Life, Interrupted

It feels ages since I last posted although I know it's only been a little more than a week... My dear friend Chris passed away about 10 days ago from brain cancer, leaving behind another dear friend, his wife, and their young son - I just really haven't felt like blogging since.  There has been some sewing though... Chris' memorial service was last Thursday, and I sewed a cover for the coffin trolley (in a regal looking red velvet) - my first completed project in velvet, but I don't imagine it would make a particularly interesting sewing post.

I had also been doing minimal sewing for the school book parade, but the parade was postponed due to rainy weather - nothing to show there either!

So all I really have to show for the last 10 days is a wearable skirt muslin. The skirt design is vintage but looks current enough to me (do skirt styles just keep getting recycled, or am I just insensitive to the variations?). The pattern is Vogue 1915 (OOP), an Anne Klein pattern from the 1980s or 90s that I picked up recently for 50 cents.

Skirts should be easy but I always struggle with the sizing. This time I cut out a straight 14 but then had to sew narrow side seams, so maybe that should have been a 16. The fabric is a stretch one, that I used before in these trousers (no longer being worn because I did something stupid to the zipper)...

The skirt fits but for now I'll just show it on the dressmaker's dummy:

 

Photographic evidence suggestive of decent pleats and pockets... but dodgy waistband and vent...

 

If I can get my blogging mojo back I'll take a picture of the skirt on me and share that; I know the dummy can mislead on fit.

What else to say.... well, if you come across this pattern second hand, it is certainly worth 50 cents or a dollar. Everything lines up well and the pleats and side pockets look good. They'd look better than the above photos in a non-stretch fabric too. There's a centre-front seam, which might even make this a stash-busting pattern.  I wouldn't pay a lot for the pattern though because the vent at centre back is not the schmick kind, and the waistband is cut as a straight piece but seems to need a bit of curve.

I'm considering making this in one of my Tessuti remnant sale pieces... no promises of course :-)