X-Marks "Cheerleader" Skirt

[Fearnest]

Drink a lot, but not while you're figuring, cutting, or sewing! (But then, you know that.) Great work! Eager to see more as you progress...

[CameronTaylor]

"Every time I tried to cut it longer it got shorter ..."


CT -

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

I spent most of the day on the skirt today.

First, I decided, based on some one else's experience, to just sew a few pieces of the material together and be sure it didn't pucker or do anything strange. Luckily, seemed to work just fine (although I seemed to be having trouble focusing! I swear, I wasn't drinking, it was only 9:00 am!).



Then, I began to piece my bits together-here, I am joining the under apron to the first pleat (the under apron also includes the first under pleat).



Then, the next under pleat.



The next pleat.



And so on, and sew on, and sew on, ad nauseum. Luckily, this is a mini, otherwise I would have spent the rest of the day just joining the bits together!

Here it is, almost completely sewn together. The piece on top is the deep pleat under the apron and includes the first under pleat.



Coming up next, the front apron, and the tedium of shaping the pleats.

Be well,

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

I am A-shaping the apron, so, I just pinned the pieces together in an A-shape.



And then A-shaped the left hand edge of the apron. I'm actually going to put some fringe here as well (but that comes later).



Here it is, all laid out. The under apron is closest to us. Amazing how it took me several days, just to get to this point. If I were not trying to do two tones I would have just had to rip twice to get to this point! Note, though, that I don't have to do any tedious marking of pleats, since the "marks" are built in !



I worked further this afternoon, but I have not had time to upload the pictures. Likely I will post further on Mother's Day. Just as a teaser, once I started pressing the pleats, it looked awesome! The sett is preserved nicely.

Be well,

[cloves]

omg Star! that's gonna be just awesome! I love how the under pleats have the big white stripe, then dont, then have the big white stripe, then don't..and so on.
I can't wait to see this thing finished. It's pretty killer already.

[CameronTaylor]

[QUOTE=cloves;373510]omg Star! that's gonna be just awesome! I love how the under pleats have the big white stripe, then dont, then have the big white stripe, then don't..and so on. QUOTE]

Uhmm, unless I'm mistaken the under pleats are the non-wool part right ?
Whichever it is, I know the sett part (I wish Jenn would give me back my kiltmaking book so I could look it up ..) on the outside came out awesome and I too am looking forward to seeing it all wrapped up and done.
Ya done good, I bow in thine general direction


CT - cool, one hour til beer time !

[cloves]

Uhmm, unless I'm mistaken the under pleats are the non-wool part right ?
Whichever it is, I know the sett part (I wish Jenn would give me back my kiltmaking book so I could look it up ..) on the outside came out awesome and I too am looking forward to seeing it all wrapped up and done.
Ya done good, I bow in thine general direction


CT - cool, one hour til beer time !

i'm so confused......but still really impressed!

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Don't worry, all will become clear. Now, after I had joined all the pieces, I had to hem the bottom-not possible to do a nice even selvedge with all of the strips, besides which the tartan I had was a strip from the middle, so no selvedge there.

I just folded up once (because, if I had folded under twice for a more finished edge it would have made the hem too thick to hold a good pleat), pressed it and pinned it.


And sewed it down. I have chosen to do pretty much all of the stitching on this one with the machine, and I actually chose black thread for a mild contrast.



Then I began to press in the pleats below the fell (actually, I'll be honest here, I screwed up and pressed them all the way to the waist band, so will have to fight that when tapering the fell). You can sort of see the black thread on the hem at the top of the picture here, although the picture is a bit blurry Panache!



There cloves, can you see now how the black is the inner pleats and the sett of the tartan is displayed on the outside?



I pinned both the inner and outer pleats to hold until I could get back to it. I also bar tacked along the fell line, but did not get any pictures of that process, because it was done while Panache had the camera elsewhere, sorry guys!

Today, I am going to sew the inner pleat edges (the black material) and the outer pleat edges as well. I could probably get away with not sewing the outer pleat edges, but this is where the seams are and an extra line of stitching will fold the raw edge inside and prevent unraveling. Also, the top stitching in contrasting black thread looks really good!

But, as it is Mother's Day, I'm going to go have a nice leisurely picnic in the park with my family before proceeding. Be back soon!

Be well,

[AtagahiKC]

What I really want is a drafting table, but there's no room in the house.

I saw a folding cutting table at Joann's fabric in KC before I moved. I'll bet they have them at a store here, as well.

I sympathize though. I came looking for a two-bedroom unit and ended up with a large (for SF) one-bedroom unit. I'm going to have the same problem.

If I find a good folding cutting table, I'll let you know.

And I second the awesomeness of your cheerleader skirt. Hopefully I'll get to meet you and see it in person at the next Bay Area event.

[Mr. MacDougall]

I have to add my voice to the general acclaim. This is really looking nice, and the idea is brilliant. I can't wait to see the outcome.