McCalls 5696

I'm such a tightwad that even though I absolutely hated sewing that cheap polyester I made Mitch's pants out of, I couldn't throw away the half yard I had left.

So, Myra got a new skirt.

The pattern is McCalls 5696. I don't sew many envelope patterns for the kids, but this one had so many cute skirt options that I picked it up anyway. I even matched the color scheme on the envelope. The pattern is for a yoked skirt with a zipper and waistband. Two views have pockets, one is a circular skirt, one pleated and the view I made included contrast godets.

Before I put in the zipper, I tried it on Myra. She doesn't have much waist definition, so it went over her hips without a problem. I decided to convert it to an elastic waist both for ease of sewing and for ease of potty breaks. I also bound the pockets in bias strips of my contrast fabric rather than hem them. I like the little pop of color and the finish inside is nicer.

I cut the godets on the bias, although the pattern has them on the straight grain. Mostly, I did it because I like the look of gingham on the bias, but it does make them drape nicely. The godet insertion in the pattern instructions was unnecessarily complex, I thought. Since the tips of the godets are caught in the yoke seam, there isn't really any point in carefully sewing to the tip and making sure it is nice a smooth there. I just stitched them onto one side, and then stitched the second side up to the tip.

For the hem, I tried a new (to me) technique that I've read about in several of Sandra Betzina's books. The navy poly suiting wouldn't take a press for anything, so in order to get a smooth crease at the hem edge, I stitched a staystitching line at the fold of the hem with fusible thread in my bobbin. Then when I turned and pressed my hem, the thread fused the fold of the hem, resulting in a nice sharp crease.

I think this one is a winner! It weathered a trip to Joann's, several hours on the playground and a trip to Ikea (where it was doused in milk) and she's still wearing it. And it still looks good!

It's good for jumping. I think she looks like a little cheerleader in this one.

She likes the pockets. Perfect for stashing the caramels she spent all day eating.