My San Francisco Skirt

The fabric that I used to make this skirt has been in my collection for almost five years.  In the spring of 2006, I went to the West Coast for a business trip and stopped in San Francisco for the weekend to visit my friend Lynn.  I'd always wanted to fabric shop in San Francisco and she took me to every store I wanted to see ~ Poppy's Fabrics (which is now out of business), Britex, Fabrix, Stone Mountain & Daughter and Satin Moon Fabrics.  We even went to Lacis.  The entire trip was blogged about here.

So this skirt is made from a yard and a half of a wool blend fabric that was purchased at Stone Mountain & Daughter.  There were two reasons I purchased this fabric.  One because Michael Kors used a lot of plaids in his Fall 2006 line and this one reminded me of the great big plaids he was using.  And two, the piece was already interfaced...from selvedge to selvedge.

After almost five years of lingering in the fabric closet, it's turn has finally come to be used:

Some stats:

Pattern:
TNT skirt pattern

Notions:
Ambiance rayon lining
7" metal zipper from the notions collection
rayon seam binding
2 - 5/8" red buttons

There are no new techniques or wonderous things to share with you about this skirt's construction.  It's a basic lined straight skirt.  I've used this pattern for at least a dozen years, transferring it from it's original pattern sheet to pattern paper more than once...and the pattern is getting raggedy again and probably should be transferred one more time.

A photo of the back zipper and button closing:

Tomorrow I go back to work ~ my mini break is over.  I've started making pattern alterations on the Vogue jacket that is the cornerstone of my Pinstripe Follies collection.  I hope to finish up the jacket and pants this weekend.

Lastly a couple of answers/statements to comments left on the last couple of posts...

1.  If I use TNT pattern as the pattern designation for a garment, except for my dress pattern, I have no idea what number the original pattern was since I've been using them with various adjustments for a dozen years.  I can tell you that the pattern came from one of the Big 4 and more than likely started life as a McCalls, Butterick or Vogue pattern.  I didn't use alot of independents when I started my journey of making well-fitted TNT patterns and Simplicity patterns were really out of favor at that time.

2.  Thank you for your support regarding the elastic waist pants issue.  I was really grateful to read that so many others also use elastic in the waistline of their pants.  I'm also glad that by writing about this, I helped some other sewists to forge ahead with making pants using elastic waist techniques too.

3.  Regarding the elastic I use in my pants, Jo Ann sent me a link to Create for Less where you can purchase it in 15 yard amounts for $1.15 a yard.  So if you are interested in trying this elastic, here is a source for it.  Thanks Jo Ann for pointing me to this site, I soooooo appreciate it! 

4.  In my posts, I always try to either explain the technique I used when making the garment or I point you to the source of where I obtained the information.  I'm trying to be more conscientious about copyrights and intellectual property rights.  I mean I really wouldn't want any of the writings from my blog picked up and used without my permission so I'm trying harder to send you to the original source.

5.  JeanC. ~ I haven't finished my bedroom/sewing area redo yet.  I lost my window to paint without freezing us all out while doing it so I'm waiting until spring to paint the bedroom and lay down the new carpet (which is still standing in the hallway *sigh*).  Believe me I will share pictures as soon as it's complete. 

6.  Toby ~ the shoes are bone colored and I wear bone colored shoes all year long!  Actually at work these will be worn with either my nude shoes that I purchased earlier this year or my grey patent leather slingbacks.  I have real shoe issues! *LOL*

7.  I highly recommend that you purchase the Threads Archive DVD.  It has a wonderful search feature and I found that article faster than it took for the software to load on my computer!  I know it's a little pricey but it is well worth the cost and the latest version has all of the issues through 2010.

Finally I know the internet is a wonderful source of resource material but I would like to encourage beginning & returning sewists to add a few sewing books to their collection of sewing notions.  You don't know how often I get stuck, need to know something, or refresh my memory and I turn to either my sewing library or my Threads articles.  Sewing books on hand are an invaluable source of information, I heartily recommend starting your own library.

...as always, more later!