Butterick 5566

While I had navy thread on the serger, I decided to make a denim skirt for me!  I really want to focus on not creating any more orphan garments in my closet, so my plan is as I make a new garment, be sure that either I already can incorporate it into at least one "outfit" from my closet, or that I already have a coordinating garment ready to sew.  Of course, a denim skirt goes with nearly everything, so I'm not really challenging myself with this one.

Here is my new skirt with my fourth version of the burdastyle turtleneck, grey tights and booties.

It doesn't fit my dressform very well.  I still need to pad her lower half a little, but I'd like to lose my last 10 baby pounds first.  Those last few are always the hardest to take off!  Anyway, the pattern is Butterick 5566, which was part of this winter's collection.  I usually let patterns age in the stash a bit longer, but I really love the lines of this one, so I just had to sew it.  The fabric is stretch denim from fabric.com that I bought intending to make jeans, but at 4% lycra, they really have too much stretch.  I'm hoping that it'll be OK for this skirt and I won't end up with seat baggies.

The pattern has three different views, all of which I really love.  This one is a basic pencil skirt, but with topstitched princess seams for shaping.  No darts!  It is pretty simple to sew.  Aligning the princess panels at the side seams was tricky though.

Mad skills!  OK, it took 3 attempts, but still!  I tissue fit this to me as I currently am.  Stacy and Clinton say you should always dress the body you have.  That said, I finished the side seam allowances separately so that I could take it in later if needed.  It also reduces the bulk at the hip to have the side seams pressed flat, and who needs extra hip bulk?

The only changes I made to the pattern were to do a 5/8 inch swayback adjustment and to hem it 1/2 inch longer.  I also put in an invisible zipper, and attached the facings to the zipper tape by machine.

I think this looks much cleaner than slipstitching, especially as my handsewing is dreadful.  There are a couple of great tutorials out there for this technique, so rather than reinvent the wheel, I'll just leave you with a link.