Simplicity 1068 Skirt and some odds and ends

I received this really funky fabric in one of my Fabricmart mystery bundles. Miss K and I disagreed on who should get to use it. It is one of those crazy fabrics where I never would have bought it for myself but I love it in person. 

I wanted to use it for a Maxi skirt but was too lazy to draft one myself.  I picked up Simplicity 1068 a few weeks back and I like the other options the pattern has too.

Size: My measurements put me in a size 16 waist, 20 hip. Looking at the ease I decided to use a size 16 waist/18 hip. 

Seen here with my New Look 6470 Tank Top

Adjustments: I had to taper in 1” on each side of the bottom of the skirt for lack of fabric width. When I held the pattern up to my body I thought the side slit would be too revealing so I lowered it by 3” – not a good idea.   I forgot to add the waistband height when holding it up. The slit ends up only going to the knee and makes walking easier.  Now that I’ve lowered it, walking is doable, but not as easy as it could be, lol.  For future reference I’ll leave the slit where it is.

Instructions:  This is a super easy skirt to sew. I suggest serging each piece separately, then sewing them together, this makes the slit easy to sew. Anyway, you sew both sides, sew the slit, and add the waistband.  Very fast and easy.  The “one-hour pattern” lives up to it’s name.

Fabric: 1.75 yards of Cheetah knit with ruffles from Fabricmart bundle. Only $2.01!! Yay!  I underlined the skirt with some White Polyester Knit Lining purchased in May 2014 from Hobby Lobby, 1.5 yards for $5.24. Total for the skirt: $7.25.  I was not able to line up the ruffles because I used literally ever bit of fabric I had.  The pattern calls for 1 3/8 yards but extra fabric is needed to match designs, stripes, etc. Plus my fabric was not 60” wide, either.

Thoughts: I absolutely love this skirt.  It is super funky and fun to wear. I have to be extra careful to make sure the puppy doesn’t jump up on me though because this fabric, while with ruffles, has a mesh-like under layer – which snags easily.  I think I’ll try some of the other views with this pattern, too. 

I also made yet another tank from the New Look 6470 Pattern. 

I used View D but omitted the cross over.  This tank is the same as my Gray and White Burnout Tank. I made no changes from what I sewed for that one. You can see the shoulder gather much better in this solid tank though.

I used 1 yard of Bright Red Jersey Knit, cotton/lycra, from fashionfabricsclub. I just purchased it in June for $3.95.  It is pretty lightweight and soft.  I’m not really in love with this top like I am with the gray and white one.  I do wear it often though. 

 

And lastly, I thought I’d share a fail with you. This is a fabric fail, not a pattern fail.  I picked up 2 yards of this cute red apple rib knit fabric in February from Fabricstalkers on Facebook for $8. I wanted to test out McCall’s 7079 for Miss K. 

The pattern reminds me of a skater dress, for girls.  K does not like any cutouts on her back so I used View F.  I cut and sewed a size 10 for the bodice, 12 for the skirt. I used fold over elastic (but didn’t fold it over) in the waistline instead of clear or regular elastic.  I find this much softer on the skin.

The dress would have been great, I think, but the fabric stretched all out and does not have good recovery.  It just hangs on her and isn’t very cute.  The fabric keeps growing. I did not even bother to hem it.  I should not have used a rib knit for this pattern.  So, this dress has been retired to the pajama pile. And I’ll try the pattern in a proper fabric, jersey, next time.

I made K a pair of undies with the scraps of this and she loves those. 

Ottobre 06/2013 #33 Undies

Size: 152 
Fit: the best! I used my cover stitch binder attachment to put on the leg bands

Of course I could not leave out Mr. T. So I whipped him up a pair of Jalie 3242 boxers from scrap fabric.

Size: Q (or EU 155, or US 13). They fit perfectly.

Happy Summer, it’s hot out there!