Outfit-In-A-Day

Love this one! It's a cotton/lycra knit and the skirt will probably be floor length soon but I don't care. The skirt pattern is for wovens but I've only used it for knits. I didn't make any changes to the pattern and I included the zipper but really didn't need to.


This is the third skirt I've made from this (please don't call it vintage) OOP pattern. Aside from the fact that is fabulously comfortable, it also has a high compliment factor. It just flows when I walk. I even get compliments from (loud gasp) my students! They especially like the gray one - wow, that's a really bad picture. In motion it looks much more impressive.

For this version and the gray one I used elastic as interfacing in the waistband. I was supposed to just cut a length of fabric and fold it over but, I accidentally cut the fabric in half lengthwise. So, it ended up having a seam, and more bulk, and took a little longer (I was sooo mad about that one) but it turned out okay. When I first tried it on (after I thought it was all done) the waistband was about 3" too big. So, I opened up one of the ends, pulled the elastic and stitched it back up.

Top is Vogue 7799 (OOP but still on their site). The sleeves on the top are 3/4 because I ran out of fabric. I've only made this top once before and the collar was very flimsy so I used a different interfacing on this one and had the opposite result. That's okay, I L.O.V.E. a high collar.

For the hem on the skirt I used spray starch to press it under 1" then did a blind hem. The hem on the top I turned it under 3/4" and sewed a straight stitch and for the sleeves I pressed the hem under 5/8" then lined up the fold with the right side of the presser foot and moved the needle to the right until it was 1/4" away from the fold. When the stitching on the sleeve hem was done, I trimmed the hem close to the stitching.

My next kid-free weekend is in two weeks and I plan on making a pair of gray pants to replace this disastrous pair. Ugh. It pains me to even look at those. I want to use the same pattern but make a muslin (gasp!!) and follow the fitting advice from the Peggy Sager's live video chat. If I can manage it, I'll do the muslin fitting and cut out the fabric before my sewing day. There's just one little obstacle that might delay this plan. My daughter only has two dresses in her closet right now, and you know, that's just not right! Somewhere I have to work in something for her soon.

Special thanks to those of you that have left comments recently. I truly appreciate the fact that you're still stopping by!