This has got to be the quickest ever turnaround for a fabric purchase. I bought a remnant of taupe big wale corduroy on Thursday at Goldhawk Road for a pound, sent it through the washer on Friday, hung it out to dry overnight on Friday, and had sewn it up into a new skirt by Saturday dinnertime! It didn’t even see my stash box!
A few months ago I set myself the task of scanning in all the index pages of my pattern magazines (it’s easier now that I can just scan one at a time as they arrive) so I find it’s a lot easier to look through all my back issues for hidden gems when they’re all easily available online. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed BWOF 10/2006 #118 if I hadn’t scanned it in – I remember not liking much from this issue when I bought it – I only really got it for the included menswear section.
But on second inspection, I just loved the pockets and the tabbed waistband and how cute and quick it’d be, and for once, I even found the exact fabric they suggested! My remnant wasn’t quite enough fabric to make the nap and grainline run in the fun ways they suggested, though, so my waistband looks a tad different, and my tabs are about an inch shorter than theirs. But in the end, my pile of throwaway remains had nothing bigger than 3 inches by 6 inches! I love it when that happens!
I’m also extremely chuffed again with my invisible zipper application (it’s in the left sideseam, in that last photo above). I’ve been following a 2-pass method described in the July 2005 issue of Threads that has really made all the difference. Essentially, you sew down one side anywhere on the tape, making sure the zipper is aligned and curved nicely to the seam edge, then unzip it and sew down that same side again, but this time unfurling the teeth with your fingers and getting really, really close to the teeth. Since the zipper’s already attached from the first pass, you don’t have to worry about it moving at all. And then you do the same for the other side of the zipper. This method only uses a standard zipper foot, and I get much better results this way than I ever did with a speciality invisible zipper foot!
All in all, there’s nothing I don’t love about this skirt – it’s a great length, fits snugly on the hips, has great big stylish pleated pockets, and clean line in the back. In fact, it’s almost a “reverse mullet” – party in the front, and business in the back!