You know when you’re going to an event and you’ve planned an outfit but at the last minute you decide you need something new and different? If you sew, that probably means making something new. Unlike a quick shop for a new thing, sewing at the last minute can mean hand sewing the hem on the train and other follies. This is my tale of near disaster, last minute sewing & what ended up being a sensational skirt. Because when life gives you lemons, you make a Lemonade Skirt!
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Let me set the scene….it’s Thursday morning, I’d planned on making a sheer overlay for an existing skirt but I needed a lace zipper. All sewing must be completed today, so I can wear what I’m making on Friday. I made coffee, finished up and posted a blog post and looked at the time. Damn my slow internet, I’m already running behind! I head out to Needleworks and grab my zipper.
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I have a coffee table that converts to dining table. The dining table part is my only cutting out space, I don’t even have a section of floor that’s bigger. Pretty helpful, except the only place I can use my overlocker is at the coffee table, when its folded down. Some sewing days are a bit like a an episode of Transformers – furniture edition! So dining table comes up, sheer fabric is aligned, pattern is weighted. I decide I don’t want to wear this anyway and pack up the sheer fabric. ‘It’s cool’, I tell myself, there’s time. I head back to my stash.
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- I pull out this gorgeous taffeta, picked up in an earlier op shop haul, and wonder if it’s silk as I suspected.
- Google burn test for silk, do a burn test, find out it actually is silk!
- Get panicked, Google how to sew silk.
- Decide I cannot just machine a hem, decide to line the skirt and use a lace bound hem.
- Have no idea what to line it with, Google lining silk taffeta.
- Silk organza seems to be the choice but I have none in my stash and only Spotlight to shop in.
- Head to Spotlight for:Matching silk hand sewing thread, Organza lining, Hem Lace.
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- Spotlight is packed!
- Search for a vibrant pink or green lace, come up empty and grab the only option, black.
- Find a green silk sewing thread but not pink.
- Grab a zipper for safety’s sake.
- Head over to foul polyester organza and become agitated.
- Have lovely conversation with older lady who loved my swatch of taffeta, she helps me select a pink organza.
- Join cutting queue.
- Once I am served, I find the roll only has 1.6m and I need a minimum of 2m.
- Loose place in queue return to organza.
- Find second roll, head back to counter.
- 8 customers and two screaming toddlers later, I am triumphantly marching back to my car.
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- Cut out taffeta while listening to Gok Wan on TV.
- I am super careful, it goes well, I start to breathe again.
- Spend several years getting the poly organza to play nicely.
- Lay out pattern and start cutting.
- See all of my good work slide from table and a frightened cat running away at the sound of a gazillion pattern weights hitting hard wood floor.
- Begin to scream out loud and then taper off to a gasp as I wonder what the downstairs neighbours have just heard.
- Normal people would probably shut the cats out of the room but normal people don’t have hooks and stuff on the back of their doors, preventing them from closing.
- Recover fabric as best I can and keep cutting.
- Shoo cats away from remnants and send husband a text to say ‘I’ll be sewing till midnight, blame cat’.
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- Fold table back to coffee table, set up overlocker.
- Pin lining at centre back seams and hem, with a view to overlocking them together as more of an interlining.
- Pinning only in seam allowances, being careful, I get the whole 4m pinned.
- Hold up to check that lining and fabric are the same.
- They aren’t.
- Fold table back up to dining size.
- Lay it all out.
- Half of lining is 1″ too short.
- Glare at cat asleep in remnants.
- Fold table back down, setup overlocker, un pin.
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- Loose confidence.
- Decide I am out of my depth.
- Overlock taffeta on centre back seams and hem.
- Realize I didn’t test a scrap and tension is horrible.
- Adjust and continue.
- Repeat on organza, using overlocker to trim it shorter than the skirt.
- Oh and even, well even-ish, this time.
- Detect scent of failure.
- Turn attention to waistband and decide iron on interfacing is probably not what people do.
- Consult Google.
- Silk organza or self fabric is the go.
- Do not want to waste taffeta.
- Remove sleeping cat from organza and cut waistband.
- Overlock waistband and lining together on three sides.
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- Pin waistband, skirt and lining together.
- Proceed to overlock.
- Notice overlocker improperly trimming and weaving offcuts into overlock.
- Remove sewing from overlocker.
- Look inside and see overlocker is filthy.
- Clean overlocker.
- Test, all ok!
- Resume waistband.
- Decide today’s the day I must learn a hand picked zipper.
- Consult Google and YouTube.
- Husband arrives home to sewing chaos, mutters something about dinner and sequesters himself in bedroom.
- Install first hand picked zipper.
- Imperfect but pretty happy.
- Oh yay! A win.
- Try to show husband but he has noise canceling headphones on and pretends he cannot see me waving bright silk skirt.
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- Husband puts cooking show on TV, a clue perhaps?
- Hand sew waistband to lining.
- Admire hunk of cat fur trapped between waistband layers.
- Thank myself for the silk thread.
- Run out of thread 1 1/2″ before end of waistband.
- Re thread and finish up.
- Decide I might as well machine stitch lace to overlocked hem.
- Decide I like it that way.
- Finally done, except for a good press.
- Sleep heavily, dreaming that all the real sewing ladies are laughing at me.
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- Request Mummy Asks assistance with pressing.
- Advise her not to bring in her dogs, with two dogs and two cats, the opportunity for a pressing disaster seemed high.
- Test iron settings on scraps.
- Press skirt.
- Halfway through, step backward onto cats tail.
- Bump & bruise leg, nearly burn skirt.
- Feel guilty as puffed up cat glares at me.
- Wear skirt with previously made velvet top and feel fabulous!
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That my friends, is the end of my long and sorry tale! It’s those moments you don’t see, where everything goes wrong. When I was beginning to sew, I thought other people knew exactly what they were doing but the truth is, even experienced sewists make mistakes. Lots of them, in my case! I’ve learned to keep cool and work out what to do next and that helps. I’d love to hear your sewing disasters, so please leave me a comment xxx
2 Comments
Fantastic post!! I’m impressed – your tenacity is inspiring!!! I’m afraid to admit that I’ve never had anything quite so funny or hair raising (I think) because I think I probably bottle out sooner than you!!!
I should toughen up and push through, rather than running away scared…. It would mean that there would be at least a fighting chance of some of the stash actually making it out into the real world as something usable!!!!
Thank you for this post!!!
Gillian
(In Sydney)
Haha! I think I’m just bloody minded! Whilst I am persistent, I have my fair share of UFO’s. I thought it would be fun to share because everything went wrong! I don’t want people going around thinking I don’t have my share of mistakes and disasters!