Patterns - Love Notions
Allegro Pants & Shorts and
Rhapsody Blouse
Fabric - Fabricland
Skills - Border prints, serging inside and outside corners
With summer heat finally here, it was time to take stock of my wardrobe and I was definitely lacking in clothes that allowed me to be cool when the temperature gets hot! Fortunately for me, Love Notions has just come out with the Allegro pattern for pants and shorts as well as short and ankle-length skirts. As usual with a Love Notions pattern - you get options!
Anyone who knows me can testify that I'm totally in love with border and panel prints! And when I saw the maxi skirt made by Tiffany Brusacorum Hering in a border print, I knew I had to make one as well. My days of wearing shorts in public are past me now, but long skirts are so comfortable in the heat - the Allegro was perfect!
I found a nice light cotton denim with white embroidery down one side that looked perfect and I already had a light embroidered cotton Rhapsody that I'd made in testing - the two together could work out very well indeed!
Since I'm just shy of 5'8" and the pattern is made to hit below the navel, I knew I was going to need extra length so that it would fit my taller than normal height and so that the skirt would sit comfortably. I added 2" to the bottom of the pattern right away.
The next decision was which way to have the fabric - both sides were attractive, but I decided to go with the darker side. The pattern was quick to cut out and I was ready to sew. Since there is a slit up each side, the side seams would have to be sewn on my sewing machine. That meant that I needed to serge the edges of the front and back pieces so that they didn't fray.
There is a jog on each side to allow for the slit and this meant serging around corners which actually isn't that hard. I serged down from the waist to the first corner - an inside one - and when I reached it, lifted the foot, straightened the fabric, dropped the foot again and serged to the next corner which was an outside one.
I serged to the very end of the outside corner, stopped and lifted the foot to release the tension on the needles.
I gently pulled the needle threads to create a little slack.
Then I re-positioned the fabric so that the needles would start at the top of the corner, lowered the foot again and serged to the end. I also serged the bottom edge to get it ready for hemming.
The result is a fully finished edge which won't fray.
Now I could stitch up the side seams to the marking for the slit and press them back. I stitched the corners as instructed by the tutorial and pinned the hem and slit facings in place, pressed them and was now ready for hemming.
Since this is woven, a simple straight stitch takes care of it very quickly. A final pressing and it was time to attach the waistband.
This is a very quick pattern. I'm sure from start to finish that it took no longer than an hour and the result is a very comfortable, cool skirt that I will be wearing a lot this summer. Paired with a Rhapsody Blouse, you have the quintessential summer outfit!
You can get the patterns through these links to the Love Notions website:
