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Remember that floral skirt I was making where I very carefully planned out exactly where the flowers would go across the front and back?
Well, I put an invisible zipper in it, and it was maybe a little too tight. And as I mentioned before, that combination proved fatal and resulted in me standing in my bathroom, slightly weepy, wielding a pair of scissors and cutting myself out of my skirt. Man, once an invisible zipper gets stuck, there is no unsticking it.
In order to make the skirt less tight, I had to remove and make a new bottom border, and cut gores from the minimal scraps of remaining fabric (thankfully I kept them). So minimal that I paid no attention whatsoever to the grainlines. Ok, I did, but just to say, "Wow, I really hope cutting this that skewed doesn't make it drape badly."
Here it is, on a windy and "I don't feel like getting out my tripod" day. The photos are a little over-exposed, but you can sort of see the gores compare to my original mockup.1
Front
I constructed the gores the same way I originally constructed the skirt - I cut both fashion fabric and lining (I think it's a white rayon "Hang Loose" or something equally cleverly named) and serged them together, so it's really underlined, not lined. That worked okay for this skirt, however, it was a little wrinkly after washing, and I probably wouldn't do it this way again. I'd probably line the skirt then sandwich both the lining and fashion fabric in the bottom border so they hang somewhat separately. Ha, I almost said "hang loose".
Back with a METAL zipper, thank you
To figure out where to start the gores, I ripped the seams up to where it released the tension across my hips, about 3" below the waistband. Then I just eyed how wide I wanted the gores at the bottom - about 5". So I added 20" total to the bottom circumference. Luckily, I had bought enough of the black sateen to cut another bottom border.
Pockets!
So the finished object doesn't quite match up with the original design, however, it's now much easier to ride my bike in this skirt now, and that's really what's important, right?
1. And, holy cats, can I ever remember to iron and use a lint roller before taking pictures?
Well, I put an invisible zipper in it, and it was maybe a little too tight. And as I mentioned before, that combination proved fatal and resulted in me standing in my bathroom, slightly weepy, wielding a pair of scissors and cutting myself out of my skirt. Man, once an invisible zipper gets stuck, there is no unsticking it.
In order to make the skirt less tight, I had to remove and make a new bottom border, and cut gores from the minimal scraps of remaining fabric (thankfully I kept them). So minimal that I paid no attention whatsoever to the grainlines. Ok, I did, but just to say, "Wow, I really hope cutting this that skewed doesn't make it drape badly."
Here it is, on a windy and "I don't feel like getting out my tripod" day. The photos are a little over-exposed, but you can sort of see the gores compare to my original mockup.1
Front
I constructed the gores the same way I originally constructed the skirt - I cut both fashion fabric and lining (I think it's a white rayon "Hang Loose" or something equally cleverly named) and serged them together, so it's really underlined, not lined. That worked okay for this skirt, however, it was a little wrinkly after washing, and I probably wouldn't do it this way again. I'd probably line the skirt then sandwich both the lining and fashion fabric in the bottom border so they hang somewhat separately. Ha, I almost said "hang loose".
Back with a METAL zipper, thank you
To figure out where to start the gores, I ripped the seams up to where it released the tension across my hips, about 3" below the waistband. Then I just eyed how wide I wanted the gores at the bottom - about 5". So I added 20" total to the bottom circumference. Luckily, I had bought enough of the black sateen to cut another bottom border.
Pockets!
So the finished object doesn't quite match up with the original design, however, it's now much easier to ride my bike in this skirt now, and that's really what's important, right?
1. And, holy cats, can I ever remember to iron and use a lint roller before taking pictures?
But like this:
