Another look...

You know I stay up late and think about things.  Last night I was thinking about how I could fix the disaster that was Simplicity 1427 (see here).

I decided that would be my goal today, and as soon as I took care of the dog and her business this morning, I went to the craft store by my house.  I bought bias tape and elastic.  My first order of business was to take out not one but two hems (one was folded and sewn into the other).  I told you it was a disaster.  It took forever.  Once out, I had to cut the inner skirt to match the tulle.  It took a couple of adjustments to get right.  In the end I think I cut about 4 inches off the inner skirt.  I am aware that bias tape is a total cheater way to hem things but satin is ridiculous and I think the different fabric texture adds a bit of character to the skirt.

The second thing I had to fix was the yoke/casing disaster.  The first thing I did was take out the the stitching where I had sewn the underskirt to the yoke.  After that I sewed the underskirt to the tulle skirt because it was attached at the yoke.  Then, I took the yoke out completely and am still trying to figure out why it's needed in the first place.  I read and reread directions and looked at the pictures and still couldn't figure it out.  So I attached the casing directly to the skirt and underskirt. 

After that everything looked so much nicer.  I can even show the top of the skirt now where I wouldn't dream of doing that before.

Here's a pic:

It still doesn't fit in the mirror but I am so happy with this now.  Now that I've solved the mystery of this pattern, I can't wait to make more!  I'm lining up pink and black tulle skirts.  I'm also apologizing in advance to everyone on the subway.

Simplicity 1427...

I'm pretty ballsy.  I'll attempt something that I've never done before with a fabric I've never worked with before.  Why not?  What could go wrong?

That's where Simplicity 1427 comes in.  Lately I've been obsessed with tulle skirts and I can't buy one here because buying bottoms in Japan forget about it.  Of course, I can buy basics here but anything cute apparently only comes in a size small (which means XS in America).  Boo.

Anyway, here's this pattern:

I decided to go for the longer version though I shortened it a little (because I'm short enough and don't want to get buried in tulle).  That was the easy part.  The hard part was hemming a satin fabric inner skirt.  It looks awful but maybe it's not noticeable, and I don't really feel like fixing it right now.  The yoke part was ridiculous, and I sewed on the underskirt wrong and had to take it out and redo it.  (Hooray for a day off!)  After looking at pictures of the skirt I'm also sure that the casing is wrong.  This is also not noticeable, and I also don't want to fix this.  (In case you're wondering these are reasons I don't sew things for other people.  I can abide and hide my mistakes but I don't want others finding them.)  I think that's all that's wrong with the skirt.  The directions were kind of confusing, so it's amazing that a skirt came out of all this.

Regardless, I think it turned out pretty good, and it's totally wearable:

Sorry guys, I couldn't fit this skirt in the mirror for a picture.  What do you think?  I don't totally suck at sewing.