If you don't know what a soft cloth funnel is, I present to you this clip from The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. If you like quirky movies, this one should definitely be on your list of movies to watch. It's an homage to every sci-fi creature-feature B movie ever made and it's done brilliantly. It's a must-see and one of my favorites. But I digress from my main topic...
Yesterday I made a skirt out of some Italian Wine and Ivory wool tweed that I ordered back in February from Mood Fabrics. Purchases from Mood are always a guilty pleasure of mine, and I try to restrict myself to items that go on sale but I have never been disappointed with the quality when my fabric arrives. I bought this wool tweed specifically for the skirt in Vogue V8718, which is now out of print. This skirt requires 1 yard of fabric and 1 yard only. It's basic and classic, which I felt was perfect for this particular tweed.
I've been working on my skills at fitting whenever I sew. I'm sure I have learned some things but I always feel like there is so much more still to learn. I measured and made some adjustments to the pattern itself. I even made a mock-up (for the first time ever)! For anyone who knits, I now equate making a mock-up to knitting a swatch to get gauge. Mock-ups, while slightly time-consuming, are a total necessity in my book now. After getting the fit correct in the mock-up, I cut my tweed up and began sewing.
This pattern has 8 darts total (4 in front and 4 in back) and a back zipper. I have installed a handful of zippers but most of them have been in bags rather than in clothing, so this was a new-ish experience for me. This was the first time that I can honestly say I got the zipper placement exactly where I wanted it, so that the zipper is neither too high or too low in relation to the top edge of the garment.
After installing the zipper and sewing the darts, I sewed the side seams. Despite the fact that I made a mock-up beforehand, I had to adjust my side seams further and take in about an inch on each side to get the fit that I wanted. I will chalk this up to a difference in the stretch of the fabric (cotton muslin having slightly less give to it than this wool tweed). Even so, I felt that the fit was much closer than it would have been had I skipped the mock-up phase. The picture below shows my original side seams and the approximate inch that I had to move the side seams in (if you look closely, you can see the line of pins along the adjusted seam).
Once I was able to get the fit just right, I finished the waist and hemmed the bottom. One tip that I came across in a book on fine tailoring was to grade the seam at the hem line (pictured below). To do this, you mark the fold of your hem, cut notches out on either side (you essentially create 2 Vs that point towards the seam itself), and then clip the seam allowance below the fold so that it is half the width of the seam allowance on the body of your garment. This helps keep the seam area from being bulky along your hemline.
I finished the bottom hem by hand, creating an invisible hemline on the final garment. The original skirt pattern is unlined, so when I make this skirt again, I will plan to add a lining to it.
Despite multiple attempts, I was unable to get a good picture of the finished item on me. At some point, I will have to solicit a friend to take pictures of me wearing the items that I complete. In the meantime, I have a stylish soft cloth funnel to wear around town (i.e., to work, because I swear that is really the only place that I go).
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