Another Wax Print: Skirt for Uganda - S1717

I've been sewing like the wind the last few days, but not taken time to take any pictures.  However, I did get these today since I wore this to church.  Today we were commissioned out into the mission field by our church.  We leave on Saturday from San Francisco, fly to Dubai, and have an overnight layover.  The next morning we will fly into Uganda.  We will be spending one week with the ladies from the villages and the next week in the city of Kampala.

I made this skirt from Simplicity 1717.  My pattern only went up to a 14, but since I've gained a little weight, I needed to increase the side width even though this pattern has 1" seam allowances.  I don't really think the pattern DOES have 1" seam allowances, because my other skirt was a straight sixteen and it is more fitted than this one.  I love that this skirt has pockets, but next time I would make them higher.  I tried to match the pattern on the skirt and the pocket, and I'm really pleased with how that turned out.

The yoke facing is finished with seam binding.  I was super excited to find this packet of vintage seam binding in my stash.  I think I picked it up at a church rummage sale a few years ago.

I did a lapped zipper,  Unfortunately, I did not get the seams lined up perfectly.  But, this is POWER sewing because I have so much to do in so little time, so it's staying the way it is!

First Uganda Piece finished!

I've been working on McCalls 3129 and am finally finished.  I actually finished last night, but ended up taking out the princess seams in the front and doing them over.  I just couldn't get all of the wrinkles out of the upper bodice.  I finally did today and am much happier with it.  It is still a big large (OK, quite a bit large) but I'm going to wait a week or two before I take it in.




There are a lot of things I don't like about this pattern, and I changed as many as I could.  For one, it's just not that pretty.  (Maybe it's this more matronly figure that still expects to see the younger figure in the mirror!)  The neckline was way too high, so I lowered it.  Another thing I do not like is that the princess seams run directly over the bust point.  I prefer them to be off to the side.

Now, perhaps some of the problems I had were due to the fact that I had already cut this pattern out a few years ago and was trying to make adjustments from there.  But, I gave away the last dress I made from this pattern because I did not like the way the bust fit.  That could be the pattern or it could be that the way I did the FBA just did not come out right.  But, even after I made a muslin this year and tried to make sure it was right, it still came out with a significant curve above where my natural bust is.  Again, this could totally be my fault.

I'm not a big fan of facings, so I found some wide bias tape and used it on the neck.  I used regular bias tape to bind the armholes.

I didn't want this dress to be floor length, but it was still a little shorter than I wanted.  I didn't want to just do a narrow hem because it would keep flipping up.  I had EXACTLY enough wide bias tape to bind the hem!

Another thing I did was to narrow the width of some of the panels.  I just didn't want it that full.

I think I could make this look better by tweaking the fit some, but at this point, I'm just glad to be done with it.  What I love about this?  The fabric!!

Wax Print on the Table - SWAP 2016

This morning I finished altering McCalls 3129.  It doesn't look like much on the envelope, but I needed something that would work with the wax print (they're kind of stiff), would be long and comfortable.  AND I have this pattern in my stash.  So, this afternoon, we'll give it a shot.  Originally I was going to do sleeves, but I'm going to make it sleeveless, and I'm going to use seam binding instead of facings.  I spent a lot of time on the muslin, but since I don't want to make a second muslin, I'm hoping for the best :-)




















This will be the first thing I am making for the trip and the first item in my SWAP!