The Hollyburn Intermission Skirt

I actually drafted this blog post in February, which is when the skirt was finished to the point that it only needed to be hemmed ... I finally hemmed it a week ago. I loath hemming, it is my least favourite bit of sewing, mostly because I feel like it I mess it up I have ruined all this work. I am being unrealistic there though, because looking at my RTW clothes, they are not hemmed perfectly either and NOBODY notices. Sigh ... my perfectionism ruins it all a bit.

I sewed this skirt mostly in January during my 'down with the UFO's' time whenever I got fed up with my UFOs. It's a heavy linen in raspberry that was part of my remnant haul from the fabric store for Christmas. I hadn't actually realised when I bought it that it was quite as heavy as it was. Originally it was supposed to be a dress for my daughter. I am not very good at judging fabrics and fabric weights and just what it'll look like after washing, but I guess that'll come with time. The fabric was only 70cms long, but about 140cms wide so I managed to squeeze a Hollyburn skirt minus the pockets out of it. The pockets are from a Kaffe Fassett fat quarter -  and I had all I intentions of having a close-up picture, but alas the camera problem persists.

We have this beautiful quilting store Peppermint Stitches just down the road from me and it is a lovely store that never ceases to make me feel good. I like to just browse, but occasionally I will pick up a fat quarter on an impulse. The problems is that those fat quarters are just languishing in my stash with little hope of usage really. They just get totally lost amongst everything else really, but when I run out of fabric for the pockets I rummaged through the stash in the hope of finding something to go with the linen and I think this fits perfectly :-)

Overall I am still not quite sure about the Hollyburn skirt. I have been following the Wardrobe architect series over at Coletterie and realistically I think I prefer wearing the type of slimish fitting A-lines skirts like the Butterfly Burda one. It is hard to find the right length for me in this skirt, because I am short and wear flats most of the time. I have 4 Hollyburn skirts overall and I do wear them frequently, but when someone compliments me on one of them I am always a bit taken aback, because I feel like they don't suit me as well as some other skirts. Maybe I am just Hollyburned out and with a bit of time I will gain perspective and fall in love with the pattern again :-)

skirting around

I feel I have been rather productive in the last months, yet the stash is looking big as always. I read on someone's blog that the size of the stash is always relative to its storage. If you have a lot of space then a well organised stash like below is perfect, whereas if you only have a little space (like me) you have to get creative with storage. I am still working on the ideal storage solution, because at the moment it is all crammed away somewhere and over time I forget what I have.

Anyway, after the maxi skirts I thought I work on some short skirts for myself. I started out drafting a basic A-line skirt, but the result was a little tight to be honest ... and the hem looks a little funny in the pictures for some reason. It is wearable around the house and to the school, but the next one would be bigger.

The next skirt is actually a jersey version of Sewaholic's Hollyburn Skirt. I omitted the pockets although I certainly could have done inseam pockets without problems ... hmm, maybe next time. The jersey itself was a surprise find in my stash. I have no idea how it got there. I realised after washing it that it was probably a polyester blend and judging by the smell it came from a charity shop, so really it was the perfect jersey to use as a muslin.

It is comfortable to wear with a yoga style waistband and took about a hour and a half to make incl cutting .... so super fast for me.

I don't think I have any fabric at the moment to make a 'proper' version right now, but who knows what I'll still discover.

UFO #4 - the check mate skirt

FINALLY ... my last UFO, my very last, whoooohoooo.

I had been thinking about this skirt for a long time. It's is what would happen if Tilly's Picnic Blanket skirt would have a baby with Julia's elastic fantastic skirt :-) I would have done Tilly's skirt just as is, but it is a gathered skirt and I don't think this particularly suits me. Gathered skirts make my bottom look HUGE and cause disproportionate envy at Tilly's lithe body. I do love the idea of using belt elastic as a waist band, just to have that extra stretch, and it was very easy to do.

The fabric was a birthday present from my sister and it's a loosely woven cotton with quite a bit of drape. So when Sewaholic's Hollyburn skirt came out I thought I would be able to make something. That something turned out to be slightly more involved then I had originally thought.

This skirt put me into check a couple of time, in fact, at some point I thought I was in check mate and put it to the side for maybe 9 months (invisible zipper into the bias cut back with the matching of the chevrons). It was started for the Hollyburn Sew-along in Jan/Feb last year ... sigh.

I cut the skirt in a size 10 rather then a size 6-8 for me and then stretched the shorter elastic slightly as I attached it. It just gives it that extra bit of space as the elastic stretches to adjust to my waist. Time will tell whether it is as good as I imagine, but so far I have been quite happy. It does give the skirt a distinctly vintage look :-)

It's cut on the bias for the chevron effect with plenty of hand-basting to make sure it all lines up correctly ... all seams where basted at least twice, because I kept stretching it accidentally.

I even matched the sides ... mostly

The back was the hardest to get to match up with the zipper and everything, and it is where I stopped back in February last year out of fear for doing it wrong. In the end I just told myself that having it slightly mismatched is better then no skirt at all and you know, it is not too bad actually. I interfaced the area where the zipper is to stop it from stretching, but the insertion was still nerve wrecking.

I can tell that it is not perfect where the zipper is, but overall it is not that noticeable.

I left it to hang for 4 weeks and it relaxed quite a bit (2 inches in some places). I evened it all out and  finished it off by hand-stitching the hem with a little bit of purple lace I had laying around.

I am a little scared to wash it now, what if the relaxed hem shrinks back and leaves the hem really uneven ... ahhhhh :-)

Hollyburn Skirt Sewalong Part 1

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I finished my first Hollyburn Skirt from Sewaholic. I wanted to test out the sizing and make a little summer skirt with some fabric that I had little emotional attachment to. It's a cotton poplin that was on sale in Spotlight that I bought to make Colette's Crepe Dress. However, after I washed it and it hung to dry, it reminded my very much of bedding and I really thought it might be a bit much for the dress, so I thought I use it for some skirts or shorts something (I do have 5m of it, because the dress asks for 4.5 yards).

I cut a size 10 after much much deliberation - I made a chart of my measurements for a week, because in the morning I have a waist size of 27-28in, yet after dinner it goes up to 30-31in (seriously Giggles, stop eating). In this mid-morning picture the skirt sits lower then my waist, but as the day progresses it moves higher and higher :-) I did deviate from the pattern a little, because I cut View A (smallest flare), but made it the length of shortest one. I also cut the waist band on the bias and used some stretchy interfacing, because I really didn't want the waistband cutting me in half after dinner. It turned out really nice. I french seamed most of it, it's addictive really, and the zipper seam was finished of with bias tape ... ahhhhh

My downfall was once again the hemming, it was laying around for a week before I included it in my great Australia Day finish-a-tron. I even made a little skirt for the daughter (and promised myself that we never ever ever wear it on the same day)

My dilemma was how to count this with the Stashbusting Sewalong. I still have at least half of the fabric left, so it is 0.5 of a piece of fabric I guess. Now my bad news ... I picked up some more fabric ... yes, it wasn't planned, but they are only small pieces ... no, I don't have any willpower, but I will use at least 3 if not 4 pieces in February ... promise ... sorta ... we'll see how it goes :-)