The Facts | Sew Weekly Outdoor Inspiration Challenge
Fabric | A thrifted, seems like rayon, skirt.
Patterns | None, refashioned on the fly.
Year | Current.
Notions | Thread and elastic.
Time to complete | About a half hour hour.
First worn | To take silly, late night indoor pics.
Wear again? | I think so. I’m always so gun shy about strapless tops. I mean, it’s not like I go to the roller derby or…engage in on-the-fly wrestling matches. What exactly am I so worried about?
Total price | $5 for the skirt from the Goodwill store downtown Brooklyn, the elastic was free and my new sewing machine was $149 ;o) My finally-found-one-big-enough-for-my-noggin Fedora was $8. I kinda love it!
I had such high hopes for this week. It was to be my triumphant return to the land of working sewing machines where challenges are turned in on time(ish). I was going to make something fabulous and flirty and fitted and…and….Let’s just say, I had BIG plans. Alas, thanks to the absolute idiots working at my local FedEx depot, the machine that I expected to be delivered last Saturday didn’t arrive then. It’s too late and I’m in too good a mood to rehash the details right now. Every time I talk about it, I get vexed all over again. The nitty & gritty (included a screenshot of a deleted rage filled tweet) has been documented on my blog, if you care to read about it.
So, the machine came. And then I got super busy with school and then hubby and I had a date night planned. Then, something kind of amazing happened. Returning a lost phone to its very grateful owner (and the very generous reward he gave me) boosted my morale and gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get back on the bobbin…or something like that ;o)
I can honestly say, I also delayed getting started because I was worried that I would thread the machine and it wouldn’t work. The whole experience was so trying and draining. I felt my fear was justified when I sat down to sew a few rows on a scrap of fabric and the machine DID. NOT. SEW. Luckily, this was not my first time at the sewing machine rodeo and I knew what to check for. The bobbin winder was pushed over. I pushed it back. Still DID. NOT. SEW. Then, I remembered that the machine’s feed dogs could be dropped. I lifted them. Bingo! We have SEWING!!
I think this skirt may have been taken in/refashioned before. The side seams are totally different. I basically shortened it, made it a teeny bit narrower, tightened the waistband and used the bottom bit to make a layered top. This is the first time I’ve used my serger (with the knife immobilized) to attach elastic. My execution wasn’t perfect, but the technique has its merits. At any rate, I didn’t miss making a casing and feeding the elastic through.
Though looking on the bright side and stopping to smell the roses while making lemonade out of the lemons the universe kept chucking at me has been really (REALLY) challenging for me these last two weeks, I’m happy to have something to show for this one and anxious to start my next project on my new baby!
