McCall’s 6438 | Jeanne Marie’s Sewing Studio

Oops — “Facing” a mistake

My altered contour waistband for McCall’s 6438 is made of three pieces: the front, the back right (which extends to be an underlap) and the back left.

The waistband facing has the same three pieces; but because the two back pieces are asymmetrical, they are different from the waistband pieces.

After basting the skirt and skirt lining together at the waistband seam, I started pinning together the waistband pieces and the waistband facing pieces and made my frustrating discovery.

See these pattern pieces that look ready to go? Deceiving!

I interfaced the facing pieces, not the waistband pieces. Gaaah! The front piece is symmetrical, so the waistband and facing are interchangeable, but the back pieces are screwed up.

I am mulling over my damage-control options for what is only a wearable muslin anyway:

Use as is and have the underlap extend from the left under the right piece. Then the skirt waistband would open the opposite way. If I ever wore it with a back-button blouse with a correct overlap, it would look stupid.
Use the interfaced pieces as the facing and the noninterfaced pieces as the waistband. But then I’m afraid the hand sewing of the facing wouldn’t come out as well and seam allowance ridges would be more obvious at the front of the waistband.
Interface the back waistband pieces and cut new back facings. But that is a waste of resources since it’s not absolutely necessary.

I’m glad I made this mistake on the wearable muslin, so I can be aware of this issue when working on the good fabric.

The question is: Which one of these solutions do I dislike the least?

Hmmm …

Aha! The process of writing and editing this post helped me think through this problem. My solution:

Use the interfaced front piece for the waistband. Attach it to the non-interfaced back pieces. For the facing, I can use the noninterfaced front piece attached to the interfaced back pieces. It solves most of my issues without using additional fabric or interfacing resources.

I definitely dislike this solution the least. It only took me two days to come up with it.

Gemini note (because sewing isn’t everything): After being on vacation and eating nothing but pricey and oversized restaurant food for a week, I just want to cook and bake every day!

An invisible zipper that’s actually … well … invisible

I hummed along so quickly during my afternoon of sewing today that instead of stopping before the invisible zipper installation (the better to steel myself for the battle), I continued right on through it.

Previously, I’ve had little luck with invisible zippers:

The not-so-invisible zipper of my polka dot skirt. Sad, no?

But today was a breakthrough:

Can you see a zipper in that seam? Neither can I — whoo-hoo!

The trick was the ironing of the zipper before application. The directions that come with the zipper show a timid iron tip just crossing from the zipper tape over the teeth. That has never worked for me, so I gave up on the ironing and ended up with a very visible invisible zipper.

This time, however, I aggressively ironed that zipper tape and attached coils. Mashed the heck out of those suckers with my iron, in fact (at the proper synthetic setting, of course). The zipper tape flattened right out. I was a little concerned by how incredibly flat it was, but proceeded to attach the zipper, which was held to the fabric with Clover Wonder Clips. So much easier than pins!

This is the spot where I usually run into trouble. I have an invisible zipper foot, but the stitches would catch the coils. No more! The stitches glided right alongside. I was a little apprehensive when I tried to close the zipper, but it zipped up like a dream!

Yay! My first successful invisible zipper. Now I wish I hadn’t chickened out of getting the blue zipper. The zipper pull looked snazzy in that color, but I settled for a cream color in case I screwed it up again.

My self-drafted pockets also worked, and the length and fullness at the hem are looking promising. Just a few more hours of work are left on this wearable muslin. I’m sensing a success. Oh no! Did I type that out loud?

Gemini note (because sewing isn’t everything): We finished up my second-grader’s baseball season with the team party today. Such a fun season! Nice coaches, nice kids, nice families. We had a blast, made some friends, and my baby played in the AA All-Star Game. Love the opportunities the ‘burbs provide for my kids.