Day of Quick Projects

 So, for reasons unknown, yesterday the small pile of odds'n'ends sewing projects and random fabrics flipped over from being an ignored part of the background clutter to being something I needed to deal with as fast as possible.

 I patched a torn reusable shopping bag, then mended a frayed spot on the edge of the button band of a knit cardigan.  (No photos of those.)

Not physically in the project pile, but very much a small project I had been thinking of for a while, was new potholders.  Most of them are technically new covers for the homemade potholders we already had, with fulled wool inside of fabric that I very quickly, after making them years ago, discovered was a synthetic blend.  So.  They'd looked ragged for years, before getting worn and stained from further years of use.  I used a gifted interior decorating sample that I think is all cotton--if it's not, well, it'll be tradition.

The three square(ish) use the old potholders inside, and the long one has some wool (possibly wool blend) short sleeves that were part of the friend's relative's destash.  Will it be a useful size? No idea, but it used up those little sleeves and the rest of the fabric sample, so it was useful that way.

Next in the pile were some pieces of gray sweatshirt fleece (also from the friend's relative's destash) that had been two halves of a hood, and a sleeve.  I'd kept them because it was nice fabric, but it seemed too heavy to use for doll clothes...but...what else could I do with such small pieces?

Oh--berets!

So I cut the hood halves into the largest circles possible, used a just-the-right-size oatmeal canister lid to cut a center opening in one of the circles, then cut a band from the widest part of the sleeve.  Before sewing it all together, though, I picked up the next thing in the pile: pieces of a cardigan that I had stopped wearing when its synthetic content started pilling, but had used some parts of to make clothes for 60cm dolls.  I was just able to eke out two more circles and a band from what was left of that. (I have no idea what size anything I cut here actually is, of course.)

Then I sewed everything together

 I sewed the sweatshirt fleece with the fuzzy side out, partly because I hoped it would look more like felt, and partly because there were some subtle discolorations on the smooth side along where the original hood edges had been

 Since the fleece is so sturdy, I aggressively notched the seam allowance where the top and bottom were sewn together, hoping the resulting curve would be at least a little smooth

No notching for the pink sweater knit beret, though, because I was worried it wouldn't be structurally sound if I did.  To take away any hope of a smooth curve, I additionally serged that seam, also out of worry about the knit otherwise falling apart

I trimmed off a lot of the pills, but there're still a lot left.  I don't think it'll re-pill as badly, because there's not as much friction on a hat as on a cardigan.  We'll see.

The final pieces of fabric on the pile were a decent-size uncut remnant of a dark red charmeuse I'd used to make the under layer of this dress (about 20 years ago)

(I still have that dress.  It probably doesn't fit.)

Along with the uncut remnant were two pieces that I had obviously started making a bias skirt from, but had abandoned the project.  There were tears along the removed stitch lines, and the skirt had probably been cut in a size too small for me now, so I quickly gave up trying to remake the skirt I'd never made before (there was no evidence of there ever having been a hem.)  The uncut piece was just big enough to cut a bias version of size 16 view A of New Look 6843.

I managed to get everything but the hem done yesterday, which allowed me to hang it overnight to let the bias droop if it wanted to.

And it did

The finished skirt is...uh...yeah. It's certainly a charmeuse cut on the bias.

I used the dark pink thread that was in the machine from making the dark pink beret. The thread match is not good in theory, but, in practice, the sheen of the fabric makes it acceptable.

I did not at all feel like attempting a lapped zipper on this slippery fabric, so a basic centered top stitched zipper it is.  The zip's a good color match, though!

I applied the waist band with the usual method of pressing it in half and pressing up the unnotched edge before attaching it to the inside of the skirt, then flipping it to the front to encase the seam allowances, and finishing by edge stitching along the pressed edge.

I know charmeuse is a more formal kind of fabric, so I should have taken care to conceal all stitching.  Meh.

I serged the lower edge of the skirt, then applied lace over that.  I pressed the hem up an inch and a half before doing a blind hem stitch on the sewing machine

which I had to pick out and re-do by hand, because wow did this bias cut curved hem on a slippery fabric turn out bad by machine.  Quelle surprise.

I was about halfway through sewing the hem before I remembered how the stitch is supposed to go, but I kept doing it the slightly off way I was already doing it.  The pattern on the lace helped me keep the stitches somewhat evenly spaced.

This skirt looks so pathetic on the hanger.

But! The important thing is that little pile of little projects is done.

Now I can get back to the skirt I had already cut out and thought I'd be sewing yesterday (with the definition of "now" being very vague.)