The perils of going against the grain

My sewing journey so far hasn’t been great in 2018 as I have only completed two projects.

-Started and failed at the Lotte Jasndotter Owyn trousers. Started these again last night, and it’s off to a bad start again. (Managed to cut out the pattern without a back piece waistband, and also the front leg is much longer than the back, le sigh).

-Attempted to make underwear and did a fail. Re-attempted making underwear, which seemed to be successful but when adding the elastic the stretch stitch option on my machine looks...meh.

The main thing I have been working on is a skirt. I can’t say that’s gone great, either. The sizing was totally off because I managed to cut it too big (I blame post-Christmas bloat). Trying to shave it down has been challenging....

Here it is before I attached the waistband. I love how I have done the godets, and my stitching is pretty smooth! The fabric is lovely to work with.

I thought I was being smart, using up scraps of my expensive Seasalt needlecord (£17.50 per meter, aaah!) , to make the waistband facing. Oh, how wrong I was. I did not cut it on the grainline, and it warped out of place, twisting away from the body.

If you look closely, you can see the main direction of the fabric is horizontal, and some of the waistband pieces are on the diagonal- hence what should be a flat, straight waistband turning into a round edged, weird nightmare. Because the grain line is off, these pieces pull out of shape.

I'm pretty irked, but have unpicked the band. The next problem with it is that the zip insertion wasn't as smooth as I had hoped. After chopping a good 2 inches out of the side for a better fit, perhaps I need to unpick the entire side, chop more out, and re-sew for a smooth finish.

Ugh.