Simplicity 7234 - my next project, skort and top

[Dee Dee Warren]

Okay here is my next project... View D, the short sleeve top and the skort.....

[Dee Dee Warren]

And of course the fabric is underneath

[bar Jonah]

Dee Dee Warren:
Simplicity 7234 - my next project, skort and top
What is a skort? :hrm:

[Patroclus]

RightIdea:

What is a skort? :hrm:

Basically shorts that have a front flap that makes it look like a skirt.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Exactly. Thus the picture, View D, do I have to explain everything???

[bar Jonah]

Skirts that are shorts?

Shorts that are skirts?




Sounds like a buncha commie nonsense to me. :nc:

[Patroclus]

Actually, the skorts were designed by Communists in the early years of the Lenin regime. The idea was to cut women's waist and leg apparel in half by making clothing more all-purpose. A small group of people dissented and made Koolatz, but they were quickly repressed, and the article only enjoyed mild popularity in the United States among middle-aged, single school teachers.


































/hide yeah, right




































What?
:pat:

[Dee Dee Warren]

Well I cut out the fabric today......

[Dee Dee Warren]

and marked and notched...

[mossrose]

So, is it warm where you live? So you can wear those short sleeves and short skort and not freeze?

It is a very cute pattern, btw.... :smile:

[Dee Dee Warren]

I will model them when done, but my knees are fat, so I won't show them.

and crap!!! forgot to get interfacing..... well will have to pick that up this weekend.

[Patroclus]

DeeDee lives in Sunny North Dakota in a defunct Elf lodge. They haven't patched the roof in years, but DeeDee swears that snow makes a good insulator. Actually, Cirisme has a theory that she and her husband are naturally hotblooded creatures, with a touch of Mule Deer in their family tree, that can survive the winter in nothing but their skivvies. Moreover, DD is first cousin to the legendary Pippi Longstocking who is known for her survival skills (though, admittedly, mostly at sea); DD's husband is related to Vladamir Putin, from whence the Warren family derives their Communist skort sympaties.

[Dee Dee Warren]

:sigh2: I forgot elastic for the waistband too.... oh well, I can start on the shorts anyways.....

And remember the sleeves I don't know how to do yet, when I get to that point, I will have to stop until my sewing class starts again.

[mossrose]

I see, Pat. That explains everything.

:nc:

[Dee Dee Warren]

Okay getting ready. I put in a fresh 80/12 needle, and the right color thread in the spool and bobbin.

[Dee Dee Warren]

I am half done with the skorts....

[Dee Dee Warren]

I finished them, they came out all right... there is a flaw in the pattern that I do not like that affects the way the front flaps "hangs." Oh well, onto the shirt.

[Patroclus]

You could undo the seam in the flap and insert a piece of plastic that runs along the inside, or attach an interior button.

Just some thoughts.

:pat:

[Esther]

Oh, I think you'll do okay on those. Don't wait for your class to start up, just pin them on, baste them and see how they look. I would imagine that sleeves like those wouldn't be too hard. Maybe try ... wait, let me look at something ...

[time lapse of about a minute]

Are there side seams? If so, regardless of the instructions put the sleeves on first (only on one side in case it doesn't work the way I'm thinking it will); baste the sleeves on and then baste the side seam and see how it looks. I've found putting sleeves on like that is much easier than trying to fit the sleeves into arm holes. But that's just me.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Today @ 02:46 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=356539#post356539)
Patroclus:

You could undo the seam in the flap and insert a piece of plastic that runs along the inside, or attach an interior button.

Just some thoughts.

:pat:

It actually needs a dart to get rid of some excess fabric in the design. I may do one at the end....

[Dee Dee Warren]

Today @ 02:18 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=356753#post356753)
Esther:

Oh, I think you'll do okay on those. Don't wait for your class to start up, just pin them on, baste them and see how they look. I would imagine that sleeves like those wouldn't be too hard. Maybe try ... wait, let me look at something ...

[time lapse of about a minute]

Are there side seams? If so, regardless of the instructions put the sleeves on first (only on one side in case it doesn't work the way I'm thinking it will); baste the sleeves on and then baste the side seam and see how it looks. I've found putting sleeves on like that is much easier than trying to fit the sleeves into arm holes. But that's just me.

Ahh i am not that brave... I am sure I will wait! I have some other projects to do in the meantime.....

I may ask my teacher what can be done about that bad design in the flap.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Well that excess fabric in the flap was driving me nuts. I made a dart in it. It is not the greatest dart, but it got rid of the excess fabric, and the laying a bit funny at the end of the dart is not bothering me nearly as much. Live and learn.

[Dee Dee Warren]

I started on the top...

[Dee Dee Warren]

Okay I totally screwed up the top. I will try to see tonight if I can salvage my mistake. I will post a pic of my mistake and what I am doing to try to salvage it.

[mossrose]

:movies:

[Dee Dee Warren]

Okay here is the error, I sewed the facing onto the wrong side of the fabrice, when sewing with fabric that it is hard to tell one side from another and checked patterns especially it is so easy to get confused. And I had went so far already to trim and notch...

[Dee Dee Warren]

So, to start fixing it, I marked where I sewed along since I could not simply do a 5/8 seam allowance having already trimmed.....

but it turned out the marking was unnecessary as the stitch lines were obvious in the interfacing once hte stitches were removed.

[Dee Dee Warren]

So it came out fine.... yes I know my stitching is still kinda crooked.....

[Dee Dee Warren]

The bottom was kinda interesting with little flaps... but I did some sloppy slip stitching so I am going to put some embellsiment along the stitch line to snazz up the top and cover where I was sloppy.

[Dee Dee Warren]

I am going to put the same embellishment on the front flap of the skort which I think will be cute.

The sleeves are waiting for my sewing class. i gotta go register on the 5th

[mossrose]

Is there really a right and wrong side to the fabric? I sure coudn't tell from the pics that there was a difference.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Yes barely. It owuld be noticeable though if one piece were one side and another the other.

[mossrose]

Do you do tailor tacks when you are cutting out the fabric?

[Dee Dee Warren]

I am not sure what you mean? Please explain.

[mossrose]

This is specifically for a dart, but I use tailor tacks on all circles printed on a pattern piece. I place my fabric right sides together to cut it out. You could also do it wrong sides together as long as you remember which way you did it.


http://www.sew-whats-new.com/kim/darts.shtml



Before dressmaker carbon, there were tailor's tacks. This is simply a thread tail sewn through the pattern piece. You'll need a hand sewing needle and a doubled length of thread in a contrasting color. If you look at the dart marking on the tissue pattern piece, you'll see several circles printed over the line markings. Two are at the outside seamline and one is at the point of the dart. Just take the threaded needle and push it straight down the center of the circle through all layers. Leave a thread tail about 2" long on the top side,then cut the thread on the back with another 2" tail.

I don't cut the thread yet, I go back up through all layers, leave a 1" loop on the top of the fabric, then go back down and up again. This way, the thread doesn't pull out of the fabric as easily as the way they are describing it here.



Do all the circles on the dart the same way, then unpin the tissue pattern and peel back from the dart slowly so that the thread does not pull out of the fabric. Next, peel the top layer just far back enough so that you can grasp the thread between the fabric layers. You want to pull the thread gently and cut it so that now there is a 1" thread tail on the front and back of each fabric layer. Now you can fold the dart right sides together matching the thread tails.

So if you leave a loop, then the thread won't pull out of the fabric when you remove the pattern. Then you can gently pull the fabric pieces apart and snip the thread in between.

This helps you match stuff, like the darts, or the centres of sleeve caps, or waistbands, etc. It also helps you tell which is the right side and which is the wrong.


I will add the pics of this now so hopefully that will help too.

[mossrose]

This shows lifting the pattern off after making the tacks.......you can see they didn't use a loop.........the thread pulls out too easily if you don't use a loop.

[mossrose]

This shows cutting the thread between the fabric pieces.

[mossrose]

If this doesn't help, I will try to explain it a little better.

:smile:

[Dee Dee Warren]

I kinda understand..... pictures are hard for me.... maybe I will ask my teacher when we start. Right now though I do just use carbon paper and pretty faithfully mark everything.

[Dee Dee Warren]

by the way I had no excuse to mess up..... the darts were already in, I just confused.

[mossrose]

(I can identify with the bein' confused part, fer sure...... :huh:)


Those pics aren't very good. I had actually explained it to you much better but when I went to post it my server crashed. I was most put out! I had about 3000 characters! :argh:

So I went looking on the web to see if it was explained anywhere, but this was the best I could find. It is a little surprising to me that tailor tacks maybe aren't taught in sewing classes anymore. I guess the chalk or disappearing pencil are used more.

I am old. :frown:

[Dee Dee Warren]

Well I put the trim on the top to hide some bad stitching....

[mossrose]

Cute trim! Good match!!

[Dee Dee Warren]

Also, these kind of necklines annoy me. Despite those who think that bosoms should be exposed in public, I don't like giving bra shots, so I put a little lace barrier....

[Dee Dee Warren]

I am adding trim to the skorts too now.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Here it is

[mossrose]

Really nice, DeeDee. The trim is perfect. I like the little lacy dickey you added to the top.

[Dee Dee Warren]

That will keep my bosoms from showing. LOL. I like the trim a lot. The trim I think adds a lot of personal touch, I really liked having the trim on both the flap and the short legs, that was cool.

[Dee Dee Warren]

The sleeves will be on after my next sewing class which begins in just over a week.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Okay, I put on one sleeve. One. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. It took all of sewing class, and I detested every minute of it. I am going to try the other one tonight.

One thing I learned. You must hand baste in sleeves first. Pins just do not cut it.

[elysian]

Sleeves are wicked. I've not done any major sewing in several years (need a new machine...) but yes you do have to hand-baste the sleeves, or just plain sew them in by hand which is what I always had to do because my machine is very old and very temperamental and would jam if I tried to do anything more than sew in a straight line... Last project I made were pickininny dolls- very cute despite being politically incorrect. I'll have to post a picture of them when I get home. For now I am occupying myself with simple cross-stitch...until I get around to buying a decent sewing machine.

Make sure you gather the sleeves properly and line them up evenly... and have fun ripping out stitches and doing it over about 8 times before they gather and line up right...

[mossrose]

Okay, I put on one sleeve. One. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. It took all of sewing class, and I detested every minute of it. I am going to try the other one tonight.

One thing I learned. You must hand baste in sleeves first. Pins just do not cut it.
You will get better as you go along. Like all things, it takes a little practice to get it right. I don't have to hand baste sleeves anymore, but I have done a lot of sewing over the years.....practice, practice, practice......:smile:

[Dee Dee Warren]

Done!

[mossrose]

It looks really cute! Unfortunately, your head is cut off, so I can't see if you are alive in the picture or not......:teeth: