Tardy Floral Skirt Vogue 1082 and a Red 1179

I'm back... Things were quite hazy the past couple of months but I recalled some skirt dramas, some quilting, really bad wrist pain probably of the carpal tunnel variety, a lot of tug of war and shouting matches with a 2-yr-old plus Bean, and thus culminating to an exasperated moi (and a lil depressed of the usual seasonal variety) decided to pack everything sewing related into the tiny sewing nook/closet and shut the door. Spent days and nights reading/escaping into tonnes of junk and otherwise on my phone (Kindle e-books) that made the hubby pretty worried - I was averaging 3 books per day at the very least and refused to go out other than the weekly grocery shopping with the familia.

As my wrist healed, and my reading frenzy finally cooled off, January 2013 is almost over! :) It felt like forever since the last time I sewed anything! So the best way to get back in the saddle is to cut my yummy red wool jersey (purchased during the local sewing meetup back in October) and made it into my most favorite but boring V1179 dress! :) I think it's my 5th iteration of the pattern, but why not???? At least I know for sure that this will be worn many many times (just as the other 4!), at least while it is still chilly, and it is going to be chilly for a few more months...

Red Wool Jersey: V1179 (no flash)

Red Wool Jersey: V1179 (with flash)

 I did made some adjustment on this version: added some room in the sleeves compared to my black ponte version, made a 3/4-ish roomy sleeves, and a tunic length. I haven't decided on the depth of the cowl I wanted, but now I'm thinking that due to the weight of the fabric (kinda heavy) I'm going to chop off the excess cowl and go with the pattern size as is and stitch it down then. 

The red V1179 done, it was then time to tackle the big elephant in the room: my tardy floral V 1082 skirt for the Carnival of Skirts Sew-a-long. [The piping were all done before I "paused" on the project for a breather and started to finish off a baby quilt for our newborn nephew (husband's side) and quilted placemats for the in laws (looking for pics of these projects, will put them up on the blog for Liz). Wrist pain intensified somewhere between these projects methinks.]

So probably on Friday I unpicked the topstitching I did on the skirt, inserted the invisible zipper (not my best one, but I'll live) and after a lot of basting, fitting, stitching, refitting and resizing a few times (whereby about 2 inches off each side were cut off) I'm finally okay with the skirt on me. I had to shorten the skirt to just covering my knee though and not like the pattern cover picture of mid-calf. Somehow in my head I fancied that I was taller and can carry a mid-calf length skirt, but I guess I'm not and with this floral fabric on my bottom half it further drives the point! :)

Front view: Floral V1082

Back view: Floral V1082

Tardy skirt project roundup:

Pattern: Vogue 1082 (Misses skirt straight or flared -made straight, View A-, mid-calf length -made knee length-, has shaped yoke with contour waist, side panel variations and invisible zipper. Optional piping trim -made with piping-. View A is a lined skirt with back vent. View B is unlined and has a faced yoke.

Fabric: Floral cotton purchased from my very much missed favorite thrift store back in Iowa...

Notions: Minty colored knit type lining material (also thrifted), 9" mustard zipper (thrifted), one 5/8" black square button (stash, purchased new), Talon basting tape (thrifted), black piping (purchased new and ready made from Joann's

To be honest, it is a pretty skirt (design-wise), and the instructions I found easy to follow enough eventhough I'm no pro. 

But I'm still struggling with fit issues, fitting my body shape that is, and making skirt and any type of bottoms will be the bane of my existence for years to come... So I would still recommend this pattern esp for those with fuller hips. For those with narrower hips (I have those :( ), I think the middle panel should be made smaller rather than taking off at the side seams. If you take off at the side seams like I did (because there's no way I'm unpicking the piping after all the work) and have a narrow hip, the piping might end up making you look straight and narrower  (which I didn't want). It might take a long time before I ever attempt to make another version of this skirt though... It is pretty involved...

But anyhow, I'm back in my sewing groove.... :) I might tackle a circle skirt next for the Carnival, since it is apparently the most basic skirt there is even though it's a fabric eater. I had my hubby make a fabric calculator for a circle skirt, and that was what he came out with. It's a work in progress right now, pretty much just as my sewing is!

So, more later!