Bottoms Up! #2

Last of the current batch:

StyleArc ‘Mindi’ jeans skirt, zip front and zip patch pockets.  Red stretch denim, insides finished in self made bias from Mickey Mouse brushed cotton.  If I tell you that I originally bought this fabric from a market stall to make something for my son when he was about 2. [and he’s 33 this year], does that tell you how I never throw things away?  Justified!  Oddly, although this is the same size as the ‘Etta’ pattern [16] I had to make the waistband on this one FOUR INCHES smaller.  Weird.

Then I sewed it together, and it was still ridiculously, humungously big.  Vast.  enormous.  No way to make it stay up enormous, get the picture?

Now I mentioned this in an interim post, and then set to work to take it in.  This took several attempts.  I removed the shaping int the back side seams, as I have no bum, and straightened the whole skirt out, as, y’know, the A-line thing again.

I think in total I took out about 15″ at hem level, and at least 8″ at the waist.  This is NOT RIGHT.  Tweaking is one thing, but this is just wrong.  I’ve contacted StyleArc to ask about this, as the lovely SewRuth said she had the same problem.

I mean, I don’t do drafting, but I might as well have with this complete re-modelling!

Size corrected, I sat down and did the good stuff- finishing all the seams with that Mickey Mouse binding.  I’ve found that for a Hong Kong finish, I get the best finish from hand basting it on, right sides together, then folding it under and doing just one pass on the machine.  I’m able to control the finished width better, and I’ve been doing this on the last few projects.  It doesn’t take long.

I’ve bound all the vertical seams, the waistband facing edge, and the hem edge.  All done, pressed, and reasy for the final hand stitching…and look what I find!

Bloody hell I really am cursed!  Now bearing in mind that I don’t wear stuff tucked in, I have to debate if I actually want to fix this…grrrr!

PS I think I will…pics tomorrow perhaps?