Busy hands | Disquiet mind

So I made another half-circle skirt, identical to v.1, but in Luxury Crepe Black Dress Fabric (100% polyester). To pair with my Vogue V1869, asymmetric top. Are we seeing the vision? The plan is to create a flexible collection of fancy occasion separates, that can be mixed and matched. And few things are as versatile as a simple black skirt.

Last Friday I went to Dublin Frocktails 2025, my first Frocktails. I, uh, didn't get any photos, because I'm bad at this. So you'll have to imagine how the two pieces went together. (The skirt is shorter than the lowest point of the top, and the crepe had an amazing lustre under the venue lighting.) It was a fun event, and was great to see so much creativity, and skill, and excellent taste in patterns and fabrics. I hope to be not so exhausted next time, and maybe even get to socialise a bit.

Finished, front
Photo by chebe

I'm back to self-drafting skirts again. I haven't been completely satisfied with the instructions given in the Sew What Skirts book, so I did a bunch of research around the internet and came up with my own process that works for my brain.


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Finished, front
Photo by chebe

We're making Megan Nielsen's Tania culottes, view D, again (v.1 here).

But this time we'll make them to actually fit as intended, high waisted and everything. To solve the between sizes issue we'll use Curve size 20 for the front, and size 22 for the back, to the length of the size 20.

We'll be using a bright purple linen, Gütermann thread colour 392. And we'll need an invisible zipper (in black) for the side seam, cotton stay tape to reinforce the pockets, and stiff fusible interfacing for the waistband.

And that's it really. Started by overlocking the raw edges, and it sewed up very quickly. This fabric takes a press very well, so the super narrow hem came out lovely. The missing pleat marking on my pattern did trip me up again, momentarily.

These are delightful in hot weather. I'm still not sold on high waists in general, but can admit it does work lovely here. The swish, the colour, the in-seam, so far so good.

Finished, front
Photo by chebe

McCall's M8479 is a woven short skirt pattern with faux-wrap options. I was having a hard time understanding how all the pieces went together, so I made a 'base' version of the skirt with the most common pieces and without any of the wrap choices, which isn't technically an option provided. It is closest to View A, but without the over-wrap half skirt (read on for explanation of this).

But first, why a skirt pattern? Well, simply, I need basic/versatile skirt options to fill a gap in my wardrobe. And this skirt pattern has a fly front zipper, which I haven't tried before. Skirts use less material even than shorts, so it's a lower stakes way to practice. And I really couldn't figure out what they were doing, without examining the pattern pieces closely. Curiosity, basically.

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McCall's M8479, finished, front view
Photo by chebe

Butterick B6902 is a woven trousers and waistcoat/vest pattern. The trousers also come in shorts length, as View C. (Which is a great way to fit trousers without using too much fabric.) They have slash pockets, a faced waistband, belt loops, and a side invisible zipper. This adventure begins with a toile.

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B6902, view C, shorts, finished, front view
Photo by chebe