fine with it)

I love when projects like this come together.  I was "in the flow" as discussed in this TedTalk here, which I find fascinating.  I've worn it twice since finishing it two weeks ago.  Of course, since I added this skirt to my wardrobe, my self-imposed rule is that I have to get rid of two.  So I gave away these two beloved skirts, here and here.

Next up:  more trousers!