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Completed: Rayon Crepe Magnolia Dress

LMAO for some reason I’ve been sitting on these photos since Thanksgiving, no idea why I’ve been dragging my feet to post this! Anyway, better late than never!

This is the Magnolia dress from Deer & Doe, this time in View A with the plunging neckline, long sleeves, and a very mini length (ok, so that’s not view A exactly, but let me live). I’ve made this dress before and wore it a few times this last year, and I was interested to try it again with some modifications.

My original Magnolia dress skews quite a bit more romantic than how I normally dress (and while I’m not quite ready to let it go yet, I will admit that it doesn’t get a whole lot of wear), but I loved the pattern and I wanted to try it with a more modern twist. One thing I have noticed with my OG dress is the bust is just a bit more generous than my actual body. As I mentioned, I sewed a different view, sized down to a 34 at the bust (keeping the 38 at the waist / hip) and made a quick muslin to assess the fit. Here are the changes I made:
– Took an additional 1/4″ out of the CB along the fold for my narrow back
– Removed a 1/2″ wedge from the front neckline because it was gaping (same as this method, except obviously on the front. Also, oh my god I miss that dresssss)
– Reduced the upper bust by about 1/4″ by shaving it off the princess seams to the bust point (I wanted to wear this dress without a bra and my breasts tend to be a little more bottom-heavy)
– Removed an additional 1/4″ off the side seam

Sounds like a lot, but it was just tiny tweaks! I wanted the dress to be fitted, but still skim over my body (rather than just be tight). Shortening the neckline to bring in the gaping was definitely the biggest thing; I knew I wasn’t going to wear a bra with this dress and I wanted to be CONFIDENT that there was no danger of accidental nip-slips. I’m not going to go into detail the weird gymnastics I performed in my studio to really test this theory, but believe me… the ladies aren’t going anywhere.

I bought my rayon crepe from Stone Mountain & Daughter Fabrics, back in March last year. I loved the autumnal colors and that beautiful drape! I took home 3 yards, and used nearly every last inch of it, despite this dress being a mini. Those sleeves took up a lot of fabric!

Construction-wise, I didn’t make too many changes to the dress beyond what the instructions call for. I did opt to self-line the entire top – the instructions just have you self-line the bodice, which I think is fine but why not the back? By doing this, I was able to eliminate all the bias facings, and have a completely clean finish. I also self-faced the waistband pieces, again, for a clean finish but this time on the inside. This is just personal preference; I don’t like exposed waistband seams in dresses and for the most part, I always face them. I don’t have any photos of this, so you’ll need to use your imagination.

To keep that neckline intact and immune to stretching out, I used strips of twill tape to stabilize the edges (here is a similar method to what I used). One thing I irrationally hate in clothing is weird gapey necklines that don’t stay close to the body, so I will do whatever it takes to keep that shit in check. Especially with a low-cut top like this, and again, especially since I ain’t wearing a bra with it! Anyway, the twill tape means that edge is nice and stable.

Unfortunately, I do think I was a little overzealous with my neckline tweaking – I shortened the twill tape too much, because now the center front of the waistband rides up. It’s noticeable for sure, but it also looks intentional so we’ll just say that was the case.

Surprisingly, the sleeves were the correct length for me without any adjustments (I think having a gathered elastic edge makes things a bit more forgiving). And I believe I did shorten the skirt length further, but I couldn’t tell you by how much (sorry). It is pretty short, though I love it! I feel so sassy and groovy and a little floaty when I wear this dress.

Anyway, that’s all for this make! Short and sweet (both the dress and the blog post lol). I’d love to make this again in a solid color in the future, but for now, I love the fun print!

Tags: completed, deer and doe, magnolia dress, minidress, rayon, rayon crepe, sleeves, stone mountain & daughter fabrics

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Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Deer + Doe Myosotis Dress

26 Aug

Welp, I see that it has been 3 months since my last post haha! Honestly not trying to kill my own blog but it looks like I’m causing a slow death regardless.

ANYWAY

I have a new project! Yay! This is also 1/2 of my Outfit Along project – the sewing portion. The knitting portion is, unfortunately, still unfinished. More on that in a minute, I want to talk about the dress!

I actually started this dress back in 2018 – I was inspired by Fiona’s gorgeous white version and immediately wanted to make one for myself. I ordered the Myosotis Dress from Deer & Doe, and a lovely white rayon lawn from Mood Fabrics to make it up. I got as far as cutting the fabric pieces and then… just kind of gave up. I’m not sure what exactly caused the flame to burn out – but I stuck it in a drawer and left it alone for the winter. I definitely still had every intention to sew it – it survived a pre-move purge and was shuttled from one house to the next – but not really any current desire. I think I realized that the style + color weren’t really something I wanted to wear (looking at Fiona’s post again, I still think the dress is great but I also don’t know WHAT I was thinking when i decided to make it for myself as it is absolutely, definitely not something I would necessarily wear myself), but since I had already committed and cut the fabric I felt the best solution was to sew it up and at least then I could donate the dress to someone if I still didn’t like it.

So, that’s a long, boring-ass story about how the dress started. This year, when Andi and I planned the OAL, I immediately knew the Myosotis was going to be my sewing WIP. I got the pieces out, and had everything sewn up with a couple of days.

Now, the first rendition of the dress post-sewing looks completely different than the final version. I had a feeling that I was going to want to change the color, but I wanted to give the white version a fair fighting chance before I made that decision. As far as sewing – this was a simple, efficient make. I cut a size 36, with no pattern adjustments. I made version A, with aaaaall the ruffles, and added slim waist ties to pull in the waist a little bit (I can’t take credit for this inspiration, again, this was something I saw + liked on Fiona’s dress!). I sewed all the seams with a fine 70/10 needle and serged the seam allowances. Even though I was fairly certain I was going to dye the dress, I still chose to use white thread since I wasn’t sure what the final color would be. Since the thread is polyester, that meant it would not take the dye – meaning the topstitching would end up contrasting. I was aware of this going into the sewing, and just made sure to be extra careful that my topstitching was even and nice-looking.

One of the biggest complaints I read about this pattern is that people seem to really hate all the gathering. Y’all, I don’t know what kind of lazy sewers are out there but honestly it’s really not that bad and goes together really fast.

Once I finished the dress, I tried it on to confirm that the style was not going to work for me. Again, it’s a beautiful and romantic look – which isn’t how I like to dress. Furthermore, the fine, lightweight fabric was essentially see-through (as clearly seen on my dressform). I’m no stranger to dressing like an absolute hussy in the summer, but even this was a bit outside of my comfort level (and before you get at me with crazy suggestions like “adding a lining” or “wearing a slip,” let me remind you that summer here is very hot and I try to get away with wearing as few layers as possible, ha!).

I knew I’d never wear the dress as it was, so I decided to experiment with dyeing it using coral Rit dye! I followed the instructions for doing this in the washing machine, using about 3/4 of the bottle and allowing it to agitate for about 50 minutes. The resulting color is VERY saturated – much more me! – and also takes the edge off the sheerness so that I can wear this dress without looking like I’m trying to win a wet t-shirt(dress?) contest. I should also report that I was dismayed to discover the dye turned my washing machine pink, despite running a couple of loads with bleach + old towels afterward (as instructed by the bottle). I own my washing machine, so it’s not a huge deal, but it was kinda lame regardless. That all being said, after a couple months of regular laundry, the washing machine is no longer pink whatsoever (I should also did – and did not transfer any dye to my other clothes). So it does eventually come out! Now, the dress itself – I have to wash it by itself as the dye still bleeds. I wash it in the sink using Soak rinseless wash (if you don’t already own this, do yourself a favor and invest. It’s marketed toward knitters but I use it for all my hand-washing, including lingerie, and it RULES) to prevent it from dyeing an entire load of laundry. My kitchen sink is stainless steel so I have not noticed any dye transfer by using this method.

Here is the dress after dyeing! It was almost good but I tried it on one last time and decided the sleeve ruffles had to go.

I cut them off, plus a few more inches so the sleeves would be cap-length. These were turned under and hemmed – using white thread, to match the rest of the topstitching.

The finished dress is definitely much more my style! The saturated coral color is one of my favorites for summer, and loose, swishy shape is perfect for the extreme heat we are experiencing lately. I’m actually surprised at how much I enjoy wearing this dress – it’s still a slight departure from my usual style, but it is a fun little way to change things up.

So that’s my finished sewn garment for the OAL – what about my knitted garment? Well. I had an Improv sweater waiting in WIP purgatory that I had all intentions of finishing for this OAL. I had started it about 3-4 years ago (back when I lived in an apartment in West Nashville)(ooh and here I am back in West Nashville IN MY OWN HOUSE look at how things go full circle yay), got about halfway down the body and decided I didn’t like how loose the fit was. Rather than unknit, I just left it in my knitting basket. Upon rediscovering for the OAL, I tried it on again and was fine with the sizing so decided to finish that.

Unfortunately, since this sweater has been out of my queue for so long, I seem to have lost all the notes I made with the math for sizing. I was able to finish the body, but the sleeves are a little slower going as I had to work out the equations for decreasing, and also try the sweater on frequently to make sure things aren’t going haywire. It is working out fine and I will certainly finish it – it’s just slow-going. At this point, the sweater is too bulky to comfortably carry around outside the house (and again, there’s that whole issue of trying it on as I’m knitting), which means it doesn’t go with me when I travel – which is frequently! AND, in the meantime, another WIP that I started right before the OAL had a major error that required a lot of unknitting so I’ve been focusing on that. So, I didn’t finish my knitted sweater – but I plan to in time for sweater season! Which to me encompasses the general spirit of the OAL that I was aiming for!

I think that’s all for this make! Lord, I don’t know how I manage to take a simple dress and turn it into a giant blog post of verbal diarrhea. If you’re wondering, I’m like this IRL too when people try to talk to me. What can I say, I’m from the South haha. Mindless chatter is our love language.

** Note: The fabrics + RIT dye used in this post were provided to me by Mood Fabrics, in exchange for my participation in the Mood Sewciety Blog (oh yeah, MSN moved!). All opinions are my own!And extra big thanks to my friend Jennifer for being a real pal and taking these photos for me when I was in Brooklyn last month for recent Jeans Making Intensive class at Workroom Social! Which, btw – 2020 for WS dates are listed! Yay! More dates to come as a I finalize them!

Tags: dress, completed, rayon, Mood Sewing Network, deer and doe, lawn, myosotis

Comments 36 Comments
Categories Mood Sewing Network

Completed: Magnolia Dress

28 May

I finished this dress much earlier in the year (like, January!), took photos a month ago, and am now finally getting around to posting it! I should not be this proud of myself considering how much of a slacker I am, but here we are.

This is the Magnolia Dress from Deer & Doe patterns. I’ve had my eye on this off and on since it was released. The design is pretty similar to this vintage Simplicity pattern that I cannot seem to stop making, but with some slight changes and a better overall fit (for me, anyway!). I love both options – one of these days I want to make that long-sleeved maxi with the big ol’ front slit, YES PLEASE – but for now, the short view with flutter sleeves has totally been my jam.

Also, fun fact – the Magnolia is my favorite tree. Just so you know!

ANYWAY. Earlier this year, Workroom Social was gearing up to release a new line of fabrics and Jennifer asked if I’d like a piece to try out. Obviously I was immediately sold, and was sent 2 yards of this Fleur design in navy from the Bantam line designed by Kelli Ward. As soon as I saw the fabric – I mean even before it was in my hands, but definitely after, too – I immediately thought of the Magnolia pattern as I felt like it would be a great match for this floaty and colorful rayon. I’ve sewn with Workroom Social fabrics a few times and I really cannot give them the full amount of praise that they deserve. Super high quality, beautiful rayon that is surprisingly easy to sew and comes in a range of really, really fucking cool designs.

So… the short answer is, yes, this fabric (or any fabrics from the Workroom Social fabrics line) was a great match for this pattern. However, I was skimping on yardage as the pattern calls for closer to 3 yards, and I only had 2. Not one to be defeated by something as silly as fabric requirements (pfft), I spent a couple hours one evening working on a giant puzzle of fitting every single pattern piece on my fabric. I shortened the sleeves by 1″ to get them to fit, and ended up cutting the waistband facing, bias facing, and tie facing all out of a nice lightweight navy cotton fabric – but I eventually made it fit! Go me!

After I had everything cut, sewing was pretty simple and fun! I decided to sew the dress entirely with French seams, as I love a good French seam in rayon. My quick muslin showed that I did not need any fitting adjustments, however, this rayon is much floatier than the cotton muslin I used and required a little bit of extra tweaking as I sewed. I ended up taking about 1/2″ from the center back, and pulling in the side seams at the underarm by another 5/8″. I started with a 36 bust grading to a 38 hip; this makes me wonder if I might have been better off cutting a smaller bust size. Whatever, it fits great now!

I also came into a little surprise when I realized that I didn’t have a long enough invisible zipper for the side seam! The pattern calls for 16″, and mine was 9″ long (not that I bought the wrong size, it’s just that I had this perfectly coordinating pink zip in my stash that was DETERMINED to use, shortness be damned). I figured that since the bodice has a cross-over front, it allows just *barely* enough room for me to wriggle in. Generally I don’t recommend using a zipper that is that much drastically shorter than what you need, but in my case it worked out pretty well.

Speaking of that invisible zipper – I’m gonna toot my own horn here now and say LOOK AT HOW GOOD IT LOOKS! After finishing the entire dress with beautiful French seams, it felt lazy to throw in a zipper with serged edges. So I used my remaining bias facing pieces to add Hong Kong seams to either side of my zipper opening, creating a very lovely finish that reflects the rest of the interior of the dress.

The only downside to making this dress when I did was that I had to put it in the closet for a few months before it was warm enough to wear! (yes, I realize sweaters and tights and layering exists but that does not change the fact that rayon itself is not a very warm fabric!) I actually didn’t wear this at all until last month for Easter Sunday brunch with my family! But it was worth the wait, because I really love it. The fabric is beautiful and hangs with a gorgeous drape, and I like that the neckline sits close to my body and stays well in place. The length is the same original length from the pattern, and while it feels a smidge long on me (I’m used to showing my knees, and then some), I’m trying to get used to it!

By the way, I took these photos in my new front yard! Isn’t it super cute!

I’m gonna leave you with this photo that we got on Easter! That’s my mom, my brother Mikil, and my sister-in-law Sarah (I know y’all are dying to know so I’ll just say, yes, Sarah is wearing a Sew Over It Penny Blouse). Love these nerds so much!!

** Note: the rayon fabric used in this post was given to me by Workroom Social, with no requirement to post a review or finished product.

Tags: camp workroom social, completed, deer and doe, dress, magnolia dress, rayon, workroom social, workroom social fabrics

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Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Eyeball McCall’s 7351

10 Oct

Did I ever tell you guys about how much I love shirtdresses? Hi. I love shirtdresses.

I don’t know what it is that appeals to me so much about this style of garment – but, as you WELL know, I also love me some collared shirts, too (or, rather, maybe just that particular pattern lolz amirite). Something about that collar, dude! It just looks so pulled together and is also so fun to sew! I just love it!!

Sooo… surprise! Another shirtdress 4 u.

This time, the pattern is McCall’s 7351, in view A. If this dress looks familiar, it’s because I made it last year in a fun cherry rayon print. I really really love wearing that dress – the style looks pulled together, the fabric feels great in the heat, and the print makes me so happy! I am no longer at the point in my life where I like something and feel like I need to own multiples of them in every color, however, I did want to make another one of this dress in another fun rayon fabric.

So – this fun rayon fabric! This is another fabric from Workroom Social, also from their Miramar line. The design is Abstract Eyes, and there is still some available for sale! (and also in a green colorway if navy ain’t your jam!). I had just finished my lemon rayon dress when I wore it back to NYC for my most recent Jeans Making Intensive back in August, so I had rayon prints on my mind while looking through the rest of the bolts of fabric at the studio. This eyeball print was SCREAMING at me, so I ended up taking some back home with me! I knew I wanted another shirtdress with this fabric, but I didn’t necessarily want to duplicate the Alder- which is why I landed on McCall’s 7351. It’s very similar, just slightly more fitted with a straight skirt.

Since I’ve already made this pattern before, I don’t have too much more to add to what I’ve already said. I mad the size 6 – same as last time – but only shortened the skirt a couple of inches (I have no idea how much I shortened the skirt before – I just wrote in my post “quite a bit” whatever the hell that means. Usually I’m pretty good about leaving myself notes, but apparently not this time!). The skirt is a little longer than I usually prefer, but I’m not opposed to it.

As a flip, I did manage to get the bust point button in the exact right spot this time! (on the cherry dress, it’s slightly high, so the bust gapes unless I pin it closed). It took some practice to find that sweet spot, but it’s pretty really life-changing in terms of being able to wear button-up anything and have it fit properly across the bust without gaping. What I do – I don’t mark my button holes at all, just try on the garment when it’s nearly finished. I mark the bust apex (usually about at nipple point), pin it, and adjust the the position of the pin as needed until all gaping in eliminated. Then I use a buttonhole gauge to reposition the remaining buttonholes, using the bust point mark as an anchor point.

Speaking of buttons – aren’t they a good color match for those eyes? I found those at Textile Fabrics, and thankfully, they were the cheap kind on a card so they were pretty inexpensive 🙂 The topstitching thread was in my stash – again, a surprisingly perfect match. I usually prefer dark contrast when it comes to topstitching thread, but I really love the way the light contrast looks against the dark fabric background. When it comes to this much of a contrast, you want to be *really* certain that your stitching is going to be as close to perfect as you can get it, since it’s so visible. I use my blind hem foot to get an exact 1/8″ measurement from the seamline, and then lengthen the stitch by about a point or two. The bobbin thread is just the same navy I used for seaming; it’s easier to switch between threads if you don’t also have to change the bobbin.

Ummm what else? I used light weight woven fusible interfacing for the collar, collar stand, and button band – this one from Workroom Social. This stuff is AWESOME! It provides the right amount of support, but doesn’t interfere with the rayon’s drape. For finishing, I used French seams throughout the dress, and a bias facing for the hem.

Finally, I sewed a flat hook and eye at the waist seam (I think this looks more polished than putting a button right there, plus, it’s easier to wear a belt with this dress when it’s flat right there), and added chain loops to the side seams (for the aforementioned belt).

I think that’s it for this dress! I’m not sure I’ll get too much more wear out of it before the weather crashes into cold, but that’s fine – it’ll be waiting for me next year 🙂

Tags: completed, dress, eyeball, mccalls, mccalls 7351, miramar fabrics, rayon, rayon challis, workroom social

Comments 31 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Lemon Print Rayon Challis Alder Dress

8 Sep

Y’all, my love for lemons is never-ending:

I have been on the hunt for a good lemon print for YEARS, basically ever since seeing Gertie use a particularly gorgeous one to make a dress. That post is from 2010, btw, see what I mean? YEARS.

Like everything I try to purchase, I get really fixated on something that seems reasonably attainable and then spend years trying to find it (let me tell y’all about my 2 year wallet saga. Just kidding. No one cares lol). I wanted a lemon fabric on a dark – not black – background, that was not a quilting weight cotton (THAT’S the hard part!) (that’s what she said). I found something nearly perfect with the lemon knit I bought earlier this year, but, I was really hoping to find a woven with no stretch.

Anyway, I’ll cut to the chase – I found it, yay!, and it’s also no longer available, sorry! 🙂 This lemon print is from Workroom Social, from their Miramar Fabric line. Here it is on their website, although, again, it’s sold out! But there are loads of other amazing designs that are still available.

The Workroom Social fabric is a beautiful rayon challis, that is just a bit weighter than other challis that I’ve sewn with. It still has that lovely fluid drape and that amazing breathability (my absolute, 100% favorite fabric to wear during the summer!), but it’s a touch more manageable to sew. Some rayons require a bit of prep to stiffen them before you start sewing (I have used spray stablizer and also a gelatine treatment in the past, both with great results), but this one was easy to handle without any special pre treatment. I just cut and sewed and got on with my life! The best of both worlds!

Another really big perk about this fabric is that it is WIDE – 54-56″ to be exact. Most rayons are closer to 45″, which means you need more fabric to make stuff (and some patterns won’t work with the narrower width). At $28/yard, this is not a “budget” fabric, but a yard stretches much further thanks to that extra width! I had about 2 yards of this fabric and I was able to squeeze out my dress and a cami, so, not too bad!

Btw, I hope y’all like my “fashion blogger pantomiming walking away” shots 😛

I have had this fabric since spring, but it’s taken me this long to decide what to make it into. I had LOTS of ideas – but ultimately realized that my current style go-to is anything with a collar. Seriously, I am loving me some collars these days, have you noticed? I decided to take that look and run with it, and make another shirt dress. This pattern is the Alder Shirtdress from Grainline Studio, in view B. I will confess that I wasn’t crazy about view B when the pattern was first released – but after seeing several versions made in drapey fabric, I was sold. What I like about this design is that it is a classic shirt dress – collar + stand, button front, back yoke, etc – but those gathers give it an interesting twist (and also a little bit of shaping!). The fit is slightly loose – which is perfect for warm days, and looks absolutely beautiful when made up in a fabric with a soft drape.

I made a size 0 with no alterations – including to the length (tall people – beware! I’m 5’2″ and I love the length, but it might be a lil’ short on y’all ;))! For my next version, I will raise the armholes a little because they are definitely a bit low on me – you can see my bra sometimes. This is a common fit issue that I have across the board with most patterns, not specific to Grainline.

I had fun putting this one together! I used French seams everything – yes, including the gathered waist and that corner that connects the gathered piece to the front. I am not going to lie, that shit was RUFF and absolutely not my favorite part (but I survived, so hey, go me). Jen posted a tutorial on how to sew a French seam on a right angle, which was very helpful, but I still managed to fuck it up somehow idk. Anyway, it worked out great in the end – just tried my patience REAL HARD up to that point!

I also used the method outlined in the pattern for inserting the collar and collar stand, rather than my usual method (which is this one, if you’re curious!). That whole process might have actually been worse than the French seamed right angles, to be honest! I ripped out my stitches several times before I got it right – and even still, it’s not my best work, but it’s passable. I think trying to do it on a rayon challis was probably not my most brilliant idea, since the fabric is thin and shifty. On a more positive note, I just tried the Grainline method again with a nice cotton flannel, and it turned out PERFECTLY on both sides the first time. Probably because I have so much practice under my belt at this point! 😛

Now let me show you some close-up detail shots while I also instruct you not to look too closely.

This has been my go-to summer dress ever since I finished it – it’s lightweight and breathable, easy to pack (yes it wrinkles, but the wrinkles also drop out pretty easily on their own), and looks pulled together with very little effort. I can see why this pattern has been so popular – it’s fantastic! Of course, Tennessee had an unexpected blast of fall weather immediately after Labor Day (I’m still not convinced it’ll stay cold, however – it’s usually very hot in September!), so I’m currently hunkering down in pants + a hoodie. Hopefully it’ll warm up again so I can get some more wear out of this dress before next summer! 🙂

Tags: alder dress, completedd, dress, Grainline Studio, lemon, miramar fabrics, rayon, rayon challis, workroom social

Comments 36 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

OAL2017: My Completed Kim Dress

31 Jul

Good morning, everyone! It’s the last day of July, which means the deadline to finish + share your OAL garments! Today, I’m going to show y’all my finished dress – because my sweater actually isn’t done yet! LOL for being the worst host ever. Whatever! It’s been a crazy last few months, I’m not even going to apologize. Instead, I am going to celebrate actually FINISHING something! Yay!

Another thing worth celebrating – actually going outside to take photos! Another yay! Now that I’m in a house with a semi-private yard (I share the space with my upstairs neighbor, and we are on the corner of a somewhat busy street. Also, there is no privacy fence!), I feel more comfortable going outside to take my photos. The lighting is certainly better, and the background a bit prettier than a white wall 🙂 I still go outside really early so that it limits the amount of people rubbernecking as they drive by, but, you know… baby steps. haha. For someone who doesn’t give a fuck about a lot of things, I DO give a fuck about my neighbors watching me take ~fashun photos~ with a fucking tripod in my backyard hahahaha.

Not too much to say about this one, since I covered all the construction in previous OAL posts. To summarize – the pattern is By Hand London‘s Kim Dress, modified to include tie straps and a facing (no lining). I used polka dot rayon challis from Mood Fabrics – both for the outer and the facing – and added an invisible zipper and pleats at the hem. All seams except the gathered waist are finished with French seams (you can totally French seam a gathered waist seam, FYI, but I just didn’t feel like unnecessarily torturing myself haha).

Here are all the tutorials from the OAL, in case you missed them!

This is a great dress for summer – it’s a bit more loose fitting than what I would wear in the past, and the rayon is nice and breathable. So it’s super cool in this humid heat we’re going through right now, and the navy + white polka dots is the perfect print + color combination! Black bra straps aren’t necessarily the best choice for this look, but I’m hoping to make a strapless (currently creeping SO HARD on the Esplanade bra pattern! Soon!) before summer ends! Navy bra straps would also work, which I need to get on making. I have several tops that would benefit from a bra with navy straps!

Considering I talked a LOT about this dress during the OAL, there’s not much else to say! One thing I will point out is that this particular project was going on while I was in a big funk earlier this summer – I completely, 100% lost my sewing mojo and pretty much all creative energy (I continued knitting, but mostly because it was something to do with my hands while I watched tv -so that I didn’t feel like a complete lazy loaf). Knowing that I had to finish this dress due to my commitment to the OAL was the only reason why I even started it – and it’s also what eventually reignited my creative energy. I may talk about that more in detail in a future post, but basically – I’m back! I feel good and I’m sewing up a storm again! It’s pretty amazing!

How is your summer sewing going? Did you participate in the OAL this year? LET ME SEE YOUR PROJECTS please and thank you!

* Note: The fabrics used in this post were provided to me by Mood Fabrics, in exchange for my participation in the Mood Sewing Network.

Tags: By Hand London, completed, dress, Kim, Mood Fabrics, Mood Sewing Network, oal, oal2017, rayon

Comments 28 Comments
Categories completed projects - new, Mood Sewing Network

OAL 2017: Getting Started!

1 Jun

Hello everyone, and welcome to the 2017 Outfit Along! My apologies that this post is a bit late – I moved house yesterday, and only just got my internet turned on in the new place. Taking a short break from unpacking to get this OAL rolling! Let’s do this!

The official pattern for this year is the Kim Dress from By Hand London. There are a few options for this pattern – choose between a straight or sweetheart neckline, and a gathered skirt with pintucks at the hem or a sleek tulip skirt. I will be making the sweetheart neckline with the gathered skirt, but obviously feel free to make whatever your heart is calling for – whether it’s another variation of this pattern, or a different pattern completely! We want you to love and wear what you make, so don’t waste your time on something that doesn’t check those boxes for ya 😉

As I mentioned in my announcement post, I will not be running a full, in-depth sewalong for this pattern. I will be popping in every week with updates on my progress, as well as tips and tricks (with tutorials!) that you can apply to any pattern you are sewing – not necessarily specifically this one. However, if you are feeling that you need that extra help – there is a great sewalong on the By Hand London blog for this pattern, so please feel free to utilize that! You got this!!

For the first post, I’m gonna keep this one reasonably short and sweet!! This week is all about preparation!

If you still haven’t chosen your fabric, you will probably want to do that first 😉 This particular pattern works well with a smorgasbord of fabrics – from crisp cotton lawn to slinky silk, the sky is really the limit here! The main thing you want to keep in mind when deciding on fabric is how you want the finished garment to hang when you are wearing it. Do you want a more structured garment or one with a soft drape? Choosing a fabric with the correct amount of body and drape is key for this. That cotton lawn will result in a more structured bodice and full skirt that wants to stand out on it’s own, verus the slinky silk will give you a soft, floaty bodice with a skirt that drapes beautifully around your body. For more in-depth information about this, see this post from a previous OAL that goes over the differences in drape and body in fabric.

Here is the fabric I am using this year – a soft rayon print from Mood Fabrics with a nice drape to it. I love wearing rayon in the summer – it breathes really well in the heat, and a dark color/pattern means that sweat is less likely to show. Rayon traditionally can be a little tricky – both to work with and care for – but I ultimately think it is worth the additional effort. This particular rayon is pretty stable and easy to work with, compared to other rayons I’ve used in the past, so I will not be doing any sort of pre-treatment to aid with sewing. That being said, if you are sewing one of the aforementioned slinky rayons – or a silk, or slippery poly, anything that wants to float off the table when you try to cut it – you may want to consider pre-treating your fabric to be a bit more stable before you cut it. You have a few options for this – for something quick and easy with no mess, spray stabilizer works very well. Just spray it on your fabric, allow to dry, and then treat it as usual. Once you are finished sewing the garment, it easily washes out so your fabric goes back to it’s glorious, drapey self. For a cheaper option, I’ve been very happy with the results I’ve gotten from using gelatine. This method is more time-consuming, but also WAY cheaper. You basically boil the gelatine in water, soak your fabric, and then spread it flat (or hang) until it’s dry (Threads has a full tutorial on their website). Again, this washes out easily once you are finished. The major downside is finding space to dry it flat – if you live in a small space, that can be tricky – but it’s a fraction of the cost of using spray stabilizer and works just as well one it has dried. I have used both of these methods with great success, it just depends on your time and budget!

Make sure you pre-wash your fabric before you do anything – you want to make sure you get all the shrinkage out before your pattern pieces are cut. I wash and dry all my fabric the same way I plan on treating it once it’s been turned into a garment. For delicate fabrics like rayon, you don’t necessarily want to throw it in the dryer every time you launder it – over time, this will break down the fibers. But I do think it’s a good idea to use the dryer for the very first pre-wash, as it will shrink up the fabric sufficiently and then if the garment does accidentally end up in the dryer, it won’t shrink more!

As a side note, there are plenty of “dry clean” only fabrics that actually can be washed in a machine. Fibers such as silk and rayon are totally machine washable – you just want to ensure that you are washed them before they are cut, again, so that you get all the shrinkage out. I wash all my silks and rayons on cold water, use the dryer for pre-washing (and hang to dry once they are finished) and have not ruined anything yet. Keep in mind that this will take a bit of the shine and stiffness out of your fabric, but I think it’s worth it to not be a slave to the dry cleaner! When in doubt, test with a swatch to make sure you are ok with how the fabric looks after it’s been laundered.

I am making a few changes to my pattern that are a bit different from how it’s drafted:
– I converted the straps to tie at the top (instead of being a continuous loop)
– Rather than line my bodice, I drafted all-in-one facings to clean finish all the top edges

For the tie-top straps, I used this tutorial from By Hand London. It’s super simple – you just trace your pattern piece, and then extend the top strap by 6″-7″, rounding out the end to a nice shape.

To draft the all-in-one-facing, here is what I did:

First, I marked my seam allowances on all the bodice pattern pieces. Since these bodice pieces have princess seams on both the front and back, we want to eliminate those so that the facing pieces are one continuous piece.

Once the seam allowances are marked, I overlapped the pieces as they would be sewn together (center back to side back, and center front to side front). Then I laid my pattern pieces on a sheet of blank paper (mine is just kraft paper from a roll, but you can use whatever you have on hand) and traced around the neckline, arm holes, and straps. I drew down the side about 3.5″ and center about 4″, which will be the depth of the facing.

I used a curved ruler to connect the center back/front with the side seam, just to give it a gentle curve. Then I transferred all my notches and grainlines, and marked the pattern pieces.

It’s a good idea to lay your drafted piece under your pattern pieces, just to make sure everything fits and matches up. Which this one does! Yay!

That’s all for this week! You’ll want to cut and mark your pattern pieces, and be ready to sew next week! Let me know if you have any questions about anything covered in this post or, you know, life in general 🙂

Tags: By Hand London, Kim, oal, oal2017, rayon, tutorial

Comments 7 Comments
Categories tutorial, work in progress

Completed: Kitty Rayon Butterick 5526

22 Dec

Here’s an old projects from my archives – I finished this months ago (in, like, August haha) and never got around to posting it. Mainly because it’s a pattern that I have done to death and I might be just as sick of talking about it as most people are probably reading about it. With that being said – I am feeling this weird urge to wrap up all my projects for 2016 before the year ends (and I also feel bad for doing 2 review posts back-to-back, sorry friends), so this is the project I’m sharing today!

It features KITTY CATS yay!

First things first – the pattern is Butterick 5526, yes I’ve made it like a dozen times (see my tag for all my renditions of this pattern!) and no I don’t plan on branching out to other shirt patterns in 2017 haha. I love this pattern – I love the fit on me and I love how it looks in pretty much any fabric, although my personal fave is something lightweight with a soft drape. And sleeveless, so it works in both summer flyin’ solo, or in winter under a sweater or cardigan. My TNT, my desert-island pattern. MWAH ♥

This pattern is pretty similar to a button-up pattern, although it lacks a back yoke (I was able to draft one for my Tencel B5526, which wasn’t difficult). It has back and front princess seams, which give a lovely fit, and a traditional collar, collar stand, and separate button placket. It’s drafted as a sleeved pattern, but making it sleeveless is pretty simple – mainly, you want to raise the arm hole just a smidge and also sew a deeper side seam at the underarm. This is a super hack-y way to give the arm hole a good sleeveless fit.

Anyway, yawn, enough about the pattern. This post is all about the INCREDIBLE KITTY RAYON CHALLIS FABRIC.

I spent a few days in San Francisco at the beginning of this year, and while I had some fun things planned (like going to the Computer History Museum and nerding out so hard), I didn’t even consider my fabric shopping options bc I figured anything worth visiting would be in Los Angeles. Once I landed on my first day, I had some free time to kill and decided to walk around for a bit. On a whim, I typed “fabric store” into my Google Maps app and was surprised to find that Britex Fabrics was not only in SF, they were actually about a mile away from where I was currently sitting. So obviously I HAULED ASS over there to see what kind of fabric souvenirs were waiting for me.

I’d never been in Britex, but it’s a beautiful store with lots of incredible fabrics. It’s also quite expensive – I was drawn to the designer silks, but I didn’t see any that I loved enough to justify the price (like, all the ones I kept grabbing were like $80/yard lol nope). I spent an hour or so crawling the store – digging around the silks, revisiting the sale section, admiring all the lace trims. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a beautiful store with lots of amazing fabrics and notions, but I was traveling with a fully-packed carry-on, and only had enough room for a couple of special pieces (yes, I did this on purpose haha). I eventually found the rayon section, squirreled away near the silks (who were taking all the attention), and when I found this fabric there was absolutely no question that I had found THE ONE.

This fabric ticks all my boxes – it’s a unique novelty print that doesn’t look like a quilting cotton (sorry, quilting cotton lovers – that just ain’t my jam) *and* it’s in the softest, drapiest rayon challis. My favorites! Not to mention, the novelty print is little cats, which I just think is really cute! I hadn’t – and still haven’t – even seen a fabric like this, so it was definitely going to come home with me. The price wasn’t too terrible, either – I don’t remember exactly what I paid for it, but I think it was around $18/yard (definitely under $20/yard). This is one of those rayons that is quite wide – around 55″ – so after some deliberation, I had 1.5 yards cut and folded into the tiniest little cloud of a square.

I spent a few months waiting before cutting into this and sewing it up – I wanted to perfect the fitting tweaks I’d been doing on B5526, and I also wanted a little more practice sewing rayon challis before I cut into something this precious (precious in that I couldn’t buy more, not precious that it was terribly expensive). I’m a firm believer that fabric is best when it’s being cut and sewn and worn – not hanging out on a shelf for years – but I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to get your ducks in a row before you dive in, as long as the ducks don’t take like 5 years. I debated on a few design elements on this shirt that I ultimately did not end up doing – black piping at the collar and button band, rounding the collar to be a peter pant collar, black topstitching – I felt it was best to keep things simple and let the fabric be the star of this garment.

A note about rayon – it’s not the easiest thing to cut and sew, but it is definitely easier than a slippery silk. You can use a spray stabilizer to make the fabric even easier to handle, but I usually just throw all shits to the wind and sew it up in it’s slinky glory. Which is what I did here, and it wasn’t too bad – even with the fiddly collar stand and such.

Care-wise, I wash my rayon on cold and either tumble dry low or hang to dry (depending on whether I feel like ironing after the fact – which is usually no, so usually a hang-dry haha). Actually, I hand wash this shirt quite frequently – not because it necessarily needs it, but because I rarely wear white so I never have a full load when it’s time to wash. As much as I am not careful with my laundry, I am careful about not mixing my precious whites with darks that could potentially dye them. I use Soak Wash for all my hand-washing needs – lingerie, clothing, etc – because you don’t have to rinse it. Just soak it for 15-25 minutes, squeeze the water out, and dry it. I have always hated hand-washing, but this stuff makes it so much less of a pain!

Speaking of washing – the photos of you see of the shirt on my form are immediately after I finished it, without washing (other than the fabric pre-wash). The photos of me wearing the shirt as after a few washes. It has some soft wrinkles at the seams, but nothing super dramatic.

Here’s a peek at the inside! I used French seams to assemble, then topstitched them down so they looked like flat-felled seams (easier to do on this rayon than a true flat-felled seam, and prettier and stronger than a mock-flat-fell). The arm holes are hem are finished with bias facing. I actually didn’t quite *quite* enough of my polka dot bias facing, wah! I was a few inches to short, so part of the hem just has white batiste facing kind of patched in haha. But I loved the polka dots with the cats, so I wanted to use what I did have. Aaaand now that is the last of my polka dot bias – I’ve been using it on the inside of garments for YEARS (it’s first appearance was with this trench coat haha), surprised it’s hung around my sewing room this long!

I didn’t get a great close-up of the buttons, but they are vintage glass buttons that I also bought at Britex, specifically for this fabric. The girl working the button counter spent foreeeever with me trying to find a set of matching buttons (they were all just dumped in a jar) and we had a great chat while digging through the beautiful buttons. I found out she was originally from Nashville, even, which I thought was an interesting coincidence.

Anyway, that’s all for this project! While we’re on the subject of rayon – have you seen the new rayon fabric line from Workroom Social, Miramar? Jennifer gave me a little peek of this stuff while I was up there in November, and I can personally vouch for how awesome it is! I especially love that the designs are a bit more grown-up, and in darker colors (that lemon print needs to get in my life!). They are taking pre-orders now through tomorrow, which an expected ship date of 2/15/17. Once the pre-order sale is over, they are gone, so act fast if you are even considering it haha.

Oh, and one more thing (sorry) – Indie Stitches is closing shop, and all patterns are currently on sale for $15 AUS (which my currency convertor tells me is a little under $11 USD woohoo). Go help Caitlan clear our her remaining stock, and get yourself a nice gift at the same time 😉

Merry Christmas, y’all! ♥

Tags: b5526, Britex fabrics, butterick 5526, button-up, cats, completed, indie stitches, rayon, rayon challis, workroom social

Comments 39 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

OAL2016: My Finished Outfit!

29 Jul

What up, everyone! It’s practically the end of the July – two days left to go! – which means one thing ’round these parts… The Outfit-Along is nearly over!

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I’ve had a lot of fun with the pieces this year – both making and wearing them! – and I’m excited to finally show you guys my finished sweater + skirt!

Here is the complete outfit!

The sweater is Zinone by Andi Satterlund, and the skirt is a Hollyburn from Sewaholic Patterns.

Zinone was made using the suggested yarn, Quince + Co Sparrow (the color is Moon), which is a fingering weight linen yarn. This was my first time working with linen and OMG TRUE LOVE Y’ALL. Very easy to work with and felt so good on my hands! My gauge swatch put me at size 2 needles, and I knitted the size XS (which is my usual size for Andi’s patterns and corresponds with my bust measurement). I chose to knit the version with the partial lace back, and slightly cropped. I was originally going to do the full lace version, but I guess I’m way out of lace-knittin’ practice because I had a helluva time working this one out. Fortunately, the directions for the partial and full lace back at the same for a bit at the beginning of the pattern, which gave me plenty of time to change my mind 😛 I also completely frogged the entire thing and started over after finishing the lace section, because I realized way too late that I had read the pattern wrong (which is why I was having issues in the first place). I was trying to be clever and separate my repeats with stitch markers – you can’t do that with this pattern, as some of the stitches borrow from previous repeats. Whoops. Once I realized I’d done goofed, let me tell you… it was hard to rip everything out and start over. But I’m glad I did, because my second attempt at the lace looks pretty bomb-ass, if I do say so myself 😉

I made some slight sizing and length modifications to the sweater as well – I knitted the correct number of rows for the cropped version, but somehow it ended up really short (I am thinking I read the pattern wrong). I just continued knitting until I got to the length that I wanted, and did a couple more rounds of decreases as well. Speaking of length, this sweater is only about an inch shorter than the schematics – it’s 16.5″ long from the shoulder, which hits me right about at the belly button. The cropped version on Andi appears to be a lot shorter than mine, even though it says it’s an inch longer.

Anyway, this was a very easy and satisfying knit. I did nearly run out of yarn at the end – I bought enough for the cropped version, and ended up frogging about 3 rows of my gauge swatch. Actually, I had an extra skein but I was trying really hard not to use it so I could be cheap and return it to the store 😉

I LOVE how this linen feels in the summer heat – finally, an excuse to wear my handknits even in July! 😀 And it’s pretty awesome that it’s machine washable. I haven’t done the recommend 3 washing cycles yet, though – I did one Soak wash (this is how I wash all my knits… and my lingerie for that matter. Soak is AMAZING, cannot recommend enough) and then one wash in the washing machine. My new place has me doing laundry at the ‘mat, so running 3 loads back to back to back isn’t exactly doable for me! (well, it is. But I’m not about to pay for that haha) So far, though, it has softened up considerably after even 2 washes. Can’t wait to see how it softens even more with additional wear and washing 😀

Sorry, loads of photos!

Now for the Hollyburn!

I already wrote a couple posts about the modifications to make this particular skirt (see: Choosing Your Fabric, Flat Piping, and Installing an Exposed Zipper), so I’ll just brief over the key details here.

The navy rayon crepe is from StyleMaker Fabrics (who is one of our sponsors for this year’s OAL!). I added flat piping at the waistband (sewn with silk crepe – from my stash) and an exposed metal zipper to the back. I also shortened the length considerably, omitted the pockets, and used stretch interfacing on the waistband.

I sewed the entire skirt on my Spiegel 60609, and it did pretty well overall! While I don’t want to say I was concerned to see how it would handle that shifty fabric (I have sewn straight-up silk and a bra on the 60609, and it hasn’t given me any problems thus far with my fabric choices), I was still pleasantly surprised at the entire experience. I didn’t use any special stitches, and only feet that came with the machine. The zipper foot in particular was great for both applying the piping and the invisible zipper, as well as making sure the topstitching was nice and straight and close to the edge. I did find that I needed to increase the stitch length just a smidge for this fabric, as it wanted to bunch a little bit otherwise, but overall I’m pretty happy with it! I am glad that moving the needle over is an option with this machine (you just increase the zigzag width while on a straight stitch), however, I’d love to see some new feet released to use with this machine. Maybe a 1/4″ foot or an edgestitching foot? 😉 HINT HINT.

For me, the most fun part about this challenge is ending up with TWO pieces that I can mix with other garments in my wardrobe. I love this top + skirt together… but honestly, I like them even more with different things from my closet! They are definitely wearable with a bunch of what I already have (which is part of the reason why I got a little boring with the colors 😉 I wanted the versatility!); here are a couple of examples:

Zinone top + Ginger jean shorts
I don’t know about y’all, but I am LOVING the cropped trend! Slightly cropped with a slightly high-waisted bottom is my new favorite thing right now (not your cup of tea? This is the beauty of knitting your own – you get to decide the length!). I love the way this top looks tucked into a skirt, but the combination with my high-waisted Ginger shorts really makes my heart sing the most.

Hollyburn skirt + sleeveless coral B5526 button up
I did not realize when I made this shirt that it was going to be one of my top 10 handmade garments of all time, but it is. It goes with everything. The sleeveless option + lightweight cotton fabric make it a great option for summer, and it layers beautifully under sweaters in the winter. The color is perfection and looks especially great with navy (my go-to summer dark neutral). It’s as easy to wear as a knit tshirt, but looks a helluva lot more refined and classy.

Anyway, I guess that’s it for this post! Those of you still scrambling to finish your outfits – you have 2 days before the deadline! Make sure you upload your finished outfit to the Official OAL2016 Finished Outfit Thread on Ravelry before 7/31/16 Midnight PDT if you wanna win one of those sweet prizes! Andi and I will be drawing 3 winners at random, who will win fabric, sewing pattern, and knitting pattern vouchers! Even if you’re not participating, do take a look at that thread! There are some amazing outfits to drool over 🙂

Tags: Andi Satterlund, hollyburn, knitting, linen, oal, OAL2016, rayon, spiegel, spiegel 60609, style maker fabrics, sweater, Untangling Knots, zinone

Comments 40 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

OAL2016: Part 1 (Pockets + Piping)

8 Jun

Good morning, everyone! Time to get some sewin’ done for this OAL!

Before we get into the post, a few things I wanted to mention:
– Unlike previous years, I will not be doing a full step-by-step of sewing the pattern. Part of the reason is because this is a really easy pattern and the instructions are super straightforward and simple to understand on their own.
– Now, before you freak out – there IS a sewalong for the Hollyburn skirt! Not hosted on this blog, but a sewalong nonetheless! You can find it here on Lavender Lane. So if you reeeally need the help and the instructions just aren’t cutting it for some reason or another, there is that option!
– Instead of step-by-steps, I am splitting the OAL sewing stuff into 2 posts – today and next week – both with modification tutorials. I will also include links to relevant tutorials from older posts as they are needed. That way, those of you who are not following the OAL and/or don’t care about sewalong posts (I’ll be honest – I skip over them too!) – this is less for you to skip over 🙂 And for those who are here for the OAL and love reaching sewalong posts – they’re still here! 🙂
– And DUH, I’ve made like a zillion of these skirts – so feel free to ask me questions as well! Either in the comments, or you can email me! Don’t worry! I got ya covered!
– FINALLY, I should mention that I’m using my Spiegel 60609 sewing machine to construct my Hollyburn, so you’ll see it in the photos! I wanted to see how it handled my mega-shifty fabric 🙂

Ok, back to the OAL!

OAL_Banner

Before you do anything, it’s a good idea to prewash your fabric in the same manner you will be washing/drying it once the garment is complete. Some fabric reeeeally likes to shrink, so you want to get that out of the way before it’s cut! I am using this cool zigzag rayon crepe from Style Maker Fabrics and it certainly shrunk a LOT! It’s a bit shifty to work with, but I think the payoff will be pretty sweet – it has the dreamiest, swishiest drape! I found that my increasing my stitch length just a hair (the standard stitch length on the Spiegel 60609 is a little short for sewing really delicate and shifty fabrics, I’ve learned) and using lots of pins was enough to keep the fabric in check for the most part.

Some notes on cutting:
– Here is a post I wrote for the 2014 OAL on cutting and marking. Different pattern, same concept.
– It is entirely possible to make this pattern with a striped or plaid fabric! You will need extra fabric to allow for matching and it may take longer to cut, but it can be done! Depending on your stripe/plaid, you may only be able to match 2 seams instead of 4 – if this is the case, match the center front and center back seam. Mismatched side seams are less noticeable 🙂 Here is my tutorial for matching plaids. Also relevant: my tutorial on matching the stripes at the pocket.
– This pattern calls for you to cut the waistband on the straight grain (parallel to the grain line). If your fabric has a bit of stretch, though, you may want to consider cutting on the cross grain (perpendicular to the grain line). This is what I did 🙂 Keep in mind that if you cut on the cross grain, you’ll want to interface the waistband with a tricot interfacing to retain that stretch. I personally love the PROtricot at Fashion Sewing Supply, but most fabric stores have something similar 🙂
– If your fabric is super drapey and you don’t want the pockets to bag out, you may consider eliminating them entirely (go ahead, gasp or whatever). This is what I did on my skirt, to allow for a smooth front. You can always add in-seam pockets if you’d like.

Eliminating the pockets is super easy:

You’ll need your pocket piece and your skirt front piece.

Fold the pocket piece in half along the foldline, matching the notches.

Lay the pocket piece behind the skirt front at the pocket opening, again matching the notches. Then just tape it down into place – I am using surgical tape because it peels off easily without tearing the paper (I can’t take credit for this – I got it in my goody bag at A Gathering of Stitches. Sam makes the BEST goody bags!), but you can also use regular tape, painter’s tape, pins, or even just trace off the pattern pieces. Whatever works!

Next steps are to construct the skirt as per the directions. Sew the pockets (if you still got ’em!). Sew the center front and side seams at 5/8″, but leave the center back seam open. If you would like to finish your seams, now is the time. I used my serger to overlock the seams after I sewed them, and then I pressed them open. Finally, staystitch the waist of your skirt (just a straight stitch about 1/2″ from the edge) to keep it from stretching out.

At this point, I decided to add flat piping to my waistband seam. So you get a tutorial!

I started with a strip of bias-cut silk crepe that was 1.5″ wide. The width of your piping will determine how wide to cut your bias – you’ll want 2x the finished width, plus 2x seam allowance. Cut enough bias to go all the way across the waist of your skirt. Fold the strip in half, length-wise, with the WRONG sides together, and press.

I promise I will get a new ironing board cover eventually. Ew, that yellow stain. haha.

If you don’t know how to cut bias, here are two really great tutorials: continuous bias (my favorite!) and bias strips.

Lay the folded bias along the waist edge of your skirt, matching raw edges at the top, and pin into place.

Sew the bias in place just within the seam allowance (I sewed at 3/8″) to hold it there. You can use a basting stitch for this step; it’ll get a second sewn pass in a minute!

Lay your interfaced waistband on top of your skirt, with right sides facing and raw edges matching. The bias strip should be sandwiched between the two.

Now sew your second pass to secure all the layers at 5/8″. Make sure to shorten your stitch back to it’s normal setting if you were basting 🙂 I ended up sewing another line a little more than the seam allowance, because I wanted the piping a little bit narrower.

Check the right side to make sure that everything looks good. I have no idea how I managed that unintentional perfect pattern matching, but hey, I’ll take it!

Press all the seam allowances up toward the waistband, using lots of steam so the piping lays nice and flat. If your fabric is bulky, you may want to trim down your seam allowances and/or grade them (trimming them in staggering layers) to prevent bulk from showing from the outside.