End of bolt.

Hello snow bunnies. It's still winter here in Midwestern North America, despite the passing of meteorological spring, but we're getting closer to sunshine and warm temperatures every day! In the meantime, I continue to sew with warmth as a primary motivator. And, I'm continuing my attmepts to incorporate more color into my closet. 

During a Chicago sewing blogger meetup, I found this incredible red wool crepe fabric. It's the perfect shade of red. Instantly, when I saw it, I knew it wanted to be a circle skirt. There wasn't a lot left on the bolt; approximately one and a half yards. I knew it would be a tight squeeze, but I'm short, and the fabric is beautiful, so I bought it anyway. 

This was my first ever full circle skirt! I was a little nervous about cutting a garment without a pattern. I used the standard circle skirt equation (waist measure/ 3.14/ 2= radius) to measure out my waist. I made two mistakes here. First, I added a half inch of wearing ease to my waist measurement. 2. I rounded my calculation up to the nearest eighth of an inch. Ultimately, doing these things left me with a skirt waist that was more than 2 inches too wide.  

I wasn't willing to quit on this fabric, so I decided to evenly distribute 4 little pleats into the waistline. It worked well enough. Next time, I know better. And, there will be a next time. I've often heard how easy circle skirts are to sew, but I didn't realize exactly HOW easy. This is officially the quickest garment I've ever sewn. Truthfully. And, the swirl! HOLY SMOKES! I have to be very cautious in this skirt. It's much shorter than I'm used to wearing, and it flares  on the edge of inappropriate. I'll definitely be aiming for more of a midi length in my next attempt.

My blouse is sewn with flannel I bought at Joann. I make regular trips to my local Joann for thread, buttons, zippers, etc... It's difficult to walk past all that fabric without taking a peek at the inventory. I'm usually on best behavior, but they had a nice variety of cotton flannels on display this winter, and I don't have any in my stash! Exceptions were made. Of course, my favorite flannel was everyone else's too. There wasn't much more than a yard left.  

I had originally hoped to turn this flannel into an Archer, but I didn't have enough yardage. Fortunately, I have a surplus of vintage blouse patterns (Hooray, #vintagepledge). With a little bit of squeezing and tinkering, I was able to get Vogue 5090 on the fabric, without sacrificing plaid matching, to boot! 

I did have to eliminate the front facings. In their place, I used interfaced strips of fabric to form button bands similar to those on the Archer. It was a good compromise. I chose to increase my blouse length by two and a half inches. This way, I have the option to wear the blouse with pants too. Finally, I decided I knew better than the pattern, and I interfaced my collar/ties. I won't do this again. The stiffness works in the collar, but it's too much for the ties.  The only other change I will make to this blouse in future renditions, is tightening the cuff. I like the volume in the sleeve, but the cuff needs to be a little more fitted in order to look like the envelope drawing.

I love the easy, loose fitting shape of this blouse. It's straight cut and it's much easier to wear for the purposes of daily use than other, more fitted vintage blouse patterns I've sewn from. I expect to sew several more tops from this pattern, maybe I'll even go crazy and make a monogrammed one! :-D

Have you sewn a circle skirt? Are your projects still centered in your current season or have you moved on? Inquiring minds want to know! 

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