The Tale of the Yellow Skirt - McCalls 3341

Last winter Boden had a yellow wool skirt for sale; I really liked it, but the price, and the fact that I don't look good in yellow, kept me from buying it.  And then I started seeing yellow skirts all over the interwebs.  I mean everywhere. There is even a Yellow Skirt Gang which I didn't even know about until recently.  I decided my yellow skirt should be wool since winter is upon us.  My search for a suitable yellow wool in Richmond turned up nothing, and my relentless internet search was fruitless; yellow simply doesn't translate well on computer monitors - it always looks beige so you are unable to figure out how bright, how green, or how mustardy the yellow is that you are looking at.

So in December I had a business conference in NYC and I was determined to go to Mood Fabrics.  I tried to go last year when I attended the same conference, but I wasn't able to find the store and went to B&J Fabrics instead (where I ended up buying nothing because I was too overwhelmed by choice). This year I was prepared, and based on my Rome fabric shopping experience, I realized that having an action plan was key. During my interminable conference, I wrote up my shopping list:

1.  Yellow wool;

2.  A chambray-looking linen;

3.  Black eyelet.

Armed with my smart phone, I discovered Mood was opened until 7:00 pm, and I found it at the end of the day, skipping the elevator and walking up three flights of stairs, wearing my Gertie coat.  I was half-hoping Gertie would be there (how cool would it be to meet Gertie wearing the Gertie coat???), but alas, I saw no pink hair.

Yellow wool is easy to spot and I found the perfect mustardy yellow wool and bought 3 yards - all they had - even though I really only needed a yard for the pattern I had in mind.  I also found a good chambray-looking linen, but I struck out on the black eyelet.  Here's my haul:

My Shopping With A Plan worked; I was able to get what I wanted in the limited amount of time I had and the wool is an excellent weight.  Here's a close up so you can see the subtle weave:

So after about a year and half I had scored the exact yellow wool I had in mind . . . and then I went home to Cotton Creek, Alabama, and wasn't able to sew with it.  It was on my mind constantly, though, and the very night I flew back to Richmond, VA, I put down my suitcases and went straight to my sewing room and pulled out my TNT skirt pattern, McCalls 3341:

I have been using it for years - my pattern envelope has a copyright of 2001 - and it is still in print.  I would recommend that anyone looking for an easy skirt pattern consider this one, especially if you a beginner sewer.  It's a simple A-line skirt with only two darts in front and two in back.  No waistband, just a facing instead.  Right now, I have nine of these skirts hanging in my closet made in wool, cotton, and rayon.  I like view D, which is the red above-the-knee version on the envelope.

So here it is, an unexciting photo:

I wore it to work today with a black turtleneck sweater my mother gave me for Christmas, black tights, and black boots.  I figured as long as the yellow wasn't near my face, I'd be OK, coloring-wise:

You can see the wrinkling from sitting, but fortunately, the wrinkles don't last - this wool is very fluid and forgiving.

I really loved wearing this skirt today - it was my first work day of 2014, and going to work is always a little more fun when I have something new to wear!  The yellow is exactly as I envisioned it, and having such a bright fun skirt is wonderful for winter. 

I ended up lining it with the lining fabric I used in my Gertie coat since I had quite of bit of it.

I decided against using the yellow wool for the facings since wool can be itchy.  Instead, I used some of the leftover tablecloth fabric I used to make my 1970's skirt last summer.  All these different fabrics make the inside look pretty groovy, but I like the effect and no one can see them but me:

 The result is a comfortable waistband that isn't scratchy.  I think this skirt will get lots of wear this winter - the yellow goes well with navy blue, bright royal blue, and purple.  And I have a beautiful brown cashmere turtleneck (another Christmas present from Mother from a prior year) that will look great with it, along with some brown pumps when the weather isn't quite boot weather.

All in all, this came out as I envisioned, and I couldn't be more pleased.  And the best part:  I get to start working on my Tippi Hedren suit!

My New Favorite Skirt

One of the things on my to-do list was to make a skirt this winter from the cashmere/mink fabric I bought at the Philadelphia Quilt Expo last fall. I procrastinated on this project for two reasons: marking darts on black wool (even as wonderful as this piece of fabric) is a PITA, and I was going to line it in silk, which also takes more time. But this fabric's wonderfulness is in how it feels. I wish this blog had touch-a-vision, because I have never worked with a more luxurious piece of fabric in my life. Or a more expensive. I saved the receipt and I can tell you I paid $ 88 for a single yard of this fabric. But I finally got it done and photographed this week:

These photos weren't taken until the end of the day, so of course the skirt is wrinkled a bit. It was glorious wearing it though. I've never felt a softer bit of wool, ever.

While this was a tried and true pattern, I did a few things simply because this fabric deserved it. First, I finished the waist facing edge with a strip of silk, Hong Kong style. Normally, when I am making a summer version of the skirt I just serge the waist facing edge or use the overlock stitch on my sewing machine. But I wanted this to look nicer. Here is the waist facing after I attached the strip of silk but before I sewed it to the waist:

To do this, I cut my strip of silk on the straight grain one inch wide. I attached it to the front of the facing with a quarter inch seam, wrapped it to the back, and then stitched in the ditch on the front of the facing, thus catching the silk wrapped in the back. Here is a shot of the facing on the back:

I briefly thought about cutting my silk strips on the bias, but I'm glad I didn't. This silk was slippery enough without adding bias to it.

Next, I gave the hemline the same seam allowance treatment. Here is the hem:

Next, I actually took the time to make 2 pattern pieces for the lining. The only tissue paper I had was some birthday paper with color dots, but it worked:

The only thing different about the lining pattern pieces from the garment pattern pieces is that I eliminated the 1 1/4 inch hem at the bottom, and I only marked the top legs of the darts. I don't sew the darts in my linings - I just make tucks in the lining where the darts in the garment are located.

By the way, the lining fabric is some fabulous silk VickiW gave me when she was cleaning out her garment fabric stash a couple of years ago. There was a goodly amount of it, and I am still using it for my skirts!

I handstiched the hem to the silk lining and in this photo you can see how it looks:

Here's a shot of the inside front of the skirt which shows you the lining and the facings. I didn't sew the edge of the waist facing to the lining and I probably won't.

Here's the back:

Dealing with linings like this that aren't free hanging are always more fiddly. You want to make sure the silk lining doesn't sag, but you don't want it too tight or it will make the skirt hang wonky. And then you have to unsew the hem, adjust the lining more loosely, and then hem again. I had to do this once in the front, but otherwise it hemmed up just fine. Because of this, I'm leaving the waist facing alone - it looks fine and it fits fine. No reason to mess with it!

Usually when I make this skirt from cotton I can get it done in 3 hours, and that includes cutting out. This version took about 7 to 8 hours. Extra work, but I know I will love wearing it, which is why most of us love to sew - you get the fine quality fabric in the color and style you want!

Parting Shot: Here we go again. The forecast is for 8 to 12 inches of snow this weekend. This is what it looks outside my back window:

Do I really live in the South? Hope you are staying warm!

A Sewing Angel Gets Her Wings!

This week I was lucky enough to give my friend, Aimee, her first sewing lesson. (That's her on the right.) I usually start off with a pillowcase for a first time sewer, but Aimee could already sew a seam and had operated a sewing machine, plus she had bought enough fabric at our LQS for five skirts, and a skirt is what she wanted to make. So we made this one, McCalls 3341, which is a good choice for a first skirt, and I've made many times. Simple, 4 darts, no waistband:

We made view D, the above the knee version. This skirt usually takes me 3 hours to make. We made it in 4 hours on Wednesday night, which is pretty good for a first time sewer. She did a great job:

The fabric she chose is an upholstery weight twill, which was a dream to work with. I didn't note the designer, but we both loved it. Here is the back and you can see what a great job she did on the darts, the waist and the zipper:

Strangely enough, I am the one wearing the skirt in these photos. Aimee wanted me to model the skirt while she took the photos once we finished! The best part about teaching her to sew is that she and I are the exact same size, so alterations are not even an issue. I showed her how to put in the zipper according to my zipper tutorial and she was surprised how easy it was.

Aimee wore the skirt to work on Friday with a brown sweater and looked great. My plan was to take her photo in the skirt, but of course, I forgot to bring my camera to work. She enthusiastically wants to make her next skirt Monday night.

Aimee and I played with my new serger on this skirt and used it to finish the seam allowances. It was a LOT of fun and Aimee was really fascinated with the serger.

This morning, however, I started the day slowly. I finally decided an easy project was the way to go. My friend, Kevin, turns 30 years old on Monday, so I made him some boxer shorts as a gift:

I used some quilting fabric manufactured by Alexander Henry that was left over from a shirt I made my friend Glen a few years ago. I was able to play with my new serger with this project:

As usual, I put in a button on the fly, rather than a snap because I think it looks nicer:

I used this pattern, Simplicity 9958 which I have shown you before:

I think Kevin is spending the weekend celebrating, so he'll get these when/if he returns to work next week!

Last week I spent the weekend at the beach at the bay in Mathews County:

It was really beautiful and really relaxing. The backyard of the house I stayed:

The shell of a horseshoe crab:

The New Point Comfort Lighthouse in the distance:

More sand:

Parting Shot: The Crab Dress goes to the beach! Like I would leave it at home . . .

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a good sewing weekend; I got most of Saturday and a couple of hours today working in the sewing studio, i.e. the dining room/living room. It was particularly fun using some of the haul from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show. First up, I was able to complete two more blocks on the DWRQ:


What was kind of fun was that I got to meet John Flynn at the Quilt Show and I told him about the black/white/red version I was doing and that it was my first. He was very encouraging and told me to keep at it and it would all come together. I'm hoping he is right. One of the things I bought at the Quilt Show was this rotating cutting mat which has made cutting the fabrics with John's templates much easier. I had resisted buying the rotating mat at my LQS, but it was so much on sale at the Quilt Show, I couldn't resist:

One thing I finally "got" about the DWRQ blocks is that there are two blocks, a block "A" and a block "B". The difference is whether you put the black corner block on top as you begin, or whether you use the red. It has taken me a few tries to get this, but I now have 8 blocks, 5 are "A"s and 3 are "B". Next weekend I'll make two more "B"s and I'll be all caught up.

The other thing I bought at the Quilt Show was this great cotton canvas whose design was inspired by antique Japanese fabrics. Vicki and Anne bought the entire fat quarter collection, but I bought a few yards of this fabric only:

And I made a skirt, from my TNT (tried-and-true) skirt pattern, McCall's 3341, view D:

I decided to made the seam allowance 1/2 inch instead of 5/8 inch to see if it would fit better, but the 1/2 inch seam allowances have made it a bit big (thank God!), but this isn't a problem - it just sits lower down on the hips, and the extra looseness will probably be appreciated come about July when it is 95 degrees. Which is hard to imagine now since it is snowing and the wind is blowing at about 25 mph.

And finally, I got the binding done for Tammy's Asian Strip Gift Quilt - hope to get that sewn on this week!

I'm hoping for lots of snow tonight so maybe work will have a delayed opening! A snow day/sewing day would be great:

And here is the Parting Shot: the beginning of the snow. There is about 3 inches out there now!

First Day of Advent

I hope everyone had a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving. Mine was fabulous, with good friends and much sewing. I believe this long weekend was a meaningful way to begin Advent, a season of preparation before Christmas.


Let's look at the list I wrote on Wednesday night:

1. Finish the lap quilt for my Prayer Sister, Maria - done! I'll post a photo later in the week; the weather today simply did not cooperate with picture-taking.
2. Finish a project I am secretly doing as a gift - done! But I can't post a photo until after the giving of the gift.
3. Begin sewing the blocks for Tammy's Asian Strip Gift Quilt - begun! I actually sewed 20 of the 30 blocks. This quilt goes together fast.
4. Make a wool skirt. I'm in dire need of winter clothes - done! And I am very pleased.


The wool skirt is my tried-and-true skirt pattern, McCalls # 3341:




I've made this skirt from cotton, rayon, and wool. I've made the above-the-knee version and below-the-knee. It has no waistband, and is simply faced. If I don't line it, it takes me three hours to make it, from the cutting out stage to the hem. As I was making the above-the-knee version from wool I got from Gorgeous Fabrics, I lined it in a luxurious silk charmuese I got from Fashion Fabrics Club.












I line all my wool skirts in silk - it feels luscious, and if you get the silk on sale, it really doesn't cost much more than quality lining. And I believe that is the real advantage of sewing your own clothes; you can make it in a way that you really can't find in ready-to-wear. How much would you have to pay for a skirt lined in real silk? Too much.


The wool is a black and tan check:





I know it doesn't look like much on the hanger, but I love the way it fits and the silk makes it a joy to wear - it is warm, but the fabric breathes. Here are shots of the lining inside:










The lining is free-hanging; I've done it both ways, but today I was in the mood for a free hanging hem. One thing I did differently on this skirt was to cut out the skirt and lining using a rotary cutter rather than scissors. I can't say the rotary cutter was superior in any respect, but I suspect that my lack of experience makes me unqualified to really say. I was mostly paranoid that I would accidentally cut into the pattern. So then I ended up with portions where I didn't cut closely enough. My verdict is that I need more experience with the rotary cutter.


I finished the skirt seam allowances with my Bernina overlock stitch (stitch number 3), but I finished the lining seam allowances with pinking shears, which I normally avoid like the plague because nothing screams home made more than pinked seam allowances, but given that this was a lining and which no one will see, I went ahead.


I hope everyone had a productive Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing your projects.


Parting shot: My Prayer Group! Maria, Jamie, me, Donna, and Judy. We took this today after Mass in honor of Advent. Not pictured is the Other Donna, as we call her.