I’ve been
offered a temporary job, covering for a month, so I decided I needed a new work
outfit. Well... actually I don’t... I
have enough work outfits to go for a good six weeks of work without having to
repeat anything, but I WANTED a new work outfit.
Project
17 was a bias cut skirt from a pink and black hound’s-tooth.
When I
made the list I obviously didn’t realise just how much I had of this
fabric. When I checked the fabric I
decided I had enough for a jacket too.
Although it wasn’t on my list I really wanted to do a jacket for the
Burda Challenge, and I’d sort of “used” the fabric by putting it on the list of
52 projects, so I used this fabric to make a jacket toned down with a little
plain black.
This made
a new work outfit really easy, as all I had to do was the bias cut skirt and
magic... a new suit for work!
I’ve
always had a bit of a love hate relationship with bias cut skirts. I love the way that they look, and I love the
way that they swing, but I’ve always struggled to get them right. When Diane came over for my lesson she made a
few suggestions regarding the handling of bias cut seams, and specifically
zips, so I felt ready to put her ideas to the test.
Since
this was going to be a really quick and simple project, nothing, of course ran
smoothly.
First of
all I drafted a yoked skirt from my basic skirt block, as I didn’t want the
skirt swinging round the hips. When I
cut out the yoke pieces on the straight grain, and the skirt pieces on the
bias, the yoke pieces looked really odd.
The mix of the two directions just didn’t work.
I had plenty of fabric to re-cut the yokes,
but if I cut the yoke pieces on the bias too, I was going to lose the stability
I wanted round the waist. Even
interfacing the yoke pieces wasn’t going to control the bias wiggle.
I put the project aside and went and watched
an episode of Susan Khalje's couture dress course on Craftsy. By some bizarre stroke of luck, I randomly
selected the episode where she talked about interlining. That woman is a genius! I abandoned her mid-class and pulled the
small amount of black silk organza that I found in my $1 stash and interlined
the yoke pieces. Problem solved!
I happily
carried on, making up the yoke pieces first, then laid out the skirt pieces...
Spot the
deliberate mistake?
Look a little
closer...
I had cut
one of the skirt back pieces upside down.
In all honestly I didn’t even realise that the direction would make any
difference, and I spent a good ten minutes squinting at it before I realised
what the problem was.
Still,
could be worse. I still had plenty of
fabric so I re-cut the offending piece and carried on.
I’ve learnt enough about cutting stuff on the bias to know that it needed to “rest”
before I hemmed it, so I hung it on the dummy and invited my little girl round
to help me pin the hem up over the weekend.
The
finished result has its problems.
Actually, it has one problem.
I should
have twigged that this would be an issue when I saw the straight cut yoke and
the bias cut skirt pieces together, but it wasn’t until I put it on the dummy
with the jacket that I remembered that the jacket was also cut on the straight
grain.
I’m not sure whether its the
grain issue, or whether a whole outfit in pink and black hounds tooth was
always going to be too much, but this is definitely not a workable suit. The pattern seems to fly off in all directions, it clings at the bottom and is boxy at the top. Somehow, it just doesn't work.
Not that
it’s a complete disaster. The skirt
works fine with a plain black jacket and I've worn the jacket several times with black trousers
This is undoubtedly the most successful bias cut skirt that I've ever made. Diane's tips for stabilising the bias seams and zips did the trick, so I feel as though I have conquered that particular dragon of mine.
Fortunately my daughter tells me that suits are only ever worn as separates these days anyway!
