7/20/10

Yum! I had something called hû pî juân breakfast, while watching TV. I was pretty excited because TODAY was going to be the first day of my SEWING class. (It is from 1-4, Tuesday through Friday) We were going to be making 3 skirts, one each day, but one of the skirts take 2 days. Not super complicated. Today we were going to make the first skirt, which is just a gathered skirt with a ribbon as the embellishment that I got JUST in time for that day.

So sewing was really, really fun. I love that class because I have a lot of fun, and is more worth while then saying "I'M BORED!!" for four hours. I have to say, my skirt turned out alright, but the ribbon parts was kind of not straight (the stitches, I mean). I think these are the steps: So first I had measured my waist (28 in.) and then measured how long I wanted the skirt. Then, with some crazy math stuff, I figured out how big the piece of fabric should be. Haha, I didn't know how to multiply a whole number to a decimal. I had to ask the older girls (^-^). Next, we did the super easy but important step. IT WAS JUST SEWING THE FABRIC TOGETHER. Doing the seam is really easy, it's just pinning the fabric together and then sewing the bad sides of the fabric together to make the skirt wearable. Still, by that time, if I tried to put it on, it would fall onto my feet because it was too big to stay on my waist. That is because it is a GATHERED skirt. The waist band was pretty cool to figure out, it was like this: first use an iron to make an easy small hem (1/2-3/4 of an in.), the reason of using the irons because there is no need to sew the hem, ironing keeps it on. Then, make a larger hem (1 1/2 in.)  and sew on the very bottom of the hem. Then, once that is done, sew a top stitch, and yes, it is a stitch closer to the actual fold of the hem. So, imagine it like this: there is a fold, there are two stitches, one on the top and one on the bottom. Haha, I think that is the easier way to explain the waist band. The reason that we put the waist band in last is, well I think, because it is GATHERED. Sorry for mentioning it twice, but it's true. Gathers are like tiny folds, and how are people supposed to sew on a waist band and a bunch of folds at the same time? So instead, making a little hole in the fold, and using a safety pin, inch through the waist band, and HAND sew it together at the end. Oh yeah, before getting the waist band inside the fold, I first had to make the waist band an inch shorter than my actual waist, that way it would fit snug on. The navy blue ribbon was to be put on the very last. The thing is that #1: I can't sew straight (the design needed the ribbon to be sewn on directly to the skirt, and to ensure the ribbon to stay on the skirt forever, sewing it TWICE on the two different sides. Not surprising, but I just hate doing that) #2: I can't sew straight and #3: I HAD WHITE THREAD (there was no other thread that was with me at that time) that would stand out like crazy on navy ribbon. Urg. After I sewed the ribbon on, I checked to see how ... "nice" it looked. Haha, it was the worst stitch that I had ever done. THere was one little problem, and that was the ribbon was a centimeter short, so the ribbon didn't connect. So, I covered it up with a little bow, and sewed it on. I wasn't thinking straight at that time, so I guess that it was kind of straight. When my dad came to pick me up, he was like "WOW!!!! THAT IS THE STRAIGHTEST LINE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!! GOOD JOB!!!!" Haha, that was pretty weird, until I figured out that no one was going look at the stitch an inch away from the skirt, so I decided to let it go.

I showed my mom the skirt when I got home, and I have to say, I was pretty proud of it then. I wanted to have a shirt (tight) thing of the same fabric, and layer them, so that the shirt would cover the waist band, so (too many so's) it would look like a dress. PRETTY!