So I Guess It's Slippery Fabric Week

After the mental exercise that was my shorts adventure, I figured that I had better sew some easy stuff without a lot of fitting to do. But that felt a little bit like a cop-out, so of course I had to make things more complicated; hence, last week's sewing was all relatively simple things with slippery fabric. I had a lot of chiffon and rayon in my stash in relatively small quantities that I wanted to use up, so it worked out perfectly. But rather than writing a term paper of a blog post, with too many slippery fabric garment visuals, I'll space them out this week.

First up: a simple maxi skirt in silvery-grey sparkly chiffon. I originally got this fabric as a potential material for my GoF dress, but ended up going in an entirely different direction with it. This fabric just sat in my stash, taunting me with the amount of space it was taking up. There was just enough of this somewhat sheer fabric to make a double-layered maxi skirt. Apparently maxi skirts are all the rage right now, but I don't have any brightly-colored tops or weird platform booties to wear with mine. Instead, I just took this as an opportunity to practice some more with my rolled hem foot, and it was...somewhat better. And if I ended up with a wearable skirt, well, then that was just a nice bonus.

It's a little too long to just wear with flip-flops, but I refuse to get those weird strappy sandal/boots/platforms with absurdly tall heels.

You can see just a hint of the two layers at the bottom when it's helpfully poofed-out by the wind.

I used the waistband from Lorenna Buck's free pattern, and just made the tube of the skirt as wide as the fabric was. Also, I will let you in on a secret: I cheated and kept the selvage instead of trying to finish the chiffon at the seams. Also, I only had a white 9" zipper on hand, and this was supposed to be a stash-busting project, but it's not too obvious, I don't think. Simple hook and bar closure, and it's done!

Please ignore the non-matching waistband and zipper.

I'm pretty sure this seam allowance "finish" is the ultimate in cheating. Also, glurgh at my inability to do a rolled hem over a seam.

You can see the sparkliness of the fabric better here.

Summary:
Fabric: 100% polyester chiffon in grey with silvery streaks, plus some leftover navy twill from my failed shorts muslin for the waistband lining.
Notions: Fusible interfacing, hook and eye, 9" zipper
Hours: More than it really should have, because of the chiffon's trickiness. This should really only be a one-hour project, but it turned into a more-hours project because of trying to line up the grain, figure out how to make it double layered, and wrestling with the rolled-hem foot.
Will you make it again? Probably not. I don't need very many long, floaty, tube-y skirts. In fact, this skirt feels almost costume-y.
Total cost: $3...yay for lightweight chiffon at Michael Levine Loft, where fabric is sold by the pound!
Final thoughts: This is such a cake-and-yet-not-cake skirt. I wear gathered-tube maxi skirts all the time, and yet I'm still unsure how to feel about this one, as the sparkles, length, and airy fabric inevitably make it seem more fancy than it really should be. I also made the waistband too large, so it sits below my natural waist. Tanit-Isis may be able to do the dropped-waist look (how fantastic is that dress!), but I feel like this just looks silly on me. Also, the tube isn't quite wide enough for me to take a full stride, so that's a little hampering. Even with all of those disclaimers, though, it's a perfectly serviceable skirt for when I'm not doing a lot of walking around, as long as I don't mind looking somewhat overdressed...like when I wore it last night to DM my first D&D session in much too long, and everyone in the party commented that I was the most dressed up DM they'd ever played with. Still, it was lots of epic fun and the adventure was full of ridiculous hijinks; I'd forgotten how much I miss table-top gaming! 

To be able to sit in this skirt without getting it all wrinkled, you'll need to perform a dexterity check.
Same goes for walking without tripping. Or using a rolled hem foot, for that matter.

Have you ever cheated and just used the selvage instead of finishing your edges? Or is that just me? If it is just me, please try not to throw too many tomatoes...because there's more of that cheating coming up. Maybe I should have just titled this "Cheating with Selvages Week."