Fashion Parade, Part the First

Happy December!  I have been hunkered down for the past few (oops, five) weeks, drafting and sewing and seam ripping and handstitching.  I received so many orders during the double skirt party weekend, that I haven't been able to think much beyond trying to get the orders done.  But as the holidays are here, I'm making myself relax a bit.  Feels good.

I have a heap of garments to show and I thought briefly of cramming them into one long post, but that seemed, well, too crammed.  So I hope to break them up in a series of posts so that you can see what I've been up to!  And when I say "I", I really now mean "we" - I hired a lovely woman named Carol to help out so that I could finish all my winter orders before spring comes around.

I'm going to start with the two skirts we finished most recently, as the process is still fresh.  Catherine is a new client, and she wanted a skirt replicated.  I've done this for myself before, but never for someone else.  Here's the original skirt:

It is a simple six-panel straight skirt with a cute pleated section in the center back, welt pockets, and a waistband.  Catherine says she wears this skirt all the time so it's a good style to copy.

She chose a striped stretch sateen fabric that I purchased a while back from GorgeousFabrics.com.  The two challenges to this skirt were 1) matching up the stripes, and 2) making the welt pockets (something I'd never done before).  To make the stripes go a little easier, I decided to cut the waistband in the opposite direction.  Carol handled challenge #1 beautifully when she put the parts of the skirt together, which left me with the challenge of matching the kick pleat to the stripes and making the welt pockets.  Here's how it turned out:

I planned to finish the waistband with topstitching but that didn't look right.  I ripped out those stitches and finished the waistband by hand - I'm very happy I did as it looks so much better!

This next skirt was for Stacey, another new client.  I've made something similar to skirt before, so I decided to change it up by adding a hem facing.  I love how cute it looks from the inside and I hope it might peek out every once in a while! 

I also did a drapey deep cowl neck for Stacey in the same metallic jersey I used for my own.  I've got another top like this on order - I guess everyone loves a little sparkle at this time of the year!