Creative Sewing: Vogue 7910, experimental version

Hey look, the start of my series! Remember when I said "I'm going to start off small-scale, probably by using a fabric not specifically recommended by the pattern envelope"? Well... yeah.

A few months ago, I went into a fabric shop at Walthamstow Market and left my sense tied up to a lamppost outside. I bought eight metres of fabric in there that day, and that fabric sat in my stash for a long time. Every so often I would take out a piece, look at it, and go, "Nope. Still no idea" and put it away again. I'd only had a plan for one out of the four, and as soon as I got it home I realised it wasn't going to work (I'd bought enough crepe for a pair of close-fitting ankle-grazing trousers and not the enormous high-waisted swishy things I actually wanted to make), so it all just sat there, making me feel like I was rubbish at fabric shopping and should maybe just stop trying.

After a conversation with a friend who's much better at this stuff than me, I decided to make it my Experimental Fabric Pile. Since I had no idea what to do with it, surely it wouldn't matter if what I made didn't end up being wearable? I could just try random shit with no expectation that it would work, and if it did, bonus.

I have literally no idea what this fabric is. It's stretchy and it doesn't fray, but it's not jersey. It's closer to some kind of scuba or neoprene, but I'm not sure it's either of those. I am not a fabric savant. But I had a metre and a half of it, and I thought a skirt was the obvious choice. After my first successful attempt at Vogue 7910, I was curious to see if it would work in this kind of material.

Pictured: No idea.

This fabric is super-stretchy, and mistake number one was cutting the same size as I did with the red one. It was MASSIVE. I had to take in every side seam quite substantially. Having done that and finding that the skirt still pulled over my head very easily, I decided there wasn't a whole lot of point in trying to sew a zip into this thing, so I didn't. Mistake number two was getting distracted when trying to decide what to do about the waistband and sewing it up as though it were a tie closure. I had zero interest in unpicking it and not enough fabric to make another one (I had three-quarters of a metre less than the pattern called for in the first place), so I pondered for a while and eventually put a rib-knit band around the top. It probably isn't the most elegant solution, but eh. To be honest, it's still a bit big, and I'm considering taking it in again.

I also didn't hem it because I liked the raw edge, but having worn it a few times I now think it might be too long (a certain length of navy skirt can give me unpleasant school uniform flashbacks), so I will either hem it or cut it down a bit.

Whatever else you might say about it, it does great things when I move:

I will literally never get tired of doing those photos. My main problem with the skirt is finding things to wear it with - if I have anything bulky, unfitted, or long on top then I just look swamped. This top is one I got for a fiver in the Collectif sale, and it's basically fine to wear with this except on the random occasions where it decides it's going to be three inches shorter. Then it's not okay to wear with anything.

So what did I learn from this experiment?

1. Fabric recommendations on pattern envelopes are not mandates.
2. Stretchy stuff needs to be cut smaller.
3. I need to pay a bit more attention to what I'm doing.
4. This pattern is still awesome.

happiness is a red skirt

I would like to introduce you to Vogue 7910, my new favourite thing:

I bought this pattern a few months ago. I was after something quite different, but the reviews of the one I wanted were middling and the reviews of this one were all FIVE STARS BEST SKIRT EVER MAKE THIS SKIRT EVERYBODY, so I bought it. Then it turned up on my doorstep looking all sensible and practical and dull in its neutral colours, and I put it away, wondering what on earth possessed me to buy a work skirt pattern when I wasn't at work and was trying not to think about work as a concept. 

Then I happened upon it again when trying to break a weeks-long sewing block. I had some inexpensive drapey red cotton I could experiment with, why not? 

(Two different settings, because I'm crazy and unpredictable in an incredibly restrained way.)

I made view A, an eight-panelled gored skirt with a waistband, and it is my new favourite skirt shape. It doesn't add extra volume to the hips, but also it doesn't cling, and it doesn't seem to create static with my tights either. It was really easy and fun to sew, and I will be making many, many more. 

I haven't worn skirts for years because I've just never been able to find one that looks OK on me. They all cling too much, or they have way too much volume, or they do that thing where they jut out from the waistband and sit on top of your hips and make you look square, like a loo roll cover that's also a doll. I've made a bunch of skirts in the last few months and I wear most of them, but this is my favourite in terms of shape and comfort. And I really enjoy red clothes. 

Also it does this, and that pleases me. Let's have some more!

Yay!

I'm planning, possibly ill-advisedly, to try making one of these out of this strange textured neoprene-like material I bought a little while ago. I'm not sure it's going to work, but I don't have the first idea what to do with the stuff so I might as well experiment with it. And if it does work, a neoprene gored skirt should make for some interesting shaping. (That was a bad trip to the fabric shop. I bought four things and have no use for any of them. My new plan is to put them in a pile labelled 'Experimental' and just try making weird shit with them all. I'll let you know how that goes.)