Another day, another skirt

I'm actually sewing three skirts, but the last one isn't as interesting, so I'll probably just show a finished picture. This is skirt #2, which I'm to copy and make in her size.

I use paper table cloth for many of my patterns. I was looking for plain paper, but could get a roll of this and it actually has 1" squares. This is the pattern piece for all the skirts. The yellow sticky note has ruffle information, as in how wide,and how long, so I know how many pieces to cut for a straight ruffle. The third skirt has two straight fabric ruffles. Originally the skirt top was too wide, so I altered the pattern. The skirts are all 8 gores. Today's skirt is shorter, so I just folded out the top part.

The stripes are cotton hem facing. I tried sewing the stripe to the edge of the hem and turning it up to the outside. It had too much sizing to ease in nicely, but I left it the way it was. The upper stripe is edge stitched to the skirt at the top, leaving the bottom edge loose. A line of stitching keeps the fold folded. I attached that after the inside ruffle.

You can see a little of the skirt in this picture. Under the paper are 16 pieces of ruffle fabric. Each edge is 48". That's 768 inches of ruffle edge or over 21 yards. All pieces were sewn together, seams serged, edges serged, turned once, and stitched. I flipped the ruffle back so you can see the edge. I misfigured the inner circle, so I gathered a little in attaching. The original had the same problem. Each skirt section had two ruffle sections. I could have just sewn the ruffle on and cut off the extra as I did on skirt #1.

Copy complete and shown with the original.

I have been doing a little knitting, but I'll show that tomorrow. Mostly I've been shawl knitting and there isn't much to show.

Oh No!!! Not another prom dress

I went to work this morning and found a message on my machine. There was a prom dress disaster. Could I help?
I had heard from the mother a couple of weeks ago. She was uncomfortable with the progress on her daughter's dress, being made by a family friend. She finally decided to let the friend finish the dress.

This really is a disaster! The skirt back is cut off grain and is too narrow. Everything is skewed and one "side" seam is where the back dart should be. The hips and bust are too tight. The dress was delivered unpressed and something funny is happening on the front skirt.

The store has no more fabric of the right color, so I have to work with what we have. I can fix the tight bust without affecting the under bust and waist. I lifted the skirt back until it hung almost straight. That may fix the tight hips. I'll take it apart tomorrow and make the lift permanent, adding a little to the hips. If they send me a picture of the front they wanted, I'll see what I can do. There's a crystal organza overlay that has some issues. I'll leave them if I don't get that picture. The prom is Saturday night. I'm supposed to be off tomorrow, but I'll be in the shop working on this dress.

And then there's the folk dancer who needs a number of skirts for a June 1 dress rehearsal. So far, I've altered one skirt and made a pair of Raggedy Ann type bloomers. She still wants 3 new skirts. I should be able to do 2 of them by late Monday. I hope she doesn't stop in before then, She's lonely, disorganized and a talker. Today, she brought in the fabric for the third skirt. I was sewing wedding veils onto combs, and kept on sewing while she talked. (Another customer sells veils and other wedding accessories). If I had stopped, I might not have time to finish her skirts. It was hand sewing and I explained it was another deadline.

Knitting continues, mostly on the green entrelac socks and the black shawl. I need more yarn for the shawl. I wonder when the yarn co owner will get it to me.

I'll take the camera to the shop tomorrow and get some pictures of the prom dress and dance stuff.