Pleats and circles do go

It's been a while since I last posted, I'm still cogitating and ruminating over a review of the year. It will happen, honest, but in the meantime, here's my latest.

Sewing has been considerably lax over the holiday period, I've had my stepdaughter and Mum staying, so I couldn't really do much, anyway, my sewing room doubles up as a guest room, so...

I did manage to shorten and hem a couple of items for them both, some requiring me to use my double needle on knit fabrics. I was impressed with myself, knowing what I'm like with knit fabrics. Must be getting better. :-)

So the latest...

I got this fabric in the Fabric Warehouse pop-up shop in October? The border print came in a wide width, 1.5m, and double-sided. I'm sure I only bought a metre, but when I measured it, there was 1.2m! So, basically all I needed to do was to line it up and cut it in half. That was easier said than done, this is slippery crepe, so there were pins all the way up to hold the fabric in place.

So many lovely circles everywhere. As soon as I saw it, it was going to be a skirt. With so many circles going up the skirt, and not in a straight line, I decided it was impossible to match all circles. In the end I decided just to match the large circles at the bottom. I'm pretty pleased with my matching and have only just noticed, having taken the photo, that I should have moved one side across more! Can you see what I did?

The top of the skirt is pleated and after a conflab with the always helpful WSBN, they are also stitched down about three inches. It took a lot of working out to pleat this, the width of fabric was not three times my waist, so I had to make an inspired guess and trial and error to get the pleats sitting equally. There's 35 of them, I've counted!

Since this is a fine crepe, the skirt is lined. I used the same black cotton lawn to line the skirt and make the waistband. All the seams for the lining and the skirt are finished using French seams. The zip is hand picked.

The hem has been rolled by hand. The Crazy Gypsy sent me a link from YouTube for a hand rolled hem. The video is done by a left-handed sewer, but I managed to work it out and go the other way! I am certainly right-handed, no ambidexterity about me :-) I think it took me about two and half hours, it's a long way around the hem of this one!

I met up with Kat and Mel at Otari Wilton's Bush for photos of the finished make. Mel was posing with her own make and Kat wielded our big nerdy cameras. All I know it, it must have been fun, as I'm laughing in almost all my photos! :-)

The details...

Fabric: Polyester crepe border print from Fabric Warehouse pop-up shop (Oct 2013?), cost about $4. Black cotton lawn for the lining and waistband from Fabric Warehouse (September 2013?)

Notions:   Thread, an invisible zip and interfacing for the waistband

Pattern:  A selfmade, drafted pattern.
First worn:  Erm, these photos at Otari Wilton's Bush, Wellington, but will most likely be worn to work soon.
Worn with (in this pic):  A RTW top from Monsoon, UK and pumps from Overland, NZ.
Another one?  This was a one-off really for this fabric. I've often self-drafted skirts like this, so one could happen at any point!

And to finish, this is what happens when you get friends to take your photos...

 Well you were only supposed to see the skirt, my face doesn't matter! Also photos being bombed by the young offspring of your photographer :-)

 Showing off the lining and preparing for the next gust of wind which may come along :-)

And because I've learned a new skill this month, you'll also find this on The Monthly Stitch