UFO busting - Simplicity 2154 Pencil skirt

Another UFO (un-finished object) that has lurked alien-like in the wardrobe since July is the Simplicity 2154 pencil skirt. I attended a two-part workshop at Saturday Sewing Sessions in Chelsea which was great fun. There was only one other attendee who was also called Caroline who made her pencil skirt in royal blue fabric.

Back to the skirt.... well the evening sessions happened to be on two of the hottest days of the summer and the workshop was held in a cute little textile studio space with windows that could only open a tiny bit so we literally were in a sweatshop!!

During the cutting out stage I drafted from a smaller size at the waist to the next size up on the hips to fit my measurements more accurately. Despite this I still needed to take quite a big chunk off each side seam (which included re-doing the zip three times!!!). Note to self - always baste stitch in the zip just in case......

At the end of the workshop I 'only needed to.....' hand stitch the waist-band, hand stitch the hem and finish off the side-seam where the zip was located.  Now after the re-sewing of the zip three times I had fallen a little bit out of love with this skirt and was beginning to think I would never finish it but I read Lladybird's blog about 'How do you find the time to sew so much?' which made me re-evaluate some of my spare bits of time. Hence the blitzing of the UFO's X-Files stylee!!

Almost finished pencil skirt

Delightful colours and styling on the Simplicity cover ; )

I applied bias-binding to the exposed seams around the zip area because the zig-zag stitch wasn't sufficiently keeping the fabric from fraying

The finished pencil skirt!

Mathilde blouse

I attended a workshop in May to make the 'Tilly and the Buttons' Mathilde blouse at the fabric shop / cafe called Ray Stitch in Islington. I invited my friend Hayley to join me for the weekend to attend the workshop which was held on Saturday and Sunday from 12 - 5pm. Ray Stitch is a lovely little haberdashery that sells some gorgeous fabric and notions along with great tea and coffee (and cakes).

Tilly was a great tutor, helping everybody through the various stages of the Mathilde blouse construction that included; pin-tucking, stay stitching, machine gathers, basting, French seams, and rolled hems. I had to put in the sleeves two times and am not completely happy with the pin tucks at the front because one is slightly out at each side (luckily they are the same ones for symmetry's sake).

It has taken me quite a while (nearly two months) to finish the Mathilde blouse - it just needed the button holes slitting and buttons hand-sewing! Anyway here it is with a slight nautical-esque theme with the blue 'bunting' printed fabric with red stripy buttons.

If I make another Mathilde I will definitely use a plainer fabric because you don't even notice the pin-tuck detailing at the front because of the busy fabric. Nevermind, at least I know for next time.....