sew many skirts!

I have been sewing up a storm lately and need to keep you up to date! I've been making a lot of skirts because they don't take too long to make and I actually really enjoy wearing skirts! I wish I had a job where I could wear them more often, but I am doing Made-by-Me Tuesdays since I don't lead exercise class on Tuesdays. Today I wore:

Yuck, horrible picture! But you get the idea. Think the fabric looks familiar?  It's the same fabric I used to make a full skirt here. I loved this silky, matte, lace-print! After finishing the full skirt, I found I was still really pining after a slim one, but I only had a little over a 1/2 yard! I tried to get some more, but my habit of buying from the clearance rack meant that was not longer an option. So I had to think a little outside the box. I used New Look 6053, because view B only took 7/8 yard.

Mind you I didn't HAVE 7/8 yard. Thankfully, I'm short so I knew I could take a few inches off at the hem. I did the same at the waist and added a waistband using the lining pattern piece of the original design. I just cut two instead of one and sewed it up similar to the waistband in Gertie's Full Gathered Skirt Tutorial.  I did the waistband in black, because I didn't even have enough scrap to do the waistband in the the lace print! Came out great. Looks way better on me than on the dress form, especially when paired with black boots, a black v-neck t-shirt and charcoal-grey boyfriend cardigan. 

I also made this super cute teal denim skirt with pockets:

Obviously this was taken before my new "model" arrived, so please forgive the bad mirror picture and t-shirt. I used Simplicity 2258, and would totally use that pattern again!

After a MUCH overdue sewing machine tune-up (my mother sewed on this for YEARS and never had it cleaned or tuned) with the tension tip-top I decided to try some knit fabric. I bought this pretty red ribbed knit for $1/yard in the clearance bin at a large box store that I am ashamed to have bought fabric in when we were also buying windshield wipers and pet prescriptions. ANYWAY, I wanted to make a simple maxi-skirt. I cut a piece a little longer than the skirt I wanted (to have some room for error, which I needed) a sewed a tube. Then a took the remainder and cut a piece that made a nice, snug waistband when stretched and sewed it into a tube; folded it over to make a double-thick waistband; gathered the skirt, sewed all three edges together to attach the waistband to the skirt, easy right? Every seam I made I had to take out and re-do! I would cut the waistband too big. Then I would catch the skirt into the seam. Then I sniped the knit fabric trying to take out the stitching and had to darn the hole. Finally when I thought I had it, I had sewed the waistband so the seam was on the outside of the skirt...

so I had a hissy-fit and threw the skirt on the ground and stormed off.

Then I came back and realized that I could just fold over the waistband to cover the exposed seam. Problem solved. Oh well. Sometimes you just need to have a good hissy. And after all that I feel like I'll wear this skirt a ton this summer.