Paper Bag Waist Skirt, featuring AMAZING photography

As promised, here's the paper bag waist skirt.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera and had to use my camera phone.  It's a few years old, and it was free.  Needless to say, the pictures are not impressive.  Be prepared. 

As mentioned in my previous post, I was inspired to make a paper bag waist skirt after reading a tutorial on Adventures in Dressmaking.  I won't put together a step by step tutorial, but I thought I'd share some pictures from my experience.

First, I went to the fabric store.  I found the type of fabric I wanted (a cotton sateen, 50% off), but I couldn't decide on a color.  Navy?  Forest green?  Chocolate brown?  After some pondering, I narrowed it down to two choices.  Practical Darci said, "You should get the grey.  It will look nice for work and you can wear it with lots of things."  Fun Darci said, "Hot pink!  Pretty!" 

So I bought both, thinking I could use one for a different project.  Then decided to start with the hot pink.  Practicality is overrated. 

Second, I learned my lesson from a previous disaster and prewashed the fabric.  I know you're supposed to do that, but I never did it consistently until I washed a simple top I made a few weeks ago.  The color ran, the fabric warped, and I nearly lost 3 other shirts that had soaked up some of the apparently water-soluble dye.  I suppose that fabric was in the clearance section for a reason. 

Luckily, there were no laundry disasters this time.  After prewashing, I laid out my materials.  Nermal helped. 

Then I cut out some fabric and worked on installing the zipper.  Nermal continued to be helpful.

Perhaps due to Nermal's helpfulness, the first time I sewed one half of the zipper on backwards and had to rip out the seam.  Such setbacks happen, and it's always better they happen early in the process.  In the end, I ended up with this.
Where's the zipper?

Ta Da! 

Although this tutorial didn't call for one, I prefer to use invisible zippers.  I think clothing calls for a little magic, and where's the magic in this trend for visible zippers?  I didn't like it when whoever it was did it on Project Runway, and I don't like it now that it's everywhere.  It's just not my style.  Call me old fashioned. 

Anyway, with the zipper semi-successfully installed (more on that later), what's left is sadly a lot of grunt work.  Unless you're making something with dozens of pieces, like a quilt, it's surprising how little "sewing" there is in the sewing process.  The good news about this pattern is that it doesn't call for a lot of pinning.  The bad news is that it does call for a lot of pressing.  Have to press the top and bottom hems.  Have to press the belt.  Have to press the tiny little belt loops.  In the end it was worth the lightly toasted fingers (this fabric got HOT), but it was definitely a tedious process.  Oddly, Nermal had no interest in helping me press things. 

 I also have a very technical measurement system.  When something needs a 1 inch hem, I cut out a piece of scrap paper to measure the fold.  Much easier than messing around with a ruler or tape measure. 

It also got a little toasted.

Here's one "action shot" of me pretending to sew a belt loop (right before I actually sewed the belt loop).

I also did some hand sewing to make an invisible hem around the bottom.  I could have used the machine, but I think that if you're not using a professional machine a blind hem usually looks better.

After the hard work, I ended up with this:

I know, it's a terrible picture.  Not only am I using a camera phone and taking a picture of myself in a mirror, I didn't even bother to put on a non-clashing top.  I'll try to post better ones once Ben comes back with my camera.  Here's an equally terrible close up of the top. 

I'm not sure if I am too impressed by my own handiwork, but I think it looks pretty good. 

One thing I learned for future sewing endeavors is that I should have tried it on before I finished sewing the zipper seam.  I bought a long zipper, then thought it seemed way too long when I pinned it to the skirt pieces.  I only used ~7 inches of the 12 inch zipper, and it's a little tight.  I have to put it on over my head.  Oops. 

Still, not too shabby.  Paper bag waist skirts are a trend, and I hesitate to buy trendy things.  I figure if I make trendy items for myself, I can save money AND theoretically be fashion-forward.  Here's the rundown of cost:

• 1 yard of fabric: $4.99 (50% off)
• 1 invisible zipper: $1.79 (used a 40% off coupon)
• Approximately 5 hours of my time, during which I watched 3 episodes of Pushing Daisies and Confessions of a Shopaholic (not as bad as expected, btw) via Netflix Watch Instantly

Total: $6.78 plus tax*

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to find a skirt for less, or at least not until the trend has run its course.  Plus, I never would have bought a skirt in such an impractical color. 

*If we wanted to be technical, I should also throw in a few pennies for thread and amortize the cost of my $7 iron, but I'm going to write those off as sunk costs.  (The iron's probably fully depreciated by now anyway since I bought it 10 years ago.)  The sewing machine was a gift from my Aunt Monna, and my Grandma Mary Lou bought me my nice Gingher sewing scissors when I was a child.  It took a decade or so for a love of sewing to kick in, but I definitely appreciate them now.