Skirt With Subtle Detail (So Subtle You Can Hardly See It)

I haven't had much time for sewing much less blogging lately but a couple of weekends ago I threw myself in a chair with a cup of tea and started perusing vintage patterns online.  I came across a nice 70's skirt that I liked the seams on (can't find it again to show you).  The pattern wasn't my size and cost more than I cared for when it occurred to me I had seen a more modern version.  A quick check and yep:

Simplicity 2185.  The skirt seaming was exactly the same as the 70's version.  A quick trip while I was out one day into the pattern sale and it was mine for 99 cents.  I already had some brown cotton lawn I and a zipper to make it.  A little note:  There are so many versions of this skirt in the same pattern because it can be made of knits with an elastic waist or wovens with a zipper on the left side.

I wanted those front curved seams to show a little more than they did, so I thought about topstitching but that seemed dull - then I thought of the hemstitching I had been playing with a few weeks ago.  So before I sewed the front to the back I pressed each one out, put stabilizer behind the seams, put a 120/19 needle in my Brother sewing machine (a wing needle would have worked too), and used the Parisian stitch to give it a hemstitched look.  I practiced on a scrap first to see how those curves would do and it worked fine. 

When I was half way done I realized I probably shouldn't have decreased the length and width of my Parisian stitch so much but it was too late to do anything about it.  I didn't use the hemstitch on the side seams --especially since I had to let the right one out a little extra!  Although my extra work on the detail ended up so subtle it's not very noticeable I'm still very pleased with this skirt.  I wore it yesterday and loved it. 

I promised myself no more bad photos but that isn't happening right now.  Instead you get these two headless shots of me wearing it with a t shirt -- I have some shirts I thought would be nice with this but it was laundry day.  The skirt looks a little wrinkled around the hemstitching on the right so I pressed it later and it looks much better.  Neither photo shows the hemstitch detail well but it's there!

When I bought the brown lawn I knew I wanted a longer skirt out of it so I bought enough to make a self lining which I did out of a TNT a-line skirt pattern which I broadened near the bottom for more width for walking.  It's a soft swishy skirt perfect for this time of the year when I'm ready for a bit of Fall but the temperature is still in the 90's.  I also like having different skirt lengths for whatever mood I'm in -knee length or maxi.  And the maxi skirt covers the bruise on my leg where I hit it on the car door!