McCall's 3830- aka The Straight Skirt Holy Grail!

I get all sorts of catalogues at the house for various clothing companies. I typically thumb through the ones from Nordstrom's and J. Crew, sometimes Talbots for shoes and the rest usually end up in the recycling bin without ever being opened. For some reason, this summer, I actually flipped through the Boden USA cataloge and all sorts of fun stuff caught my eye. But, the one thing that really stuck out was this denim pencil skirt.

I loved the color and the simple style, but knew that buying it was out of the question for several reasons: a) pencil skirts typically hate me, b) even if they didn't, I have no idea what their sizing is like and don't really care to investigate since it's all mail-order and c) it was $78 for a simple skirt. Thank God this caught my eye over the summer and not the spring because instead of being bummed, I decided to just make my own, using the Boden skirt as a handy inspiration piece.

After having good luck with McCall's basic a-line skirt pattern, I thought I'd try their straight skirt pattern (3830)that is so beloved on Pattern Review.

For the fabric, I had a dark lightweight stretch denim in the stash from making baby dresses this summer and had thankfully bought 2 yards because I liked it so much. Let me stop for a moment and expouse on how much I love this fabric. It's a really lovely dark navy with no distress marks, a nice stretch and I'm guessing some poly blended in, as well. Why? Well, I washed it 4 times to make sure all the excess dye was off of it and the sucker didn't fade in the least. At $4/yard, it feels like such a bargain. Love it! I'm going back to the shop to restock later this week.

I knew I wasn't going to line this skirt, but I still wanted the inside to be pretty. I was originally going to use a navy cotton for the facing and all navy notions, but when my local Joann's was out of navy bias tape, I completely switched gears. I keep walking by this vaguely psychedelic butterfly/flower print in the quilting cotton secion of Joann's and I'm drawn to it every time. There is no way it would work for a garment, at least for me, but as a facing, it was perfect. To tie it together, I used purple bias tape to finish off the back seams and navy hem tape at the bottom. The sides were sewn with french seams.

After all was said and done, I LOVE THIS SKIRT!! LOVE IT! Yes, I realize I'm ridiculously excited about a very simple garment, but I can't help it. I had a feeling that this was going to be a rousing success from the start and it's really nice to have it turn out even better than I had expected. With the exception of the shorter hemline and no belt loops, I think it's a good replica of the Boden skirt. And it fits me like a glove, straight out of the envelope! I love that it pairs equally well with tall boots and flats, sweaters and tank tops, for the office and for play. Such a simple piece, but one that I pretty much want to live in year-round.

The inside makes me as giddy as the outside. I know that no one will be able to see the fun print or that there is not a single raw edge to be found on this skirt, but that doesn't make me any less thrilled about it.

I'm planning several more versions of this skirt - I'm thinking one in black denim, one in a lightweight khaki cotton and maybe a few prints for summer? I've totally found my holy grail straight skirt pattern. :)

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ETA: I forgot to post the cost for this skirt. Here's the breakdown:
Pattern - $2
Fabrics - $7
Notions - $6

Total cost - less than $20. :)

In all honesty though, I'm not really sewing to necessarily save money. It's great when things turn out to be so cost effective, but I have a few upcoming projects that aren't going to be inexpensive. However, this is a hobby for me. I love learning how to sew and being able to make things that actually fit my body, instead of trying to squeeze my body into something the manufacturers deem a "normal" size. Sometimes those garments are going to be simple basics made up with inexpensive fabrics and other times, it's going to be fun dresses and such in finer fabrics like wool wovens, jerseys and sweater knits. Those fabrics aren't cheap, but man are they gorgeous. :)

Butterick 5209 Redeux - Emerald City

I'm pretty sad that I've not had much time to spend in the sewing room these past couple of months and the time that I have spent there has been focused on finishing up gifts for others (more posts on those this week as they get passed out to the recipients) or working on special occasion dresses. Let's just say I'm ready to start focusing on some work and play separates for ME! You know, after a few baby gifts get sewn up first. :/

Anyways, we had a family wedding to attend on May 1st and I really wanted to do a short version of the purple ballgown that I made in March. For some reason silk dupioni was stuck in my head as the fabric of choice this time around and I found a beautiful rich emerald/teal silk at Mood. It looks super teal in all of these pics, but it's actually much more emerald in person. The lining fabrics left a bit to be desired, but I finally settled for a gray/green china silk which worked out okay.

With all of the workouts and rehearsals for the dvd shoot, I was pretty zonked and kept putting off working on the dress for more than fits and spurts. By the time the 26th rolled around though, it became apparent that I *really* needed to get the show on the road if I expected to have a dress for the wedding. Whoops.

I was fairly apprehensive sewing the bodice again after all of the headaches I had the first time around. But amazingly, the bodice went together like a dream this time. I was thrilled! The only change I made was to trim about an inch total off the width of the bodice (1/4 inch per side seam) to accomodate my shrinking body and it fit like a glove. In fact, the bust area looked even better than it did with the purple dress - and in a fabric that was much more stiff. Who knew?!

I finished the outside of bodice on Tuesday night and was feeling incredibly confident about the rest of the dress going together quickly. Friday, you know, the DAY before the wedding, was my day to finish the rest of the dress. The bodice lining went in very well and I had what my facebook friends were calling a "tankini" by lunchtime. Which just left me to attach the skirt, add a zipper and a hem and it would be done! This is where the wheels started to come off.

No matter what I did to the gathering of the skirt, the fabric just would not hang right. I looked 6 months pregnant, which would be fine if I was, but after having just lost 15lbs, I wanted to show off the hard work, not hide it under a tent. :/ I must have attached, ripped out, recut and then reattached that dang skirt a half-dozen times. I tried fewer gathers, I tired pleats, but nothing was working. The fabric just had too much body to lay flat when any sort of gathers or pleats or whatnot were added. By 8:30 at night, I was at the end of my rope. In a fit of madness, I ripped out my favorite straight skirt pattern (McCall's 3830) and used the hipcurve to make the gathered a-line skirt into one that was fitted through the hips with a slight a-line flare at the bottom. It still wasn't perfect, but with some tweaks here and there along the waistline it started looking, dare I say it, quite cute. At the very least, it didn't make me look pregnant and was something that I would wear out of the house, as opposed to the previous incarnations of the skirt.

By that point, I just needed to get it done because I had no back-up plan and really needed something to wear the next day. I got the zipper in with no problems, hemmed the lining and left all of the hand work (blind hem and attaching the lining to the zipper) until the next morning.

Here is the front of the dress. See, it looks pretty good, right? I love the color and I love the way the bodice fits. Much better than the purple dress in my opinion.

I'm absolutely loathe to show you this picture, though. See those lines/bunched fabric around my lower back? Yeah, I could not for the life of me figure out how to get rid of them, so I fixed it as best I could and then called it a night. See anything missing?

Um, I DIDN'T ADD ANY DARTS!! For the love of all that is holy, how did I forget that you have to have DARTS in a fitted skirt?! It dawned on me Saturday morning as I was driving back from the gym that the lack of darts was causing all of the issues around the low back and bum area. I obviously didn't need darts when the skirt was a simple drindl, but as soon as I switched gears, I needed to re-engineer the whole thing. Which, I obviously didn't do. I'm still beating myself up over it, almost 2 weeks later.

My problem now is that I was hoping to use this dress over the summer for work events with my husband. What I really need to do is cut a new back piece, but I'm worried about picking everything out, especially since dupioni shreds like crazy. Thoughts? Should I just suck it up and fix it or leave well enough alone?

Even though this wasn't exactly the dress I set out to make, I'm still fairly happy with the overall product. In retrospect, the fitted skirt is more versatile for work events and is still fun without looking like a bridesmaid dress.

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One last funny story about this dress. We're all at the wedding have a grand 'ol time at the reception. I'm standing with Jim and his immediate family, a good song comes on and we all start dancing and bumpin' booties. Fun times, except that my father-in-law (FIL) and I bumped into my brother-in-law (BIL), who was holding a full glass of red wine... that proceeded to spill all down the back of my dress and into my shoe.

We all just froze with shocked looks on our faces.

My MIL and BIL's girlfriend jumped into action, hustled me into bathroom and started dabbing at everything with wet paper towels. They questioned the use of soap, but I waved it off saying that we should just get as much of the wine out as possible and then let the cleaners do what they could to remove the stain. My poor MIL had to get more up close and personal with my backside than she ever wished to. The quote of the night, from my MIL "Just pretend I'm your mother sweetie" before she stuck her hand and arm up the back of my dress to wring out the wine. God Bless that woman. :)

I think all of us had written off the dress as a goner, but we got back to the reception and the party continued. About 20 minutes later, BIL's girlfriend runs up to me and says "Look at you dress!!"

Folks, the fabric had dried and you couldn't see a damn thing! Silk dupioni is like magic fabric or something. If you don't believe me, take a look. Can you see anything?

So, the moral of the story, don't dance around full glasses of red wine and always make sure your special occasion dresses are in deep colored silk dupioni. :D

McCalls 3830 Revisited - Third time's the charm

I first tried this skirt pattern earlier this year to rip-roaring success. However, in the meantime, I started the Peak 10 program, got my butt in shape and went down 2 dress sizes. In the middle of the program, I finally got around to sewing what I thought would be another successful version of this skirt. Unfortunately, I didn't really take into account my shrinking body and my grey denim version fell flat. Too big and I wasn't excited enough about the fabric choice to take the time to make it smaller. It's now been packed away with the other boxes of clothing that are too big for me.

After that mess, I figured I'd drop down one size and things would perfect. Out came the lovely black stretch denim from Emma One Sock - a bit of a splurge - and I whipped up another skirt. While it was wearable, it still felt too big and stretched out around the booty after wearing it. It also didn't feel nearly as versatile as I was hoping it would be. For cripes sake! I've worn it a few times, but it's at the back of my closet now, waiting for fall and winter to make another appearance. And if I'm being honest, it probably even need a few alterations if I'm going to really love it. Le sigh.

This photo was taken about halfway through my weightloss, so while it looks okay here, it's quite a bit looser now.

At this point, I'd realized that my body had like, you know, really changed and all. I re-took my measurements and it was pretty clear that I needed to drop down one more size. I was sorely missing my original dark denim skirt - I had no idea how much of a wardrobe hole I had filled with that simple little skirt until it didn't fit any longer - so I opted to remake it in the same fabric. The only changes on this version was using an invisible zipper to give it an even cleaner look and dropping the hem by about a 1/2 inch.

Guess what folks - I hit the skirt jackpot again! :D (I'm even in love with the back view on this version.) I've worn this skirt at least once a week since I finished since it works equally well with tall boots, flat sandals or wedges. This is such a staple for me now, just as important in my weekly wardrobe as my favorite jeans and black work pants. I'm now quite sure how I lived without. Truly folks, I can't recommend this skirt enough! Especially in a nice dark stretch denim. Make one and just see how much you wear it - you can thank me later. ;)

Now that I have the sizing down, I have a few more versions I'd like to make. It's especially crucial this summer as I've decided to live in skirts and dresses since finding new pants to replace the 20+ pairs I've packed away is proving to be an impossible task. Thank goodness for living in Southern California, where pants just aren't necessary for summer and the vast majority of the fall.

Burda 06-2010-133: Bright and Fishy

I really like wearing bright colors and prints when we're in Hawaii. Something about the ocean and the beautiful flowers and plants makes me want to drape myself in turquoise, pink, blue and any other bright shade I can find. So, when I saw this teal golfish print from Patty Young, I had to have it and earmarked it for a mini-skirt.

I loved the Take 1, Make 4 skirt section in Burda's June issue and since I'm trying to branch out from using McCall's 3830 over and over, I tried skirt 133, just a basic mini. I left out the pockets thinking I didn't need any extra stuff around my hips. I'm glad I did as I had to alter the hip curve a bit after cutting it out and the pockets would have just complicated matters.

I like that the straight size 40 sits below my belly button (M3830 sits higher on my waist), but still fits well through the hips. I used french seams on the sides, hem tape and bias tape on the remaining raw edges. After fixing the hip curve, this one is being added alongside M3830 as a TNT pattern!

I freely admit that this skirt is what some of you would call a "craft project." I mean, really, bright quilting cotton with huge goldfish on it is about as far from elegant and sophisticated as you can get. And yet, I kind of love it. It's so wacky and ridiculous that I can't help but smile when I look at it. I'm pretty excited to bust it out on our vacation while enjoying a tropical drink, watching the sunset. I asked Jim what he really thought of it and he swears he likes it. I figure even if everyone else thinks I'm nuts for wearing it, at least the cutie that I'm with is a-okay with it! ;)

Burda 01-2010-104: The summer of skirts

This skirt pattern has been making its way across the sewing blogosphere with some pretty fantastic results. Amanda, Kristine, Eugenia and Ann have all made some really lovely and downright covet-worthy versions of this skirt. Some even more than one *cough*Eugenia*cough*. ;)

This is actually the pattern that finally convinced me to sign up for a Burda subscription. I own a RTW skirt that is absolutely identical to this pattern (the tan skirt below). I love it, but it's now a touch too big and just try finding something like this in store right now. Yeah, not happening. By owning the pattern, I could just make my own version whenever the spirit moved me. Woot! Of course, that still meant that I had to track down the February issue as my subscription wouldn't include it. Thanks to ebay, I found it for the fairly reasonable price of $15. Yay! [Since then, Burda's site underwent a pretty huge transformation, including a lot of magazine patterns now available for purchase as single downloads. If you missed this issue and want your own version of this skirt, check it out here.]

I traced off this pattern a good month ago and then never had time to actually cut it out and sew it up. As this was my first time sewing a fitted Burda garment and not knowing exactly how their sizing would work for me, I decided to make a wearable muslin before cutting into the really good stuff. I purchased this stretch cotton sateen panel print from Fashion Fabrics Club with the idea that it would make a cute tropical-inspired skirt for our Hawaii vacation this fall.

After seeing the fabric all laid out, I found that the large blue/navy leaves would work best for the skirt and I planned to keep the wave border in my stash to whip up a few O+S lazy days skirts for friends later down the road.

All of the pieces were cut single layer so I could ensure the print was placed exactly where I wanted it to be. The downside of this was I had no idea just how off grain this fabric was until I went to fold up the wave border sections. I should have taken a picture, but no joke, it was off by at least 3/4". UGH. Needless to say, the cute little waves hit the circular file because there was no way they could be salvaged. I went ahead with my skirt though to see if I could make it work. And indeed, I think it turned out quite well.

I pretty much sewed this straight from the pattern. The only small change I made was taking off 1" total from the side seams. After getting most of it sewn up, I realized that this skirt actually looked like something I could wear to the office as it was more Tommy Bahama than Hilo Hattie. I was glad that I had cut the longer length (version A) initially, as this gave me more wiggle room to give it an office-appropriate hem. I also took pains with this version to finish all of the raw edges with bias tape.

Even though the print is off-grain, I was still pretty thrilled with the final skirt. I wore it to the office this week and got tons of compliments. Even better, it was comfortable and I felt really good wearing it. That's a total win in my book.

All of this meant that the pattern was approved and it was time to cut into the good stuff. And here is where I need to make a confession. I've always loved the madras print skirts that J crew releases most years during the spring and summer, but my child-bearing hips and um, "muscular" thighs means that I never buy them. They're just too short, too tight and generally a hot mess on my body. So, when I saw Ann's madras print mini, I about died. I mean, this was totally my chance to own a madras print skirt that actually fit *me*. So, I did what any good blog-reading seamstress would do. I left a nice comment on her post and promptly ran off to her fabric site and scooped up my own bit of madras fabric with full intentions to completely copy her skirt. :D And I did just that. Sure the colorway may be different, but basically here is my homage to Ann and her madras skirt.

She was not lying when she said that this fabric washes up beautifully. It's super soft and light and absolutely perfect for summer. I didn't want to lose the drape of this fabric, so I just pinked the side and back seams (would have used a serger to finish them off, but um, don't have one!) and used bias tape to finish the pockets and inner waistband. Paired with my J crew flip flops and a coordinating tank, I feel super preppy and summery.

After sewing with the Big 4 patterns, it's really nice to be able to use a size chart to determine what size to sew and have it turn out well without any major adjustments. So far, Burda, even with their sparse instructions and lack of diagrams, is quickly moving to the top of my favorites list. I really can't wait to make more garments from the magazine. It's also nice to have another TNT skirt pattern in my arsenal (aside from McCalls 3830). Like Eugenia, I don't know that I'm ready to quit this pattern quite yet. There may very well be another version (or two) that I make before we say goodbye to summer.