McCalls M5591 - summer skirt

So, I fell in love with this white broderie anglais skirt by Jigsaw. I have some similar fabric in my stash and I am currently obssessed with piping. It's hard to see in the picture, but the yoke and pockets are piped in white satin.

I found a pattern that was pretty close to the Jigsaw skirt - McCalls 5591. By this time I was distracted by another similar skirt I saw on Pinterest with box pleats and horizontal stripes, which seem to be everywhere on the web lately.

The awning skirt

Wouldn't you know it - I have some vintage fabric just like this in my stash too! It's more of a cornflower blue, in a one inch stripe, in a beautifully stiff cotton with a touch of sheen to the surface. (I keep calling them stripes but my husband corrects me that officially (in sporting uniform terms) horizontal stripes are really 'hoops'!)

Now the dilemma, which one to make? I decided to do both of course, but started with the hoops first as a test version. Not that I don't love it just as much, but I want my white embroidered version to be perfect and a lot can go wrong with piping (though not if you concentrate).

So here's version one - it's view one of the pattern, with soft released pleats. I just piped the pockets and am really happy with how they turned out.



My version of the awning skirt - McCalls M5591

 Working with stripes can be finicky, even big ones like these. You just have to pay more attention at all steps - cutting, pinning, seam stitching, zipper insertion. I'm not sure I made the right choice with the stripe placement on the yoke, but I can live with it. That was a tricky element because the yoke is curved and it's hard to picture where the stripe will end up near the side seam once its all sewn together.

Now I feel ready to take on the broderie anglaise version - guess who's spending this weekend making white satin piping?