It's a No Go

I almost made it the whole year with out a wadder.

Almost.

Well, I guess technically my HPCNTS isn't a wadder...I can donate it if I hem it, so I'll probably just do a quick run through the 'blind hem stitch' and put it in the donation bag.

The doggone thing's too big. Waaaayyyy too big.

I really don't understand that. It was a little snug when I made the muslin...last fall...and I've gained a pinch of weight since then. I was worried that it'd be too tight; imagine my surprise when I found I could pinch about 2 inches out of the girth of the skirt

I should've tried it on before I put the facing on the waistline, I suppose; then maybe I could've fixed it. But, due to the integrated facing/fly facing on this pattern, that would've been really awkward...the facing was attached to the fly front before I sewed the side seams of the skirt and the whole rest of the facing was flopping free. And, having done the muslin, I really thought it'd be pretty close to ok anyway. I must've messed up somehow when I translated the muslin changes to the pattern.

I thought about taking it apart and redoing it, but this is a pocketless skirt; I had problems w/the fly front (which were mostly my fault, from trying to combine two methods...the one in the HP guide and Peggy Sager's, which is not written for a faced waist); there's something weird about the front curves (did I inadvertently sew the back sides to the fronts and vice versa? I really didn't think so, but that would explain the results); the fabric is more crisp than drapey and it's lighter weight than would be practical for fall/winter...anyway, I'm going to do a quick finish on it and pass it along.

Some garments just seem doomed from the first stitch; this was one of them. It was frustrating and it doesn't fit. Fortunately, it was rather inexpensive fabric so I'm just going to consider it a muslin.

I did learn one thing, though...I need to do a little work on it to redraft the proportions of the panels; when I made that muslin a year ago, I didn't think the seams were spaced quite like the pattern illustration showed them. I emailed Trudy, and she said the drafting program they use doesn't always grade things up proportionately (HP has already been raked over the coals about this by other folks; I'm not going there today). Anyway, I thought I'd try it as is, and, looking at the way those seams divide the skirt on me, it would look better if they were moved around a bit. So there's work to do on this pattern anyway.

Actually, I'm not sure the faced-waist style suits me very well; just about every faced-waist skirt I've made has had fit problems (too big). Maybe I'm too used to adding the wearing ease for an actual waistband and I need to change my paradigm.

But I'm not sure when (or if) I'll tackle this skirt again.