Corduroy Madness (part the first)

I mentioned in my last post that I had succumbed to autumn madness by purchasing a few lengths of corduroy.  They arrived in short order and I washed them right away.  I was especially eager to make up the navy cord, since my denim skirt has been getting such heavy wear.  Do you ever see something in ready-to-wear that gets in your head and you have to make it so that it will fit you?

 

 I love corduroy skirts that have patch pockets attached at the waist, but they are always too short for my taste, and they almost always feature a front zipper or buttons down the front, which never looks good on my figure.  That style almost always gapes at the waist on me as well, which is just not cute.  I decided to make mine with a side zip with the shaped patch pockets and use my straight skirt block (Anne Adams 9481).

I ordered Kaufman's 21-wale 100% cotton corduroy, and fabric.com only had a yard left of the navy colorway, which is cutting it a bit close for this skirt, but I decided to take it and hope for the best.  The fabric is 56" wide, which is the only reason it worked. I've never worked with this weight of Kaufman cord (my previous experience has been with the 14-wale line, which is heavier weight), and it is just lovely.

  It has a beautiful hand, and it drapes better than I thought it would.  That said, it is pretty lightweight, and is unlikely to be a great middle-of-winter skirt.  Although, it must be said, I'm running quite a bit hotter than usual these days, so perhaps it may work out well after all!  (And after working with this fabric, I'm eager to find other ways to use it again).

This might be the most comfortable skirt I've ever made and a lot of it is down to the fabric.  I don't know that it is the best-fitting skirt ever (it is slightly loose in the waist) but comfort bests fit sometimes and it may shrink slightly given the fiber content.  I'm also much more sensitive to pressure around my middle now, and a comfortable waistband is the unicorn of skirts everywhere.

 

No major pattern modifications to note; I omitted the back seam allowance and cut on the fold.  Both side seams are sewn at the highest seam allowance on my plate (which I used to think was 7/8" but after measuring yesterday, I think is actually 5/8") and I added a second set of darts in the back as usual.  

I usually make these 1/2" darts, but I ended up taking another 1/8" in on each dart after trying it on, and probably could have gone another 1/8", but as I said, comfort is key.  I tried to put in a buttonhole with the automatic buttonholer, but the fabric just did not play nice.  It was too stick for the presser foot and even lowering the feed dogs didn't help.  I made three practice buttonholes before trying it on the waistband, and still ended up unpicking the thing in the end and working it by hand.  Win some, lose some.

My major victory on this make was getting the waistband overlap correct and sewn nicely.  (It looks like a bit of a mess in this photo, but it actually does look nice).  This is not always an area that I do well, and I'm chuffed with the result.  It helped that the fabric was amenable to this procedure. The zip also looks better in real life than it does on this pic.

Now I'm off to make up the 14-wale corduroy into similar skirts because I'm mostly a two-trick pony.  And also: I don't always dress like a crayon, but when I do, it will be rust or navy colors.