Thursday 19 April 2012

I Never Picked Cotton

Some time has passed since my disappointing effort at making a Burda 8281 skirt and I've stopped tripping over my lip, so I thought I'd post a picture...

Skirt mishap...buckled fabric
So:
aside from the wonky hem, the main issue is the area between the inserts - the horizontal line and the buckled area underneath it. I should have noticed this when I first marked out and cut the fabric.
 
Both fabrics are 100% wool, the heathery one is a slightly lighter weight than the tweed (the colours haven't come up very well in the photo). They're long term stash pieces, at least ten years old so at least I'm not feeling the waste of money too keenly.

I got some advice from the lady at my local yarn and sewing shop who reckoned that if the fabric had been folded up in storage for a long time it could cause fibres to stretch. She prefers wool blends for a bit more stability. Lately I've been using wool blends for knitting as my cashmere stash is drying up and the blends are a good deal cheaper. I do remember that we used to find that old cashmere yarn on the cone could degrade quite badly - stretching and snapping easily.  

The pattern itself is easy, and the inserts pressed out nice and flat (plenty of notching on the back) so I would come back to this pattern and try again, possibly in a lightweight wool blend or linen blend. I'll make sure I use the same weight for inserts and main skirt pieces too. 

Currently I'm making view A from the same pattern envelope and hope to post something a bit smarter than this effort soon...

What I have learned from this project:
  • Don't skimp on notching when working on curves
  • Check fabric in daylight
  • It's nice to be sewing (and learning about sewing) again 
  • My hips are not as big as they look in the mirror
  • Mr K will tell it like it is, so be prepared to hear the bad news

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