A Summer of Sewing in One Post

I sew, but I'm no fashionista. I'm boring. I just like to sew.

I wear flowy skirts and knit tops like other people wear jean shorts and a t-shirt. If it's hot, that's what I wear. I hate the heat. I really hate it. I've lived in some hot places that are worse than New York because the heat goes on for so much longer. But if it's so hot and humid that you are covered in sweat all day, it's uncomfortable. It's no comfort on those days that it will end sooner than it will in other parts of the country.

I teach summer faith formation at my church. It's a one week program that's all day. Last year, the weather was very, very hot. This year, I wanted to be prepared. I wanted a skirt for every day, including the set up and clean up days. That meant seven. A little part of me said, "Hmm. This might be over-kill." But the other part of me always answered, "Don't you remember how hot last year was?"

So this summer, I decided to be proactive. I bought knit tops and altered them all under the arms. (Why are the arm holes so big!?!) Then I took them to JoAnn's, bought fabric to go with each, and started the skirt marathon. They couldn't have been easier. I used OOP Simplicity 8001:
It has four seams, a hem, and an elastic waist. I used Gail Grigg Hazen's idea from Fantastic Fit for Every Body and created a separate waist casing piece so I could more easily accommodate my dropped waist.

There was a problem, though. As the marathon wore on, I was wearing older skirts and my summer slips were all disintegrating. Really, they were disintegrating.

When I first started wearing summer skirts, I bought many types of slips, but none was perfect. Eventually, I realized the exact features I needed and did the only thing a sewer can do. I drew the pattern by hand and special ordered the fabric. This was before the internet! This was back in the day when we wrote to mail order places in the back of Threads. I ordered silk/cotton batiste from Thai Silks.

One year at summer faith formation, someone was complimenting me for being so dressed up. I explained that to me, I was more comfortable than I would be in shorts. I said that the secret was in my slip. I then proceeded to hoist up my skirt and model my slip.
If I'm really hot, when I stand up, fabric sticks to my legs. I hate that. With a split slip and a skirt, I can ignore the sticking fabric and walk away without pulling my wedgy out. Yes, I demonstrated that to the girls, too.

So the skirt marathon was toodling along when the slips started to disintegrate. I had been drying my slips in the dryer. Yup. Half silk. I knew it was a bad idea, but they lasted over seven years that way. But when they gave up, they all just went "poof" one week. They were in shreds.

I had no lingerie elastic, and JoAnn's only has that pre-cut stuff, so I needed to order lingerie elastic. I could not find a good source that had fabric, too. The problem was that even though I wanted 20 yards, it was only 36 cents a yard (that's $7.20). Yet shipping would be $7.85. Any sewer worth her salt would order $25 worth of fabric to cushion the blow of that shipping cost. I'm not a fool. I finally found that Wazoodle had elastic and PUL, which I wanted, so I ordered.

It was too late. I went through faith formation in the most beautiful skirts, wearing shredded slips underneath. By Friday, I was so hot and tired, I wore a too short slip that was comfortable. I decided that if you could see through my skirt, I was too tired to care.

But I did finish my six slips later. I'm very pleased. Having enough basic summer skirt outfits is like having enough bras and underware. It's not the biggest deal in the word, but it's nice, in a content kind of way.