New Look 6843, Mini Skirt Hack

Yet another autumnal mini skirt using my heavily modified New Look 6843 patternm which features a slightly A-line cute, an inside facing band rather than a waistband, and is fully lined. 

I was on the hunt for the perfect autumn skirt fabric and I knew I'd found it with this. Upstairs in Abakhan Manchester I found this brown, almost felt-like fabric, which was half price!! The colour was perfect and with it being a bit felt-ier than other fabrics I have made skirts from it was already giving me winter-warmer vibes before I'd even laid the pattern pieces out. 

I was a little bit worried how heavy the fabric was would cause the skirt not to hang quite right, but I was already dreaming about matching it with a brown beret, and did I mention it was half price?! Already in my basket was a slightly textured plain black wool blend from downstairs, and the faun-flecked wool blend from my previous post. I knew all three would spice up my autumn wardrobe even more than a spooky-season Costa menu, and the wearability of a mini skirt in each fabric was high; suitable for work and play! So I felt no guilt in buying all three fabrics and the concealed zippers ot match. 

Knowing how much wear I would get out of these made me feel much less creative-guilt for deciding to make the same pattern a further three times (I already have two 🥲). 

Lining choices were a bit sparce in Abakhan that day, so I had to wait to sneak a trip into Hillsborough Fine Fabrics and get this, all linings were half price that day! Honestly this skirt was such a bargain make! 

In between securing the fabrics, I set-to cutting out the skirts in a kind of conveyour system, which I knew future me would be grateful for (who else hates sitting down to sew only to find, oh shit need to cut my interfacing😑). This was by far my most efficient cutting out and sewing together mission. I had piles of each pattern piece and sewed each step on each skirt before moving onto the next step. So you know that feeling you get after finsihing a garment (that fits super well!)?? Well I got that three-fold when I had finsihed sewing! 

This fabric was little harder to handle in places given the thicker nature of it. I used the overcast stitch on the normal sewing machine rather than overlocking as this just seemed to match the fabric really well (cough, overlocker fear on bulky fabric, cough). 

Despite it's qualities, the skirt does hang well, the body of the fabric making the shape definitive, creating a 60s silhouette. There isn't much give in the fabric and the facing adds a bit of bulk, particularly around the darts. This perhaps makes the skirt sit a little higher on my waist than the others do but that's not at the detriment to comfort or style. 

If you've ever spent time in my company, you'll know I'm a big fan of fast-walking (who has time to amble, really?), and the fit of these skirts allows for a wide stride, which is also great for the cooler seasons when you just gotta keep moving to keep warm! 

Something tells me these three skirts won't be the last I see of this pattern. These little mini skirts are already the best thing about autumn. Now, if only I could find a sewing pattern to salvage winter! 

x

Location: Ponderosa Park, Crookes Valley Park
Currently listening to: Man on a Mission, Black Keys

New Look 6197, Summer Shirt

I keep getting targeted ads for P&Co. clothing. Their American 50s style bowling shirts particularly keep catching my eye. Sadly for P&Co, instead of reaching for my wallet, I decided I'd rather have a bash at making my own. 

This Hawiian-style shirt pattern has been in my stash for ages - a classic fit for both men and women, however I hadn't actually made one for myself yet. I was tempted to have a go at hacking the pattern so that it had raglan sleeves, but there were some cool bowling shirts on the P&Co. website that didn't have raglan sleeves, so in the end I will admit I chickened out and stayed pretty try to the pattern. 

I did decided to make it 2 inches longer, as I wanted to created that oversized/throw it on at the beach look. This was definitely the right decision length wise, however I'm gonna skip to the conclusion here and say, I should have made the shirt wider as it got longer in order to accomodate the extra hip width. Luckily, the shirt tucks in really nicely AND it looks pretty good to wear open over a vest top, so no drama here really. 

I took a trip to Fabworks in Dewsbury for my birthday and bought these 2 crepêy drapey fabrics with shirts in mind, I wanted to used something a bit differnt to a classic Hawaiian shirt print, a) to make it more feminine, b) to at least pretend to be office appropriate, and c) well, just to looka bit less Hawaiian. I had trust in the cut of the pattern that it would still create the retro vibes I was looking for. 

Next came deciding on the colour blocks. I had plans for a sleeve band in white but it looked a bit naff (bordering some kind of uniform territory), I do wish I'd have planned a strip across the top of the pocket, or at very least some cream top-stitching, but I am hapy with it's placement and crisp corners so we'll not spend too long criticising the pocket thanks. 

I took a bit of a gamble, as I knew I wanted the contrast between the outside and the under collar, however I knew the black fabric was likely to show through the white. In order to try and minimise this, I interfaced the black fabric with white and did my overlocking in white, To be honest, when I'm wearing the shirt, the white isn't AS see through as I feared, but I'm definitely glad I used a pale interfacing for the neck and front opening pieces. 

I do wish I'd done the underside of the collar in black. I did cut the under collar smaller in hopes that the seam edge would roll around to the underside and you wouldnt be able to see any of the white fabric, but of course some bits still peek out 🙈 

Another learning curve was using cover-your-own buttons. I knew I wanted the buttons the same colour as the main fabric of the shirt (In Mark's words 'you don't want to look too checker-board'), and I thought I wanted them in the smallest size. Try as I might, however, I really really struggled with the smallest size cover-buttons. Either the backs didnt fix properly, the button bent, the edge of the fabric was baggy or fraying... Sure I was trying to do this with banding toothache - so maybe on a better more focussed day I'd achieve (or maybe when mI'm using a less frustrating fabric, hey?), but after attempts across 2 days, I considered it a twist of fate that I found slightly larger cover-buttons peeking out of a misc tray in a charity shop I'd popped into on a whim. For 20p it was meant to be. The larger size was much easier to cover and I love the effect. 

After 2 attempts hemming the sleeves on this wavy-wavy fabric, I unpicked, re-pressed and cut a strip of 5cm wide innterfacing for each. The result was a much better, structured sleeve that gives that holiday shirt pizzaz. 

The fabric was nice to press, the hem was hard to hem, and the colour-blocking did exactly what I wanted it to (why have I never made contrasting lapels before????). I think there is some really elegant sewing on here that wasn't always easy to achieve with due to the qualities of the fabric. 

I'm pleased with this one 🌴🌊🌺

x
Location: Sidney Street Car Park

Currently listening to: Cutthroat, Shame