Rosy’s Miriam skirt!
After making a few casual garments, I fancied making something a bit smarter for my latest Felicity project. So, I chose this gorgeous linen and viscose mix fabric with the idea of making a pencil skirt that would look good with some of my vintage accessories.
Whenever I go into a new project, I always hope that THIS garment will be the perfect work of art I am always striving for! Ridiculous I know! I remember Esme on the Sewing Bee, saying to Serena (the winner) “Your garments are so perfect, they look like they’ve not been touched by human hands!” I’ll come back to this in a moment.
The pattern I chose is the Miriam skirt & dress by Sew Over It. It’s part of their recent Vintage e-book release. The book has so many gorgeous garments and the Miriam skirt is the perfect starting point for building your vintage wardrobe, as it’s really simple to make.
I found the sizing very generous on this skirt, so I had to size down. My body measurements put me at 22 waist and 20 hip, but when I looked at the finished garment measurements, I decided to grade from a 20 waist to an 18 hip. It is still a little big, so I’ll address that next time I make the skirt.
Now, going back to the goal of making my garment look like “its not been touched by human hands”. Once again, its a fail! Surprise surprise! Just little things, like the button loop being sewn on back to front, so you can see the black overlocking stitches, and the stitching in the ditch on the waistband being a bit wonky. But conversely, I was very happy with a few of the features. I think I may have sewn the neatest lapped zipper I’ve ever done…using a tip that my Mum gave me! And I also love how neat the split at the back looks! So all in all, whilst it’s not perfect, there’s many positives that I can take from this make and build on in the future. Hopefully it is encouraging to new sewists who are striving towards perfection, to know that even after sewing for 20 years, I still don’t manage the perfect finish and maybe never will. However, most people will never notice our little failures and my outfits still make me feel happy and proud of my work. Which, I think, is the main thing! So, here’s to many more garments that bring joy to our hearts, even though they aren’t perfect inside!
