The Spirals Continue
Sept 9, 2009
Check out my new serger!! I didn't even know I wanted one, but it was a gift, so I said "Thank you".
What did I ever do without it???
It's the first time in my life to even see a serger running. My Mom didn't own one, so there was a certain fear factor about threading it. Twenty minutes of studying the book (do you know you have to thread these things with long tweezers??) and there we go.
Fear turns to glee.
And the spiral skirt has a hem! It took FIVE minutes to serge around the edge and there we are. I am in love.
Meanwhile, had excellent new idea.
I made up a raglan top with six pieces, the bases of each piece to be 8" and join with the skirt pieces.
I started at the beginning with brown paper so it would be my OWN pattern :-)
It worked, more or less. I made the first test from the same fabric so in case it came out looking screwy the seams wouldn't be noticeable and I could still wear it around the house :-)
Do you think it's an act of faith to make a dress with a commercial pattern? Much more so to cut nice fabric into shapes that some enthusiastic housewife carved out of a Fred Meyer bag.
The bodice is too long and the top of the sleeve's a little odd: fixable! I'd basically call this a success.
Just imagine the sleeves have cuffs to them, and maybe someday they will.
I just bought black thread for the serger to finish that skirt off :-)
Oh and I did change the skirt pattern to a tighter basic circle like this:
Having two round sections and one point makes a skirt just barely knee-length. Next time I'll use three round sections and see how that comes out. It'll start a little higher anyway as I've shortened the bodice.
Next step is to make one with better fabric, and two different fabrics. The challenge will be picking two fabrics that contrast nicely without looking completely ridiculous.
How much do I need of each? Illustrator to the rescue!
All I have to do is make copies of the pieces and arrange them over boxes that are 44" wide. Then how long the boxes are tells me how much fabric I need.
So that's 110 inches of the main fabric (includes sleeves and neckband) and 78 inches of the contrast.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha!