Stashvember: my outfit: Onyx top & circle skirt



Details
Top
- fabric: Christian Wijnants Black Shell, MonDepot
- notions: bias tape from stash
- thread: Amann Mettler
- pattern: Onyx , by Paprika Patterns
- size: 5
Skirt
- fabric: Christian Wijnants Black Shell, MonDepot
- notions: blind zip from stash, lining from Pauwels
- thread: Amann Mettler
- Pattern: "self drafted"
- size: my size: 73 cm waist, 55 cm length.


Measurements & Size
My bust is 97 cm, so I knew that the finished version in size 5 would normally fit me. My waist is 73 cm which put me in a size 4. Since this would be a crop top, I picked size 5 and lengthened it with 6 cm. I felt way too exposed holding the pattern paper up to me in the original length. A full bust adjustment might fix that, but the added length worked out fine! I once made a circle skirt pattern, so I don't have to do the math every time ( I'm really bad at math, thank you dyscalculia!) This one is made up in my prefered length of 55 cm. I feel that this length is necessary for a circle skirt. Too short and my bum gets exposed with every twist & turn! Not what I want!

Adjustments & construction
Construction happened over a lot of different evenings and afternoons! I'm working on a lot of client projects at the moment, all mingled with working for Sew It Up and our brand new shop, so this was truly a project made possible by stolen minutes! I also call it: sewing for sanity. Let me start by saying that this fabric was a pain in the ass to work with. Fraying like crazy and falling apart the second my scissors touched it! It will be interesting to see how these garments keep up when wearing them! To tackle the fraying issue, I cut each piece with an extra 2 cm seam allowance, marking the real cutting line with chalk on each piece. I then put every piece under my serger, putting an end to the fray! The fabric is still very fragile, which is why I underlined the skirt pieces instead of lining them. The crop top variation of Onyx (also available as a normal length woven tee) has two waist darts at the front panel, I lengthened those too before cutting out my fabric. After trying it on, I removed 6 cm from the back again. Fabric was pooling above my bum. (Normal, I have a bigger bum than waist and bust and went with a size 5, too small for my hips!) Next time I might do a sway back adjustment to get rid of what left of the fabric in the back. The hemline, armhole and neckline on the top are finished with very thin strips of premade bias tape. The circle skirt is a basic circle skirt with a blind zip in the side seam going up all the way to the waist. Since the fabric was so fragile, I omitted the pockets.I really like a firm waistband, so underlined the fashion fabric and interfaced the waistband pieces with Vlieseline G785. My favorite for lightweight lining or stretch fabrics. All pieces are serged. What I noticed again when making this skirt, is that understitching and pressing are such important tools in my sewing arsenal! The waistband looked super bulky before understitching, and now it lays perfectly flat. So happy about that. Since the fabric was so fragile, I stitched the inside of the waistband down by hand. Luckily I like hand sewing! The skirt hem is turned under and stitched down by machine.

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