So.. scallops. Turns out I should have trusted the feeling I had in my waters: "I'm not so sure how I feel about the general 'scallop' concept..." In the beginning I planned to make the Meringue with a straight hem, but then I made the muslin and I thought they could work for me.. and now I am unsure. The only thing I can say with certainty, at this stage, about the scallops is that they were an absolute pain in the ass to sew, and notching then pressing them was even worse.

It started out well.  I had a big piece of lovely mid-weight wool-blend tweed, with awesome colours (in spite of the opinions of those around me, I maintain that it is lovely), and I imagined that the tweediness would help to balance out the slight naffness of the scallops.

Based on some tweaking I did with my muslin, I graded the waist out by 1.5cm on each side seam using my shiny new french curve. I also did a little sway back adjustment on a whim. I didn't bother checking it on the muslin first because it was really only a very small change; also, if I don't have a sway back then there's something wrong with the definition...

I used a cotton print for my waist facing, really because I love how pretty it is, and it turned out to be a very good move. I hadn't realised, until I started playing around with it, just how itchy the tweed actually is, and it would have been absolute murder having it in direct contact with my belly skin. Unfortunately, the facing in the finished skirt isn't sitting properly at the moment because of a slight oversight to do with the swayback alteration and its lack of transfer to all the pattern pieces, but this is a minor problem, and I'm going to tack it down into submission.

I decided to add a lining too, since I didn't want to get an itchy bum. And also because the lady in the sewing shop told me that "what you've got there is a wide woven, so you need to line it so you don't get a seat". I nodded wisely and agreed.

I followed the tutorial written by Roses on Toast, which was incredibly helpful. In spite of its helpfulness, the lining addition added many hours more work to my project. Mainly, I think, because even though I read the instructions, I am somehow incapable of actually comprehending them until I sew something incorrectly (thinking that I am following the instructions), realise something is not quite right, and then read the instructions again only to discover that something is definitely not right.  I accidentally sewed up the wrong side of the lining (not the fault of the tutorial). I also faffed up the zipper insertion. Twice. I'm the absolute shit with the unpicker now, even if my other skills aren't evolving as fast.

Anyway. The only problem, apart from the fact that I got sick of reading instructions and decided to finish the zipper off in my ..own way (resulting in a very sore finger from too much hand sewing).. is that I'm not convinced the damn thing actually fits properly. I mean, I made a muslin, so seriously...WTF?



Rob says: "Well, I didn't really like the fabric to begin with..."
Kate says: "Is it too tight? Or ..maybe.. is it too loose?"
Susan says: "I can see why he didn't like the fabric."

Ellie says: Maybe I can cut the scallops off. Although, having mulled it over for a while, I don't mind the scallops. I can live with the scallops. But the weird bunching between the waist darts?? I don't even know where it came from, and I definitely do not know how to remedy it.

Seeing as this is a relatively heavy-weight fabric anyway, I'm going to put this one away for a while and revisit it once the weather is cooler. Perhaps the skirt and I just need a break for now.