the lonely skirt

I've called it quits on the UFO jacket that I butchered last week, it was just not salvagable at all due to some hasty and careless cutting on my part. I started this jacket in about 1999 I think, along with a dress and a pair of pants in some lovely black lightweight wool suiting bought from Fine Wools Direct when they used to be in St Peters (as some of you Sydneysiders may remember). They were duds from the start, and in fact the only reason I held onto them for so long is because the fabric was lovely and it would be a shameful waste to chuck them.

The jacket I made from New Look 6725, which is not only OOP but the number has already been reissued. It is a short button front jacket that I chose to use a zipper closure instead. The problem being the only open ended zips I have seen available retail are chunky plastic ones, which was way to heavy for this jacket and it hung badly. So it sat as a shell while I searched for a better zipper, which I never have found. So a few weeks ago I took the zipper out, put a bit more interfacing in it and made a lining for it. It fitted really well, except that the shoulder were a bit too wide, since I have narrow shoulders and generally take at least 2 cm out of the shoulder seam width. Well, whilst I was wearing the jacket I marked where I wanted the shoulder seam to finish, unpicked the sleeves and then (and here's the stupid bit) cut the jacket along the marked line, not allowing for a seam allowance! So when I sewed the sleeve back on, of course the shoulders are too small now and I can barely move my arms and it just looks stupid. And that was the end of the jacket. But I do like this style, so I may one day make another.

The pants aren't even worth mentioning, except to say they fitted very very badly.

The dress I made from New Look 6882, another OOP pattern that has also been reissued. My mum actually sewed the halter neck version on the right in a floor length version for my year 10 formal school dance, when I was all of 16! I made the short sleeved version in the middle, and it was so dowdy on me: too short, too tight through the hips, too loose through the bust and that seam line that runs across the bust line in real life just looks wrong.

Since it was too tight through the hips I couldn't just cut it at the waist to make a skirt from it, so I decided to make Vogue 7937 from it, which is a multi panelled skirt so that I could get it to fit. I also borrowed some fabric from the legs of the doomed pants, but since thelegs aren't very wide I couldn't cut the back panel of the skirt on the fold, and instead put in a centre back zip which is a better fit for me anyway. And ta da, one lone skirt salvaged from a three piece suit in only about 10 years.....

I made the View B which has tabs and a button on the side, just for decoration:

And you can see the back view, which should be cut on the fold and have a side zipper but I have put a centre back seam instead. I also mitred the hem, which I had to look up and found a great tutorial on the Threads website since I'm not a quilter and always forget how to do that.

So this skirt may be the one that breaks me out of my matchy matchy ways, maybe a nice cardigan with a belt for smart casual at work.

And in bunny news, I made a new one for Anna from a tutorial over at Revoluzza, although I wish I saw the Martha Stewart version made by Ramona before I started on this one because it's pretty cute too. Anyway, this one is appropriately scaled, I made it from half the stuffing from the giant bunny's head:

It's made from a soft houndstooth wool in light grey, with a felt face and some dodgy handstitching on my part. My husband thinks it looks funny without whiskers and a nose but Anna seems to like it:

Happy easter everyone, remember calories from easter egge don't count on easter Sunday (but you have to take responsibility for any eaten before or after!).