A completed Delphine skirt and another Bronte

Does anyone ever have one of those projects where they wait ages for their pattern to arrive in international mail, spend hours carefully tracing off the paper pattern and then pinning those pieces to washed and pressed fabric and cut them out to perfection only to look at those leftover pieces of fabric and be like 'I know exactly what those scraps will be and I need to make it now'?!

Dark as soon as you get in from work - The benefit of Scottish Autumn

Well this was one of those projects.... Right in the middle of making my autumn jacket. But looking at the 90ish cm of royal blue drill laid out and ready to be cut and scanning over to Tilly's love at first stitch I knew what must be done!

I think I traced and cut the 4 pattern pieces in about 20 minutes which is good for me and had them pinned up and ready to go within the hour. The only thing stopping me from completing in one night was my lack of appropriate zipper.

I love how this skirt keeps its A frams shape so well!

The pattern calls for an invisible zipper however given the weight of the fabric I decided that it might not hold up all that well (i read that this was the case some where but cannot for the life of me remember where!!) so went for this statement zipper instead. I really like how in the instructions Tilly tells you to interface the fabric behind the zip to stop puckering - its not something I would have even considered.

I think the metal zipper looksquite good although it does distract quite nicely from the less than perfect waistband!

I took a trip to Mandors at lunch and picked up an 8" zip and 6 awesome anchor buttons. I also picked up some new to me interfacing - it is an iron on and heavy duty and apparently was used by Barbour. It feels really good too and has a nice smooth and structured non iron side. In the end I think it may have been a little heavy as the waistband stands so upright and is really rigid. While I was here I also picked up some 100 % cotton jersey - coz you know, you have to have something to go with the skirt right?!

There's not much left to say about this top - the jersey was a little heavier than the last two versions and I cut the 12 as opposed to the 14 this time. I also fixed the tension problems on my overlocker - last time I somehow managed to thread it with the presser foot down ??? oops!

*Outtakes*

Also this is the only long (3/4) sleeved top I own, I've been lurking the cozy looking wool jerseys that seem to be arriving in the shops so I might make up another version. I kind of used the pattern for the sleeve length but cut them off when i thought they looked long enough. Not the most technical method ever but i am really loving the length of these sleeves. 

So the total outlay for this skirt was about £8.50 the buttons were £0.95 each but totally worth the anchor pattern and the rest was for the zip - I'm not counting the fabric or interfacing coz they were bought for the jacket. The top also came in a little more expensive at £11.99/m for the jersey.

I think I'm going to go back and get some more of these buttons!

So there you have it - does anyone else ever have an inspired make like this?

Have a good week folks

JCS xx