Spindlitis

I took a break over the holidays and did a little sewing. I badly needed some skirts. I love my Walking Skirts, but I like a narrower silhouette in the winter. And that led me back to Christine Jonson patterns. I have a lot of her patterns. One of my favorite skirts was the Slit Skirt. I made that in stretch velvet and wore it to death.  So I ordered some stretchy medium weight stuff from Fabric.com.

I made three skirts. Two turned out perfect. One is a ribbed cotton lycra in black. The other is in ITY. First time I’ve worked with ITY and I like it. It’s very comfortable. I thought at first it looked a bit shiny, but it’s okay. The third skirt turned out to be much too lightweight and extremely stretchy. I have to redo the waistband and am considering turning it into a slip. I’ll revisit that, once the waistband is redone. I like the fabric a lot, but just not as heavy as I’d liked.

I bought some waffle knit, like thermal knit, in a dark navy. It doesn’t look blue at all. I made the Straight Skirt as a slip. I’ve found that a slip makes a big difference in keeping you warm. This hits at the knees and works fine with the long skirt. I ordered more of the fabric as it was about gone. Should get here tomorrow. I’d planned to make another slip and a shell to go under my tops. I may rethink that and turn it into a shirt. I really wanted to buy tops, but made myself only get stuff for skirts.

I’ll try and post pictures, if I can get Lon to take some. But this turned out well. I used the Singer 401a and it did a nice job on the knits. I could have even done a double needle hem, but went with a zigzag. I’ve run into problems using a double needle and just am not comfortable enough with this machine to mess with it. But that leads me to my challenge to myself for this new year. I’m going to make up at least one garment from each of these patterns this year. And if I do that, I think I’ll get rid of most of my unused patterns. Mostly, I like the way I can easily alter Christine’s patterns. And I have always liked her philosophy of having a “uniform” that fits and you enjoy wearing. I will try a few more of the stretch fabrics I’m unfamiliar with, like Ponte de Roma, and will stay away from the ones that I had problems with, like Slinky. I wish I could get some of that wonderful cotton/lycra she used to sell, but it seems to be off the market. Time for a new look and comfortable clothes.