I am Thick

..as in really dense. At least sometimes. Here's why I am this time.. I sewed the lining into my skirt (who knew it would take that long to sew it to the zipper tape - geez) and then did the topstitching of the waistband. I was really pleased. It's too big through the hips by a size but it went together nicely and since I don't like tight things I was ok with it. Went to hem it and saw my big error. Big, dumb, thoughtless error. Grrr! I'm 5'1 and I should have taken the skirt up (turns out about 2 inches) all across the hips and thigh area. The cute things about this pencil skirt are the two pleats in the back _bottom_ and the slit in the front. If I want to keep the design features, the skirt will be too long to wear (somewhere around mid-calf - blech). If I hem it to mid-knee (my preference) then I'll have to lose the darts and deal with a freakishly short slit in front.

Oh! I am starting to giggle (very slightly) at this point but I'm irritated with my lack of forethought. (To be honest, I'm afraid that the only troublefree invisible zip I'll get in this sewing life and was hoping I could at least wear it out!! *grumble grumble* ) Since the fit adjustments are going to be easy to make, I'm downright busting to remake this correctly. The only fabrics I have in the stash for this is a brown linen-rayon-lycra. It's soo nice and I'm sure it would make a nice skirt. I had envisioned pants but I do already have something similar in RTW. In the magazine, they made it up in a printed poplin. I have some cute Hilco poplin in green-on-green polka dots. I think it would be cute but I can't wear it to work and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it would be terrible because the dots wouldn't match in the center front seam and there would be a line of funny crescents down your center. I'm really hoping to sew some of the stash so I guess it's the nice brown linen. It should go fast, right?

Still working on my pants muslin. These are the pants from the November 2008 BWOF tutorial and feature those bias strips down the side of the legs (like tuxedo pants). So far I'm pleased with the fit but I'd like to go ahead and sew it all together to be sure. Probably just paranoia from the skirt flub. Ha!

I also have a couple of knit tops I'd like to make. One is already cut and marked but, of course, I'd like to make the super simple (and hopefully satisfying) BWOF boatneck tee from 01/09. :) Glutton for punishment with the unrealistic expectations! I'm hoping to step up my efforts and create some new habits though. It was disappointing (to say the least) to have dragged my butt so slowly through that last sewing project only to learn I was going to have to cut out a design element at the end. In the future, I'm going to try much harder to push through projects. I want my skirt!!!

Have a fantastic week!

Rachel S.