Mini-wardrobe: Bottoms (Ottobre 02-2007-12 Skirt; Ottobre 02-2014-06 Shorts)

I've finished my mini-wardrobe! I know, crazy, right? Six day mini-wardrobe! It's finished though mainly because I really thought about what I would do instead of that Wiksten tank and I felt more and more like the second knit top I'd made was good enough. I decided if I made a 6th thing I'd just be making something for the sake of it, not because I wanted it or needed it. Since I hate the idea of that, and anyway REALLY need to get on with my packing, I decided that the top I'd made was good enough, and called my mini-wardrobe DONE.

I'm going to split my blog entries about the mini-wardrobe into three parts, just because I have a LOT to say/lots of photos and a single post would just get ludicrously long and nobody would ever wade through it all. Today's post: bottoms, or the skirt and shorts I made for the mini-wardobe. First up: the skirt that gave me overall inspiration for this wardrobe.

Ottobre 02-2007-12 Straight skirt in printed linen

I recently saw a similar black and white printed skirt in a shop and coveted it, but I didn't want to pay ££ for it.  Then I serendipitously saw this linen/viscose blend fabric on eBay, decided it was Meant To Be and made it the centrepiece of my mini-wardrobe. My skirt is made to a really basic pattern (two pattern pieces!), but my excuse here for the simplicity of the pattern is that the print on this fabric is so busy that I wanted the absolute minimum number of seams to break it up.

As it turned out, I really struggled to find exactly the right pattern, even though all I wanted was a simple straight skirt. I wanted it to have a side zip rather than a centre back zip (and centre back seam), and I would have preferred a waistband or at least a facing, as I dislike ribbon or twill tape waist finishes. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with exactly what I wanted. My previous straight skirt attempts, with Simplicity 8664, resulted in one semi-hit and one miss, and that pattern has a centre back seam. (Also, wow, that was one of the first garments I made, and my latest makes are so much less terrible.) I wasn't excited to use the Simplicity pattern again and I would have had to trace it in a different size anyway, so I went looking in my magazines for an alternative. In the end I decided to make Ottobre 02-2007-12, which is new to me, and just draft myself a facing to replace the petersham ribbon finish the pattern suggests. Note that "draft a facing" means I folded out the darts on the skirt pieces, stuck a piece of paper on top of my traced pattern, made an arbitrary decision about how big the facings needed to be in terms of depth from the waist seam, and traced. Not exactly rocket science. (You can also read my PR review for the skirt here.)

Interior view of skirt -- look at my pretty lining/seam binding/hem binding! :D

Probably the most interesting part of this skirt from a sewing point of view is the inside, which, with no modesty at all, I will say that I think came out looking GORGEOUS. It's a shame nobody will see it. This is my ALL-TIME favourite lining/seam finishing technique, where you basically use your underlining/interlining to make it look like you bound the seams as well. Isn't it pretty? My interlining in this case was totally necessary because the printed linen I used was lightweight and drapey and needed something to (a) make it opaque and (b) give it some weight so that it hangs nicely. The interlining is just plain white cotton. I bound the edge of the facing and the hem in pre-made black satin bias tape.

The big disappointment with this skirt was that I only bought 1m of fabric and couldn't really get any more (for both pecuniary and practical reasons) and there was no way I could pattern match at the side seams. I settled for trying to get a good horizontal match and choosing what I hope is a nice pattern element for the centre front. I think if the pattern had been larger, the lack of side-seam pattern matching would bother me more. However, as it is, the pattern is busy enough that I don't think it's too painfully horrible that it doesn't match. (And, I have to say, the RTW skirt that I liked ALSO didn't pattern match at the side-seams, so I don't feel too bad.)

This was one of the more expensive things in my mini-wardrobe (and it wasn't that expensive): £8.50 for the linen, £3.50 for the interlining, plus the satin bias tape, plus a (stupidly expensive) zip. Altogether, it came to about £15. The RTW skirt I liked so much was more than double that, AND it wasn't nearly so well made, if I do say so myself!

Since I had a really busy print on my first "bottom" in my wardrobe, I went for plain white for the second:

Ottobre 02-2014-06 shorts in white

Aren't those literally the least exciting things you have ever seen in your life? No, really, it's the world's least interesting shorts pattern in plain white, and WORSE, I actually made the same pattern (Ottobre 02-2014-06) a fortnight ago in marginally less uninteresting turquoise linen, so you've seen it before very recently. I finished my seams just like last time: flat-felling on the crotch seams for durability, binding on the side seams, waistband facing and hems.

Seam binding on my white shorts. Also apparently EVERY WRINKLE IN THE WORLD D:

My binding is pretty cute: I dug out a random little piece of broderie anglais to make into bias binding for this project, as I discovered that anything in any other colour would show through the white fabric. In fact, the bound seam allowances still do show through a little more than I would like, but I can't do anything about that. And... I'm not sure there is anything more to say about these shorts. I've updated my PR review for competition purposes here, if you care. I've worn and washed my turquoise shorts twice already so I am pretty sure that these will get plenty of wear as well.

Cost-wise, the white fabric, of which I used 1m, set me back the princely sum of £1/m. The zipper was twice that price! Bargain shorts: £3.