6 of Spades ♠︎ - #8

eyelet and ball chain to keep the lid attached to the bucket

My tools and part of my materials have been zigzaging from one flat to the other. Yesterday I brought my hole puncher and eyelet pliers to put an eyelet on the paint lid, and a ball chain to attach it to the bucket. The lid fits fairly snuggly to the bucket, but I'd rather have it secured. Bucket: DONE!

sewing a felled seam.

Onto the skirt. I'm always scared not to buy enough fabric, when circle skirts and bias cutting are concerned. The plan was to buy 1,5m of the white satin, but I ended up buying 2m, and that was a good idea. When I cut the skirt, I ended up not using the fabric width to my advantage, and the 2 ¼ skirt panels, weren't very wide to gather later. But then I had a late night epiphany, got up, checked the leftover fabric, and thought maybe I have enough fabric to cut one more panel. One of the first things I did today, was to grab the front skirt panel (the back is a bit longer), carefully placed it on top of the remaining satin, pin it all over, and cut one more panel. The skirt will have a seam at the centre front, but it won't be visible. The ruffling will hide it, and the apron will be on top. Then I pinned all the panels to each other, two fronts, one back, and sewed them. Fortunately, at each seam, one of the seam allowances is the selvedge, so I decided to fell the seams instead of making French seams. This satin is a bit stiff, and French seams would become a bit bulky. I wanted very thin seams, and felling seemed the best method. It was my first time sewing felled seams! After sewing, I cut the seam allowance with no selvedge to be about 4mm wide, folded the selvedge once on top of it, and sewed it to the seam stitches with a slip stitch. It went quicker than I thought, in less than two hours I had all the seams felled. Now the skirt is veeery wide.

I folded it in half, pinned it to the clothes hanger with clothes pins,  and left it hanging overnight.

I cut the waistband, two narrow strips of white satin. Pinned them, and sewed them together. It's also not common to have a two pieced waistband, but I need it in two panels, because I'll make a semi-elastic waistband. The back waistband will be straight, not stretchy, and the front will have an elastic, much like some lolita dresses, as it will be under the apron. I also took the elastic, from one of my old leggings, to use for the waistband.

skirt hanging overnight

+ One more item done! And I'm very happy with how I sorted the skirt cunundrum. And I still had enough fabric left for the waistband.

- The front middle seam could have been an issue, if not for it becoming rather hidden between the folds, and under the apron.

THE CUNNING PLAN 

Tomorrow check up the straightness of the skirt, trim when necessary. Check the skirt height, trim if necessary, iron it, and then add the waistband.