Apple Skirt! A Different One!

The last large area of the apple print was just long enough to let me cut an only slightly-shortened view E of New Look 6843.

 

 (It's 17½" instead of the 18" the envelope says.)

At this point, I have a pretty good handle on how this apple print poly cotton blend behaves, and I knew I could again apply the waistband with the method I prefer, sewing it to the inside then edge stitching along a pressed edge from the outside.

I did let the stitching waver in a few spots, but not enough for me to want to pick it out and try again.

 My first few zig zags on the blind hem stitch did bite  deeper than I wanted, so I did pick those out and just re-sew them after circling all the way around the rest of the hem.  This was the first time I tried a blind hem on this fabric (having used regularly-stitched bias tape to finish the circle skirt hem), and it behaved really nicely.

I didn't line the circle skirt, because I intend to wear it with a petticoat, but, for me, at this point, lining a New Look 6843 is mandatory, even though the pattern says nothing about lining.  I cut the shell pieces from the lining fabric and go from there.

There was enough of the black and white New York City print stretch silk left to cut the lining for this.

I really like the contrast of the NYC print with the apple print, both in terms of the black and white against the pink and green, and in terms of the sketchy hand-drawn look of the silk with the flat graphic style of the knit.  Although no-one will ever see the apple print while these items are being worn.

They will have the opportunity to see, though, this misprinted area that was near the selvedge.

The amount of fabric I had left meant there was no way to avoid this.  I might touch it up with acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium.  I probably won't.  But, hey, this lapped zipper looks a lot better than the lapped zipper I put in the pocket on the apple circle skirt.

I still like to sew the back lining pieces first, then attach the zipper to those, then sew the back shell and then attach the zipper/lining unit to those, before sewing the side seams.  This works just fine with lapped application, too.

Something about the layers of this knit plus interfacing in a waistband context makes my machine + buttonholer a bit cranky, so I have to run the button stitching around several extra times to make up for all the times one of the zigzags doesn't catch and a straight stitch is made instead.  (There were no problems making buttonholes on the vest or cardigans.)

The back of this fabric is also very amenable to being drawn on with tailor's chalk, so marking the darts was very easy.  I like having a clear line to guide the dart stitching.

So now I have a vaguely Mod apple skirt.  And I still have a decent chunk of the apple print left--not enough for any more garments, but enough for more ideas.  I have been having fun with it, but I'm also looking forward to using most of it up and moving on to something else.  There are so many "something else" items I want to sew.  But.  Not as long as there's apple print left.