Brown Wool Skirt finally finished....

It took a snowy day where I couldn't get out to finish my skirt. I know this took more than a month. I'm not sure why the hemming slowed me down but it did. Here's the pattern that I made:

This time I made View D with the double pleats in the front.  Here's the finished skirt:

I put an invisible zipper in this version of the skirt.  Here’s a link to the best tutorial that I have found on putting in an invisible zipper - http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/2006/11/08/sewing-invisible-zipper/ . There are no puckers when you follow her directions.

I changed the waist from having a facing to having a waistband.  I don’t know if I did it correctly but it seems to work.  I removed the 5/8” seam allowance on both the skirt and the lining.  Then followed the tutorials over Katrina Kay Creations for both the lining and the waistband.  Here's the link:   

http://katrinakaycreations.com/sewing-tutorials/    .   The name of the tutorials are:   How to Sew Your Skirt Lining to your zipper by machine  and How to Sew a Waistband that will not round or wrinkle.

 Here's a peek at how the invisible zipper turned out:

I will definitely be using both the zipper technique and the waistband technique again.  The skirt actually turned out a little bit big.  There were other mistakes with this skirt along the way.  `I haven't decided yet if I will actually wear it.  I would not consider this a failure as the techniques that I learned long the way were definitely worth learning.  I love knowing how to sew the zipper opening in the lining by machine.  

I can tell looking at the picture that the skirt needs to spend a little more time being pressed.  I will also need to find a different top.  The sweater I have on in the picture definitely isn't the right one.  

I did mention that the hemming slowed me down on this skirt.  I ended up stitching both the skirt and the lining hems on the machine.  The skirt hem is done using the blind hem stitch which took a little bit of fiddling with the adjustable blind hem foot that I have.  For Viking owns, that is the clear "D" foot.   the lining was just a down hem stitched down.  Nothing fancy there.  Do you like sewing your skirt hems by hand or machine?  Any particular reason.

Overall, I would say that this is a very nice pattern. It seemed to have been well drafted and went together well.  I will definitely consisted revisiting this pattern for one or two summer skirts.  

Ok, I have one more wintery item left.  It will be another experience.  If it works out, I will have another top to wear over the next few weeks. If it doesn't, it is just one less piece of fabric in the stash.

Happy Stitching