Elemental, My Dear Watson

The weather has been all over the place the past few weeks--80s one day, 30s the next, and in a fit of warm weather pique on day last week, I decided it was high time to sew up the two length of rayon challis I've received for birthday gifts in the past couple of years. 

 

I've held on to the fabric because I was waiting for lightning to strike with a pattern, but decided enough already, and made an Emerald.  And promptly made another yesterday.  But that's not what this post is about.  (Don't worry, I'll post those as I have pictures).

I was only planning to make the one dress yesterday, because tomorrow it is supposed to be close to 90 (Oy!  It is only April! Weather, go home; you're drunk).  But as I was finishing up the dress, I remembered a post from a fellow sewist I follow on Instagram, raving about the free Elemental Pencil skirt pattern from Sew House 7.  I had received the pattern myself last week, but filed it away since knit skirts almost never work for me.  

Sometime during the long months of lockdown last year, I bought a small length of French terry in 100% cotton from an independent seller, planning to use it for a Cedar Sweater (it is surprisingly difficult to find all cotton terry).  I never got around to putting the pdf together, and it turned out that this fabric was destined for better things, like an Elemental Pencil skirt!

 

This was probably the fastest garment I've ever made--I finished in just over an hour, including printing and assembling the pdf.  I would have gotten under an hour except I had to unpick stitches at the very beginning when I decided I liked the "wrong" side of the fabric better than the "right" side (and also remembered Lauren using the textured side to great effect on a couple of of her makes).  The elastic waistband construction is very clever and neat, and while I had to follow the instructions quite closely this time, future makes will probably be quicker.  

 This is a good great pattern.  It looks nice, feels great, and I feel very stompy in it.  Win-win.  

Details: The French terry I used had less than the required stretch, so I eliminated the seam allowances on the sides and facing and just zig-zagged the edges together.  I followed the waist band construction as written, using 1.5" Ban-rol elastic.  I burned the edges to keep it from poking out at the edges.  I used about 29" of elastic with a 1/2" overlap in the back.  I'll probably use 30" in the future, but this is fine.

I made a straight size 14 in version 1 to give myself enough room in this less stretchy fabric.  Version two would have been ankle length or more on me.  This one is a good length for the fabric, but I could see making it 3" shorter to hit just below the knee in something slightly lighter.

 

I admit my sew-jo has been missing in action for a long time now, and this make really gave me a boost!