mandie_rw | Skirts

Spent the vast majority of my day off today not working on anything Tudor - only picked it up after dinner. I hemmed a 1950s skirt, and mostly reassembled a dress from a Butterick Retro pattern. I made it a few years ago, but the waist was a little too long and it looked dumpy, so only wore it a few times before taking it apart to fix. And there it sat in the Sad Bag of UFOs til today, whereupon I put it all back together...except that I mucked up putting the bodice lining in, so when trying to turn it right side out, it just tangled itself up and looked pathetic. Oops. Time to put that one aside for now. Will finish tomorrow.

I cut the skirt panels and the lining (a mid-weight white linen/cotton), and figured how much damask I could spare to put at the hem, while making sure I still have plenty for the lower sleeves. So that's what I'm doing now, hemming under the tops of the damask. Those damask patches aren't really necessary, but this way, if the gown moves or I decide to pin the train up (never!!! ...unless it's muddy!!!), none of the navy silk will show.

Back panel - a whole width of the navy silk, which is 54".

Side gores are about 22" at the hem, so when it's finished, the hem will be about 120". Which is probably even wider than it really needs to be, but I live in terror of too-narrow skirts. (I only did it once, years ago, and it looked so pathetic I promptly took it apart and remade it, with the grain going wrongways. And I still wear it! My brown linen-blend 18thc petticoat, that was. Anyway.)

Speaking of the grain going wrong ways...you can see on the straight edge of both the gores, there's a bit of damask pieced in going crossways to the rest of the pattern. It's very obvious when you can see the sheen of the damask, but - going under the gown, do not care. (Look, I'm going to have the pattern in the skirts of my gown itself run upside down if I need to, clearly this kind of thing doesn't bother me. :D )