Finally! Some sewing progress!

With the houseguests all gone, I decided that the weekend was mine for sewing. And sew I did! I finished the Jalie 2005 top. All it needed was to be hemmed and my Evolve does a great coverstitch, so I don't know what was keeping me from finishing it. Oh, yeah. Houseguests and a final exam in French.

After I finished the top I stitched up the Textile Studios Manhattan Skirt. It's a simple pattern and design and shouldn't have taken me very long, but it did. I found a few errors in the instructions too, which only made me even more cautious. Also, the skirt has an invisible zipper and I took my time putting it in.

I think the skirt turned out really nice. I wore it today and got a few compliments on it. I think I'll make this skirt again using the cotton lycra fabrics I picked up in Mesa. But I'm going to make a few minor changes.

At first I thought this skirt had two slits but when I followed the directions I saw that it only has one on the right (although the drawing in the instructions shows it on the left, contradicting the written instructions and the pattern photo and line drawing on the back). Although I did make this skirt with only one slit, I think I might make the next one with two and do some top-stitching to make it even more casual looking. The short Manhattan skirt has a seam running horizontally as an intended design feature. However I found that with a print fabric, the seam gets lost and the print ends up just looking disjointed. So on the casual one I think I'll top stitch on either side of the seam to make it more pronounced. But on the last skirt I think I'll eliminate the seam altogether and just do one slit.

It's a nice fitting skirt. I normally don't like skirts without waistbands because the waist is almost always too big when I buy the size that fits my hips. The waist on this skirt is still a bit too big, but only in the morning - later in the afternoon when I get my afternoon bloat, the skirt fits fine. The lycra also makes this skirt very comfortable to wear.

Pictures and pattern reviews are forthcoming...