I am fairly new to sewing and I am curious about the best fix for a skirt that I recently made. It is a modified straight skirt (Burda Magazine, 2/ 2004, #118) I am sewing it in a somewhat heavy cotton/poly “canvas”.
The skirt front has an extension which form a back contoured yoke. There are no darts on the yoke, but the lower section of skirt has a dart on either side of the center back zipper.
I made the skirt, but when I try it on the zipper stands away from the body. What would be the best way to fix this?Also, the darts on the back of the skirt have a bit of a dimple. What is the cause of this?
Thanks for the help! I really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
Barb Solomon
Replies
I remember this skirt. The dimpled darts are probably too short. This is easy to fix. The back standing away is not so easy to fix as this doesn' have a side seams on yoke. It is probably a little too big in waist in the back. This can be fixed in the pattern, but you would need to add a couple of darts to the waist after the fact.
Nancy
First of all the dimples that you are talking about with the darts are they at the end of the dart? If so then you did not sew the dart completely or the stitching came undone. First you really must sew all the way to the end of the dart and shorten the stitches as you get to the very point. Then when taking it off of the machine leave an extra long thread tail so that you can tie it off several times. The other possibility is that that you did not press it over a curved surface but actually pressed the pucker into it. Try pressing it over a curved surface like a tailors ham one of the curved surfaces of a tailors board. As far as the zipper pulling away or curling away from the body the problem is usually because you did not stabilize the fabric where the zipper was installed and the fabric actually stretched or shrank and since the zipper tape is very stable it decided to follow the lead of the fabric and is pulled by the fabric. The first thing you should do is take the zipper out and stabilize the area for the zipper. Also measure the section that you are going to insert the zipper in and make sure that there has been no more stretching or shrinkage. After stabilizing the area then baste the zipper in by hand making sure that you do not stretch or otherwise twist the fabric then stitch as usual by machine. Of course the problems that you are experiencing are the reason I rarely put zippers in by machine anymore but when I do I always hand baste in place. Good Luck
Thanks Nancy and Terry!
I will definitely can try to re doing the zipper and pressing the darks with a tailors ham! The idea of the back waist section being too small sounds like a possibility!
Thanks for the great suggestions!
Barb Solomon
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