Friday, September 21, 2012

Friday Felicities

Whee! It's Friday! Gotta love those two-(work)day weeks.



My felicity today is that I successfully made myself a skirt!

Barcelona skirt success
Photographer is 4.75 years old hence the focus problem.

It's the Amy Butler Barcelona A-line skirt with about 4" lopped off the bottom (seriously, the pattern seems to have set the length for maximum stumpification of legs) and sans zipper. I was given some stretch cotton recently and decided to make up the pattern to see how the sizing was and whether I liked the outcome.

I was unsure how to handle the stretch cotton because the pattern calls for quilting weight cotton which obviously has no stretch. So I sought the advice of two garment sewing experts, Lili from Spool of Thread who regularly teaches the Barcelona skirt as a class at the shop, and Heather, a fellow VMQG member and fabulous garment sewist. Lili suggested that if the cotton were stretchy enough, I could probably forego the zipper (YES PLEASE!), and she also gave me some good tips for fitting the skirt. Heather suggested I could leave the skirt unlined if the fabric were thick enough (time saver? YES PLEASE!), and told me how to make a waistband facing.

I was so buoyed by my success that I went ahead and ordered a pattern for a pencil skirt! And I'm going to go buy some stretch denim now to make myself a denim version of the Barcelona skirt. Hurrah!

strike a pose
Another "felicity" in my life doing what makes her happy: dancing!

So what are your felicities this week? Do tell, and please link up and share.

Have a great weekend!

13 comments:

  1. I love the blurry pic. :)
    I like that pattern, but I agree, the shape needs to be altered. :) I was ok with the length, but I didn't like the crazy high waist! Looks great!

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  2. Cute skirt! Woot, woot garment sewing.

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  3. Woah, too much sass for one post! You and your girl are seriously working those skirts! :)

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  4. I love that skirt! I may need to get that pattern as it is so hard to find a-line skirts anywhere!

    That photo is super special (gotta lobe the little ones)! :)

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  5. I love the kid pics ; ) So I linked up, and linked back to your blogpost... but I can't figure out the button in the post linky thing.

    Well I'm excited for Friday Felicities! : ) Thanks for doing this!

    Monika in Saskatoon

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  6. Killer skirt! Stretch denim? Awesome idea!

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  7. Great skirt, Felicity. I have that pattern too - and I've had fabric washed and ready to go for about 3 years. Maybe I should just make it already?!?

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  8. Felicity... don't be scared by zippers.... totally not hard. I can show you how to put one in. The easiest and best looking are the invisible zippers but you do need a special invisible zipper foot.

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  9. Wow, that's a great skirt, and with no zipper or lining, even I could handle that...

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  10. I missed out on linking but really love the skirt. I don't make clothes so anyone who does is just amazing in my book.

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  11. Yay for a new skirt and a budding photographer!

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  12. cute skirt! And while your photographer may occasionally blur the pictures, she is so adorable that she is easily excused!

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