Thwarted by Thread

After posting Sunday, I went up to my sewing room.  The purple stretch velvet had been cut, it was ready to sew up.  I was pretty pumped.  I pull out directions, find the right colour bobbin, go to find thread.  The closest matching thread was showing most of the spool.  This was not going to be enough for more than one seam.  All my other purples were either too light or too plum, not suitable at all.  Bah.  I was not letting opportunity to sew get away from me.

I bought a remnant of grey corduroy (slight stretch) in December.  Washed and sitting in a laundry basket calling my name through the holidays.  I'm not one to buy many remnants, but it looked like a good weekend/casual Friday skirt to me and at 1.3m I'd have some options (50% off may have been a factor).  I dug up an A-line skirt pattern from my Mom's collection.  It's simple, view 1 & 3 is comprised of panels, view 2 & 4 have a centre back seam and darts, 1 & 2 are just below the knee, 3 & 4 are floor length, all have a side zipper and waistband.  It was a single sized pattern and my mom was much smaller than me when she was purchasing this.  5" in the waist, 4" in the hips.  There was some grading needed, but it's not a complicated pattern, it wasn't overwhelming.

Then I placed the adjusted pattern on the fabric.  The back of the pattern said I should need 1.6m and I have 1.3m, but I figured I could make it fit.  Well it didn't.  Not by a long shot.  Then I had the thought, hey, I'm not even 5'1", let's see how this looks in the mirror tissue fitting for length.  This was a very good call, the below knee skirt was maybe 3" above my ankle.  I think their sloper is for someone with 5' of legs rather than total height.  The more Sera-friendly length of skirt fit with room to spare.  Yay!

I did the waistband a little different, partially because I didn't read ahead and partially because of the fabric I was using.  First, the silly part.  This pattern was for a waist 5" smaller than mine, but there seemed to be a lot of ease.  So I put the waist piece down and cut a few extra inches.  Then I wrapped it around my waist and realized this was not comfortable.  I cut it again, adding a little more.  I did not read ahead to see that the waistband was suppose to overlap so the hook and eyes could connect (I'm likely going to use a button here now that I think about it).  Sigh.  Even the longer piece was not going to leave enough for ease, seam allowances AND overlap.  I sewed them together.  Screw it.  Now I had over 60" of waistband and if that didn't fit, well, we have a bigger issue.  I lined the seam up with the other side seam to look intentional which leaves me with two very long extensions at the waist right now.  I could do a side tie if it had any drape.  Second part of doing it differently is that their directions seemed to leave a lot of exposed seams.  This stuff sheds so this is not a good thing.  They recommended lighter fabrics and sew in interfacing (likely a sign of the times more than a particular love of sew in).  I thought why not just fold my waistband over?  It's acting like interfacing, albeit a bit thicker, I cut it wider than they recommended anyhow.  One edge was the selvage, I just sewed the non-selvage part to the skirt, pressed the seam, folded it over so it went a little lower than that seam and stitched in the ditch catching the selvage.  We'll see how it wears.

So right now, while I drag through a day at work, I have a skirt that needs the waistband finished and hemming and a velvet slip to sew up.  I'd rather be working on either project than sitting here.  I am just so not enthused with what's on my plate for this client. 

Oh and my thread saga.  I need more purple thread.  Lunch & learn yesterday made going out at lunch impossible.  Worked late, dropped of something at my uncles house and ended up chatting until 9pm.  Today, coworker for once in his young life brings his lunch so we eat in the cafeteria and I didn't have time to get both printer ink AND thread at lunch.  Ink is needed to print things off for bowling tonight so it wins.  And because of bowling, I can't go after work tonight.  Tomorrow, damn it, lunch time, people better not get in my way.  Come hell or high water, I'm going to Fabricland.