Gray A-Line

 Today is the first day of May, a lovely warm early summer day, and I have made a fully-lined wool skirt.

Dark gray, too--so summery!

This is view A from New Look 6843

It's actually the first time I've made view A!

While I think this skirt would work really well cut on the bias, the pattern doesn't even suggest it, so I didn't need to use a large yardage and could eke this out of a piece of thrift fabric.

There is absolutely wool in this cloth, judging from how much the insides of my wrist and finger skin itched.  I expected it to be a wool blend, but nothing melted under the iron at its highest setting, so maybe not?  It was wonderful to work with.

I deviated from the (probable) directions (it's not like I actually read them or anything) in my usual ways.

For the waistband, I pressed it in half then pressed under one edge before attaching it to the skirt, and I also put the seam on the inside, the flipped the already-pressed edge to the outside and stitched through all layers at the edge of the fold from the outside.

Not as inconspicuous as sewing the band to the outside and flipping it to the inside and stitching in the ditch through all layers, but a whole lot faster. (pretty sure the actual instructions are to whip stitch by hand on the inside, but you know I'm not going to do that.)

A bigger deviation from the pattern was adding pockets.

I borrowed the pocket pattern pieces from Simplicity 9153, modifying them slightly to follow the curve of the skirt side seam.

Since the wool content is high, I was easily able to steam out some width when I pressed the hem to the inside before doing a blind stitch.  I still haven't fixed the stitch cam release mechanism in my sewing machine, so am still flipping it into a single zigzag every few stitches--because that's easy to do on this machine--so the blind stitch spacing is not the most regular, but the thread matches well and no-one will be scrutinizing my hemline.  (They better not be.)

I also deviated from the pattern expectations by adding a lining.  It's the same printed polyester I used for the blue plaid moto jacket (and more) a few months ago. The skirt itself has a 1½" hem, so I turned the lining at 1" and then 1" again to make sure it was shorter.

I did time things so I could let the skirt hang overnight before making the hem.  The cloth is stable enough that everything stayed put.

I'm still trying to figure out the least-labor-intensive way to get the lining attached around the zipper.  This time, I prepared the center back seam plus basted zipper seam as usual, then sewed the center back seam in the lining, pressed under the seam allowances where the zipper opening was, then maneuvered the lining around the zipper opening and sewed the zipper in with a lapped method.  After that, I sewed the skirt front to back at the side seams and then the lining front to back at the side seams, with everything attached at the zipper.

The zipper is completely exposed, so that's not a win in the "lining makes things look neat and finished" department, but my main goal for lining is to make the insides smooth, and, in that regard, it works just fine.

I'm still very much a novice in installing lapped zippers.

Someday, something will click and I'll be able to put in a lapped zipper without having to refer to the instructions that came with a zipper (and I have lost my good "lapped zipper instructions that came with a zipper" insert, too) and also without wondering what I did wrong.  I'm definitely not there yet.

This is absolutely not a showstopping centerpiece item of clothing, but it's a very good basic that I'm happy to have.