Cake Patterns Hummingbird Flounce Skirt - UFO

I have wanted to make a Hummingbird skirt for a while, but I wanted to get through my current list of projects first.  As you may recall, I wrote about making a Hummingbird peplum top.  Which I did.  But ... something about it is ... off.  I've put it on a couple times, modeled for Hubs, and he says it's "fine".  Well, for some reason I don't feel like it's fine.  I think that the front waist raises up too high, and the back waist is too low because the front is raised by my chest dwellers.  So I needed to compensate for that.  For now, it's just a finished top that sits lonely in my dresser.  Cue lone violin.

Since I'm not making a coordinating Hummingbird skirt for my top, I realized that I could really use a nice black skirt for work.  Lightbulb!

I wanted to find black cotton sateen, but of course Joann's website LIES and my store didn't have or couldn't find their bottom weight black sateen.  There was grey, purple, and some other colors.  But black?  No.  Sad face.  I'm pretty sure the one I picked up was a Sew Classic Bottomweight Wrinklease.  I needed something that wasn't demin so it was work appropriate, and I wanted a dressier look.  This one has a soft feel to it so I picked it up.  Unfortunately it's only 44" wide, and it's a whore for lint.  Awesome.  I asked the cutting counter for 2 1/2 yards but there were only 2 left on the bolt.  I was still charged for 2.5.  Not that I'm bitter.  Knowing I would likely wear tights with this skirt, I also picked up some Ambiance Lining which is woven with magic and feathers.  I bought it in Blackberry, a nice deep purple, just for a fun little secret inside my pants.  Hahahaha.  Okay, let's move on from that now. 

Now my trick was to squeeze a Hummingbird skirt (with flounce) out of a measly 2 yards of narrow fabric.  I shouldn't have needed more than 2 yards, but that's on 60" width.  I said a prayer and started cutting.

Yes, I cut on my floor.

I did make it, but my waist band couldn't be cut on the fold so I have a seam in the middle.  Well, whatever.  I never wear shirts tucked in anyway.

I then had to cut most of the pieces again out of my lining fabric.  Instead of a true lining, I actually underlined all of my pieces.  Since the skirt is more form fitting I thought this would prevent any annoying wrinkles between the layers.  This also allowed the flounce to be underlined as well.

I proceeded to baste all of my lining pieces to my outer pieces.  Then came construction.  The first part to construct are the sides with the pockets.  Let me tell you.  I felt like maybe I am not good enough for this, because I could not understand how it went together.  I stared at it, willing the pieces to tell me their secrets of how to go together.  I read over the directions some more.  I made sure my pieces were all in their proper alignment, because the top side skirt has faint shaping to it.  I finally just dove in, as per the usual, and it all worked out.  As per the usual!  In the end, the pockets are really quite a cool construction.  And just like Steph says, you can take in the side seams and the pockets still retain their shape.  It's beautiful construction.

I hand picked the zipper because they are awesome.  I struggled a little bit with finishing the waist band during the stitch in the ditch process.  I stitched in the ditch, but the stitches did not fully catch the waist band on the inside.  I took it to work and finished the interior with some hand stitching.

Gorgeous.  Just look at that!  It's so freaking pretty.  I'm getting really good at this sewing stuff.

I didn't bother with measuring length but I should have.  As soon as I tried this on I realized it was far, far too long.  So ultimately this has ended up being a UFO.  It's quite sad and at some point I want to take it apart and see what I can do to save it.

TEARS. :'(

News!

Just to cover some "administrative" tasks, I've recently had surgery which kept me down for a while, and I've been losing weight very quickly which makes selfish sewing difficult when I shrink out of clothes within weeks! I've finally started to sew again and feel like I've come back to my happy place. I've been making things that can be easily altered to accommodate my on-going weight loss.

With that said, I've fallen IN LOVE with both of Colette Patterns' Myrtle and Moneta dresses! To welcome the coming Fall, I've also sewn the ultimate in cozy, a Lola dress by Victory Patterns. Let me say, I can definitely tell that my mad skillz have advanced. Not only did the many and complicated looking pieces of Lola come together like a breeze, my seam matching is BEAUTIFUL. I far exceeded my expectations of myself here!

In addition to my mad skillz, I've decided I really need to advance my photography on this blog. So I'm digging out our DSLR and becoming friends with it. Wish me luck!