McCall's 5431 Skirt - Epic Fail

Dear Lord. How could I not have thought of all of this BEFORE I started cutting into my beautiful Denyse Schmidt 80's retro pink and grey plaid??

I should back up. I love wearing skirts in the summer. I wear A-line skirts the way lots of women wear khaki shorts. They are my every day staple. Of course, as a sewist, I love the idea of making skirts for myself with precious pieces from my stash. I buy TONS of skirt patterns...alas, I have not yet found the right pattern for me. Here's why.

I'm 5'4". I CANNOT carry a lot of fabric. That means flowy-ness OR length. I bought this McCall's pattern #5431 for $1 at Joann, so at least THAT didn't kill me. I was going to make version C, the shortest one, with no pockets. Looks to hit a hair below the knee....Perfect. 5'4" also means NO pockets for me. Too much fabric. I liked the fact that it said "quick". I liked that there was a zipper, this tends to mean the skirt will fit better. I should have known when I couldn't cut the front of the skirt without turning the fabric sideways that it would be TOO MUCH SKIRT.

But I neglected to look at the drawing closely...all of the versions are flowy. All of the women have stupid long legs. Unlike me. So I dove in, and took my precious 90 minutes of sewing time and made this...

Sweet Baby Jesus, where do I begin??? First of all, I ALWAYS get screwed up by the sizing. I made it a full size and half too big (yes, that's even MORE fabric). But it's a plaid, going crosswise, too. I put on the skirt, and I looked like the broad side of a barn. Much cursing and foot stomping ensued.

There is one saving grace to this mishap. The skirt has SO much fabric, I will easily be able to cut it up and use it in a quilt. That is only a little bit of solace. I am seriously, like 0-4 on my last few garment projects. What's a girl to do???

Would one of you be kind enough to recommend a good A-line skirt pattern for me??? This trial and error stinks.

On a cheerier note...my daughter walked with her Brownie troop last Monday in our local town's Memorial Day parade.

She is pretty tiny compared with a the other girls. They put her in the middle to even out the height on either side. But she makes up for it in spirit.

I may not be grateful for my sewing epic fail today, but I am most certainly grateful for my wonderful family, and yet another gorgeous New England weekend.

McCall's 5430 Vacation Skirt in gorgeous Timber Fabric

So this is the skirt that is one of my four projects from vacation. I did everything but the buttonhole, which I did when I got home this week. I got the Gingko Timber fabric (by Jessica Levitt) at Purl Soho when we were there this winter. I just fell in love with the colors.



I chose this pattern because I wear a lot of A-line style skirts. I think they flatter me best, and they are super comfortable and easy to move around in. Now, I don't know WHO on earth they had write this pattern up, but "skirt in an hour" is just hogwash. The pattern was fairly easy to follow, but the cutting alone took me 25 minutes. Then there was the interfacing, which took another 15. This, by the way, was NOT clear in the pattern, I put interfacing on more pieces than I needed to. Of course, if I did more than scan the directions, I might have looked at the pictures on the last page showing which pieces needed interfacing. Alas, I thought to myself "it's only going to take me an hour, how confusing can it be????" Am I the only one who deludes themselves with these thoughts?



That having been said, the only other thing that took time was adjusting the small amount of gathering to get all that fabric inside the curved waist band. Not difficult, just sort of "picky" work. NOT a one hour skirt. A two hour skirt, yes. But to my mathematical mind, they were off by 100%!!



I am very pleased with the final garment. I will definitely make another one. I made version A. I might try to make the version with the pockets next time. I did submit this also, to the Sew Mama Sew "Sew it Wear it" Challenge group on flikr. Some great submissions there, if you like to see what other folks are making.



Up next, I'm hoping to FINALLY finish the small round rug I'm working on. Super cute so far, and likely a gift for my mom. Pictures coming shortly...