70's Skirt No. 1: Complete!

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my goal this summer is to create several summer skirts that are versatile, comfortable, and lovely.  I bought fabric and chose patterns to make five skirts.  The patterns I am using are mostly from the 70's and 80's, and are very farm-girl-esque in style.  

My fabric came in the mail Friday, and last night I sat down and cut three of the five skirts out so that they would be ready to go when  had a spare moment to sew.  I like to cut out my projects ahead of time and place all of the pieces, along with the pattern, in a ziploc bag.  I have a box-full of these soon-to-be projects, and any time I have a few minutes and am in the sewing mood I can simply grab a bag and whip something up without having to worry about cutting.  It's nice. :)

Anyway, back to the skirt.  I think I will name each skirt I make. This skirt simply must be named Clementine. 

Clementine was made up using Butterick 5935 and this gorgeous fabric by Heather Bailey (which just happens to be on sale right now at Fabric.com):

(click for listing)

The skirt was very easy to make up.  I did most of it this afternoon before work, and finished up the rest this evening when I got home.  I was going to be lazy and just pink the seams, but decided to be good and do a turned and stitched seam instead.  Glad I did, because it looks great!  In case you haven't tried a turned and stitched seam before, Gertie has a great tutorial on her blog.  It is very easy to do, and makes your garment look very professionally finished. :)   Plus, you don't have to worry about yucky fraying edges and holes in your seams!

Seam allowance stitching process

Finished turned and stitched seam allowance

I did pink the pocket seams, though.  They were not a good candidate for turned and stitched seams.  French seams would have worked nicely, but I am happy with the pinking.  It looks cute.

I used a purple zipper from my stash for the back zip.  Love how that turned out!

I took a bunch of pictures of Clementine on my dress form, but the lighting is so bad that I don't want to post them.  I'll take some better pictures tomorrow when there is daylight outside and post them up for you to see.  Until then, here is a pretty bad picture of me wearing the skirt, pre-hemming.  At least it will give you some sort of idea of how the finished product looks!  The hem is 3", and finished with a zig-zag stitch on the outside of the garment.  

Yay!

~Bessie