And a Skirt Revisited

 Years ago, I thrifted a super cheap wool skirt only to later realize that it had many moth holes.

My remedy was to connect the holes--and many more points--with satin stitches and make a spiderweb skirt

I liked the skirt a lot!  And it's one of the things I reluctantly let go when I gained weight.

Well.

After I finished the last project, I had enough of that boiled wool blend left to just barely eke out a miniskirt.

And I knew a black miniskirt was something I had actually wanted for my wardrobe.

And I knew it would be easy to make.

But I didn't wanna.

However, dawdling so long gave me enough time to realize: oh!  I can sew a satin stitch spiderweb on this skirt!  And before sewing it together, so it'll be easier!

 

 And it was! (as far as I can remember)

There are a lot of differences between the upcycled original and this one, the most notable being that the original was A-line and his one is sheath, using New Look 6843

Which, yes, does have A-line options, but I didn't have enough fabric left for any A-line options.  Or even for the full length of the shortest view--I used bias tape (leftover from a gift project) to make a hem with a smaller seam allowance than would have been possible otherwise.  It's still kinda short, but so are my legs.

I also made a lining, not called for by the pattern but easy enough.

I did a machine blind stitch for the hem.

Of course, the more notable stitching in this project is the satin stitch spiderweb.  I drew it with tailor's chalk after sewing the darts, then pinned some embroidery stabilizer on the back and just started zigzagging.

I went over the entire design once, trimmed away the larger stabilizer voids (in-progress picture below), then zigzagged over everything again.

My machine wasn't super happy with the process, and some stitches skipped.  So.  Doing the second pass evened things out...somewhat.

As usual, no-one's going to get close enough to see. 

 It wasn't until after I cut the skirt pieces that I discovered the flaw that landed this length of fabric in the mill end precut bins at Walmart.  There would have been enough fabric to avoid the cut in the fabric if I had noticed it before, but...I didn't, so I didn't.  I zgizagged over it, realized I should have put another piece of cloth behind it, did that, zigzagged again, then zigzagged all around the edge of the piece of cloth.  It's just another one of those "Nobody should be looking close enough to see this" things.

 

I had a mix up in choosing the waistband pattern piece and it's one size smaller than the rest of the skirt is cut in, and I didn't realize that until it was finished...but...it is finished.

A bit snug, but finished.

This was a nice, fast project--even with stitching the spider web and adding the lining--and I probably should use this pattern to make more skirts.  Eventually.