Weekend Project: The Skirts Continued...

Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.

Saul Bellow

Another wonderful Sunday afternoon and more progress on the skirts! During the week I stitched up two sample waist treatments to show the women. Both used bias tape for binding, but one had a short slit and a single (shank) button with an elastic button loop to make sliding the skirt on and off a bit easier. Ana opted for the simpler treatment with no button, and Juana opted for the slit & button.

We started with the side seams on the outer skirt (sheer fabric) and then (after fitting & trimming as needed), basted the two skirt layers together around the waist. Ana was able to finish her bias tape waistband. She seemed both happy with and proud of her (not yet hemmed) skirt - the first thing she did was slide it on and run to show her boyfriend! As you can see in the above photo, it fit well and looked very good on her!

Juana got her elastic buttonloop attached and the slit seams finished with bias tape. We'll start next Sunday with her bias tape waistband. Then, hems (2 per skirt!) and we're done! :)

Both women decided to skip the ruffle. I think that decision makes sense with this fabric.

It was really nice to see how comfortable both women were with the machine and how much better they are at sewing nice, straight seams with a fixed width! They have really come a long way in a short time!

Here's a close-up of Ana's fabric - still folded in half, so you can see the pattern on the bottom layer through the top layer.

I was able to take my work laptop, with an "aircard", so we had an internet connection to help with communication. It did help, but what helped even more is that Ana is becoming more willing to try out her little bit of English with me. (As much as I've mangled the Spanish language, I can't imagine that she is worried about looking bad. I've got that market cornered!)

For all the course corrections that this project has taken (take inches off the top, forget the elastic waistband, drop the ruffle, etc.), I think the skirts are turning out quite nicely and they are feeling pretty good about them! And they are already excited about our next project - dresses with zippers! (vestidos con cierres) Now, if I can just talk them into cotton!!! ;)