Just Sewing Along...

I used to enjoy sewing.  Of late though I remember that I enjoyed sewing but rarely enjoy it while engaged in it.  I suspect this is because I'm trying to finish too many bits of costume in too small a space of time.  I do this to myself as I'm a horrible procrastinator, er no, make that an Excellent procrastinator and this is a horrible thing when it comes to making costumes.  I always end up with too much to do and too little time to do it in.  My costume is always the last to get attention and inevitably my sewing machine decides it's done with playing nice and starts doing irritating things like refusing to hold it's tension setting.  No fun.  In an effort to a) prove to myself I like sewing, b) finish something, and c) do a small part to make my sewing room slightly less of an unorganized mess I've joined a "sew along". 

It's a circle skirt sew along that Ms Casey of Casey's Elegant Musings is hosting and I figured that since it breaks down the creation of a circle skirt into weekly bite-sized pieces I'll be more inclined to sit down and work on my skirts.  Yessss...skirts plural; I have a butter yellow crepe backed satin one that I started for July 1st and then didn't finish as I chose not to dance in the show we had been preparing the costumes for and 4 metres of a beautiful apple green "sari satin" [mmmhmmm, technical term that one is ;)] that Bazette gave me as a thank you for helping her with her costume a couple of years ago.  I've been putting off the green one for awhile because I have yet had no need for it (my current black costume skirt is very versatile and works well with whatever our costume plans turn out to be) and because I wanted to make it a reversible skirt but don't know how best to finish the seams to make them appealing on both sides.  I decided yesterday that the likely-hood of me wearing a golden shot with green skirt is pretty slim and I should just make it normally.  If I finish them then I will have 2 less projects hanging around- woot!

The sew along began with considerations for fabric choice, how to draft your pattern, and this past week - cutting out.  I've basically had two weeks free since all that was done previously in the case of my skirts.  Yesterday I cut out my green skirt material.  I took pictures of the process and they are horrible but I'm sharing anyways.  Do not, if you can help it, mix light sources when photographing shiny material that shimmers with more than one colour; this is a colour balancing nightmare waiting to happen.  I was tempted to turn them black and white and let you use your imagination with regard to the colour but unfortunately there wasn't much contrast (darn the green carpet I was laying out the green material on) and they still looked bad.  So here are a few of the least offensive ones.

 My fabric.  The patterned piece will become a Turkish vest and the plain piece is for my skirt.

I don't actually have a paper pattern for the circle skirts we use for our costumes. It's easy enough just to make a compass out of the tape measure ;)

 Marking the radius for the waist.

 Cutting out the half circle.  Now I just have to do it again for the other side.

Skirt hanging with the side seams basted and the waist edge serged.  In order to have a hem that is even and stays even I hang the skirt for a week or two so the bias can shift as much as it wants to before I hem the skirt.

And in case you are curious about the finished costume here is a group photo; I helped with the blue and the copper costumes in the back row :)