Finished - Vintage McCalls 8222 skirt

It's been a weekend of highs and lows at Chez Tragic. First the biggest low was the Rolling Stones cancelling their concert for the second time, disappointing not only the fans but the poor community around the Macedon Ranges who had been gearing up for the influx of thousands of visitors and therefore dollars. What can one say? Not much. But one can sigh. A lot. Sigh.

On the plus side I am thrilled to say I am now the very happy owner of a little secondhand Janome overlocker/serger, and was cackling with glee when I managed to thread it correctly first time in under 30 minutes, and it worked perfectly! Thanks so much for your recent comments and recommendations. I know you'll all understand how exciting this is for me!

Today I'm sharing with you a skirt made from a vintage pattern I found at a local op shop ages ago. Whilst it's not going to rock everyones world there's a few little features worth sharing, the least of which is the fact that I love it!

McCalls 8222 is almost certainly from the 80's, and has a few variations. I chose view B, a lightly gathered A-line style. I wanted a lightly gathered skirt that sat on my natural waist, and wasn't too full over my hips. I do love a gathered skirt, but feel very wide when they are heavily gathered. In this nice drapey rayon (seen previously used in this dress - high five to past Sarah buying 3 metres!) the fullness is exactly what I was after.

I was also keen to try those super cute pockets - as you can see the skirt is panelled (don't know if you could call them princess seams.....) so there are no side seams - they are slightly towards the front and the back, with in-seam pockets. I love this design element (even though it's pretty lost in the busy print) as I often leave side seam pockets off due to the bulk that they add over the hips. 

The pattern was actually too small for me, but it was so easy to size up. The waistband piece is a rectangle, and was 2 inches shorter than the Charlotte skirt waistband piece which I've previously made up. The front and back pieces are cut on the fold, so I just added an extra inch into the front and the back, then cut the side pieces as per the pattern. The zip is hidden in one of the side back seams (as there is no centre back) which did make fitting waistband to the gathered skirt a little problematic. Because I had mucked around with the sizing the notches didn't match up. I also am a complete nuffy when it comes to even gathering, so I ended up gathering the skirt top with shirring elastic which is absolutely now my method of choice. I then divided the skirt into quarters front/back/sides, and calculated the percentage points the front/back/side notches were located (ie centre back was 14% of the way from the end, centre front was 27% etc etc), working out the same percentage distance on the new waistband and joining them that way. Probably makes no sense, but it's more for me in case I make it again in the future (which is highly likely - can you imagine it in a silk??!). Of course a simpler future method would just be to put in a centre back seam......

Now, the next thing I loved about this pattern was a ridiculously simple little drafting tweak that allowed me to make the easiest, flawless french-seamed in-seam pockets. The great thing about it is that it can be applied to the pattern pieces of any trousers or skirt pattern that uses in-seam pockets. I used to use this tutorial for frenched in-seam pockets, but it uses weird values for the seam allowances, requires you to split the seam allowance and it's a bit of faffing.

A 5/8 inch seam allowance, the same length as the pocket seam is added as an extension! The pocket pieces are attached like standard pockets, but with a french seam, then the front and back pieces are attached, also frenched. It means you use no part of the non-pocket piece seam allowance attaching the pocket. It's flawless and totally got my nerdy sewing rocks off. So if you have a standard floppy inseam pocket pattern in a skirt or trousers that you want to french just extend the top of the pocket to catch it in the waistband, and add an extra 5/8 inch to the trouser or skirt piece where the pocket attaches - if this makes no sense whatsoever I'm happy to do a tutorial at some point.

oh yeah.....

Here's the innards - I bound the hem in gold hem tape - so pretty.

It just goes to show that it's worth looking beyond the cover art of vintage patterns, even from the 80's! I felt so chic in this yesterday, and it was perfect on a hot hot day. I must thank my lovely friend Shari, who took the outfit photos for me at the Heide Museum of Modern Art.