We had a splendid vacation on Cape Cod, despite the fact that we had to cut our trip short by one day because our return ferry and flight were canceled due to the hurricane. It was great to visit my aunt who I don’t see very often. Basically all I did for a week was relax, sew, knit, read, walk along the beach, and do Zumba! with my aunt. The best kind of vacation if you ask me! We did almost no sight-seeing at all which is fabulous because it gave me time to sew. My aunt has a great Elna sewing machine at her house which I used to make the cover skirt Sewing School Skirt from Brett Bara’s new book, Sewing in a Straight Line. So now I have some good and not-so-good skirt news.
The good news first: It turned out super cute! I got to use my coveted light green woodgrain fabric, and now I feel like quite the little seamstress.
As you can see above, the skirt lacks buttons. I made some practice button holes but for some reason they weren’t working quite right, so I need to check if my Singer machine has a button-holer thingamajiggy or something. Below is what it will look like with buttons. I picked up these buttons at a knitting store a few years ago and they are just perfect for this skirt.
So now for the not-so-good news: I believe that one of the measurements given in the instructions is incorrect which I didn’t find out until after I cut the fabric. I was befuddled as to why I didn’t have enough width to make all the pleats on the back. I enlisted Markus’ help and we calculated that it needs an additional 18″ in width for the back piece (measurement C), not 10″ as stated in the instructions. This 18″ accounts for six 3″ pleats (3″ x 6 pleats = 18″, not 10″). Also, in step #5, the instructions tell you to put the right sides together to make the french seam. I believe it should say wrong sides together. Glad I read the how-to section in the front of the book first!
I was fortunate to have enough of my favorite discontinued Joel Dewberry Aviary woodgrain fabric left over to cut another piece in the correct size and I will use that first piece as part of the Staggering Strips quilt, also from this book.
And knitting. Well, I worked a bit on the westknits shawl KAL during my aunt’s croquet game. The game must have been so riveting that I messed up. Again. This time I ended up adding an extra 2 rows to one side only. Ummm, seriously??? How did I manage that?? I did fudge it so the row count is now correct. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve messed up this project, and it’s not like the knitting is hard or anything. I have no explanation.
Wow, I am literally sitting at my sewing desk searching for “brett bara’s sewing school skirt help” and your blog post was the first to pop up!
I’m stuck on the measurements for the back part as well. I noticed there was something majorly wrong when I folded all the pleats in and it was TINY! I don’t have enough fabric left to cut another back piece so I’m trying to figure out how to remove and move the pleats to make it work (while also fearing how to figure out buttons for the first time).
I’m so glad it wasn’t just me racking my brain over this, and thank you for posting the correct measurements! Your skirt looks great!
Yay, I’m glad my post helped! Perhaps you can just eliminate two of the pleats in the back, though I don’t know how that would affect the drape and lower edge circumference. Good luck with your skirt!
[...] to enjoy being outside without wanting to die, and I forgot about the skirt. Though, mega kudos to Susan who solved the problem with the measurements! And hopefully I can get this thing finished and [...]