Scrubbing Pots and Pans

One sewing mistake I made this rotation was the Pots and Pans Dress.  I just didn't like wearing it.  I wore it a couple of times, just to be sure it wasn't just a weird day, but I just didn't like it.  It didn't feel like "me" and I felt off every time I tried to make it work.  At first I thought it was a problem of the high contrast pocket facing.  So I redid the pockets to be plain on top, and moved them up so they didn't cross onto the blue bottom.  It didn't really make me love the dress any more.   The basic problem is that it really didn't look right with any cardigans I own, and I couldn't see myself wearing the dress in the summer because it came out a bit shorter than I like.  I also realized that while I love novelty prints, I really prefer them in small doses, like on a simple blouse worn with a fitted skirt.

Sometimes fabric whispers to me what it should be, and sometimes I ignore it.  This was such a case.  I bought the fabric for a blouse, decided it should be a dress, and didn't like the dress.  So I made it back into a blouse.  The fabric and I are much happier with this arrangement.  (It really didn't take much to convert it--I just had to unpick the blue section from the top part, remove all the elastic, and finish the hem.  It is a little bigger than my normal Portrait blouse pattern, but still highly wearable.

And the skirt!  This was the second skirt I made on my redraft of Anne Adams 9481, but I used McCall's 6361 for the two-part pocket pattern.  (More about the M6361 later).  I used some leftover Japanese cotton from my beloved bunny blouse for the pocket facing to remove some bulk.  In retrospect, I probably should have used plain red broadcloth (I have a bit from another project), because the bunny fabric shows a little more than I thought it would, but I still really like the skirt (and the fabric is super cute!  It will look great with the bunny blouse this summer!)

The drafting changes I made to the skirt pattern were to remove all the seam allowances (I've been doing this on the fly for some time, but wanted to make a pattern copy that was cleaner), to add an extra set of darts to the back skirt pieces, and to remove some of the excess fabric that pools at the back of my waist (I guess a hollow back adjustment?  I didn't cut a wedge out--I more removed the top seam allowance from the back pieces, and then adjusted the lengths of the front and back to make them fit.  It fixed the problem!)

Because I'm still working out how much to take in the seams on the newly sized skirt, I did make a small mistake on the back seam allowance, and ended up with a skirt that was just slightly too snug, so I pulled out the zipper and unpicked the seam and redid it with a 5/8" seam allowance which was perfect.  I am always amazed how such small increments can make such a big difference to fit.  I had put in a 6" zip by mistake anyway, and I should have put in a 9", as six inches just didn't give me enough room to comfortably get into the skirt.  I fixed that the second time around. 

I also took the hem up about 1 1/4" after applying bias tape, because the skirt just looked too long on me.  I did a machine hem and I really like the sporty vibe the wider hem gives the skirt.

(I forgot to add that I had originally lined the skirt with some beautiful rayon bemberg, which I hate working with, but really made for a lovely finished product, but my mistake with the back seam was worse in the lining and I just could not get the skirt to fit properly with the lining in, so out it came.  I wear slips with almost all my skirts and dresses anyway, so I didn't really mind that much.  I minded the wasted time and resources more)

I'm quite pleased with this skirt (and the one I made before it to test the fit; it will join my summer rotation).  Skirts are so tricky to get fitted well!  Particularly when you have a high rise and a large hip-to-waist ratio.  I'll write more about fitting that other skirt in a separate post.

Just the facts:

Pots and Pans blouse: vintage fabric, Simplicity 1080 (shortened to blouse length, all shaping removed), bias tape

Red twill skirt: Robert Kaufman Hampton Twill in tomato, zipper, bias binding, contrasting cotton fabric for pockets, petersham ribbon interfacing, Anne Adams 9481/McCall's 6361 with drafting changes

Shoes: dansko via ebay

Earrings: gift from long ago