After my last three skirts turned out a little large, I made this skirt slightly tight in an apparent overcompensation. Despite the slightly constricting waistband, I’m going to wear this skirt, because I freaking made it, and because I love the fabric. You might remember seeing this pile: 
That rosey red fabric has now become this:
Excuse the poor photography, I really need to get a decent camera with a timer so I don’t have to resort to awkwardly photographing myself on my front porch with my Mac’s photobooth app. This is a super easy half circle skirt. The fact that I had already made two of them meant I could focus on trying better techniques, like French seams for a nicer finish inside (tutorial here) and a hand-picked zipper (tutorial here), since I lacked a zipper foot for my machine and wasn’t able to get a neatly finished zipper unless I tried it by hand. Here’s a peek at the French seams: 
I love how nice and neat it looks, and that I don’t have to worry about threads raveling. I will be doing French seams or mock French seams (see same tutorial above) in everything I make from now on. It just looks so much better!
For my next project, I’m going to attempt pleats for the first time in a skirt with the black and white and red paisley-ish fabric you see above. After that, I have one more skirt to make before I tackle dresses, something I’m itching to do since 6 new “easy” dress patterns just came in the mail!
June 6, 2011 at 3:13 pm
As one who’s taught others to sew over many years, I can say you’re progressing nicely. I’m glad your finding the art an entertaining enterprise. I love getting lost in watching the needle act with the material. Talk about having a tangible reward at the end!