Leopard tartan floral skater dress and shirt

Pattern: Lady Skater dress by Kitschy Coo

Fabric: 2.7 m viscose and polyester (?) knit

Haberdasheries: none!

I ran into this slightly crazy fabric at a store and wanted to buy the usual amount for a skater dress, but since there would have been a very small piece left over, I got that for free. Therefore, as I think this fabric will look nice with a jean skirt I plan on making, once I had cut out all the pieces for the dress, I also cut a shirt out of the leftovers.

 

I had just cut the front of the dress when I realised the part of the fabric I liked the least would be the main visible part when I wear a cardi over the shirt. So I cut the front again, with a nicer layout, and just used the first front as the back, resulting in a low neckline at the back of the shirt. I had been thinking of doing this anyway as I saw it on another skater and liked it.

This fabric was difficult to serge – I took a serging lesson and thought I now understood the machine, but it gave me a hard time again with this dress and skirt – and also nasty to hem, as it’s got velvety swirls on it which are thicker than the rest of the fabric. The twin needle hem initially looked like this:

Eek. This made me think about why I twin needle the hem of the skirt anyway. The sleeves, sure; they need to be elastic, after all. But the skirt doesn’t! So I ripped the hem and restitched it with a single needle, and that looks much better.

Basic black skirt

Pattern: Drafted based on my WW1 nurse aprons, which are loosely based on the Wingeo #411 1910-1915 skirt pattern

Fabric: Thick black cotton twill

Haberdasheries: An invisible zipper

A first: Putting in an invisible zipper

A nicely warm long cardigan I own doesn’t look that nice with trousers, but also not with flared skirts. I thought it would look very nice with a basic black fitted skirt slightly longer than the cardigan itself, but couldn’t find one, so – the usual, I made it myself.

As the bottom part of my World War I nurse aprons came quite close to what I had in mind for this skirt, I decided to base it on those aprons! So it’s got the same panel layout at the front, English seams, and I also added similar pockets sewn between the panels.

This was my first time working with an invisible zipper, and I’m happy with the result! Sewing it in was easier than I expected, even using a regular foot.