Sewing: Attachments

Did something a little different yesterday.  I stepped out of my comfort zone of sock monkeys and kid's clothing and sewed for a big person.  Other than myself. 
She was looking to add some fabric onto a dress and couldn't really decide whether she wanted to add a big block of bright pink or cream to the bottom.  I suggested black. Knowing how hard it is to match blacks I figured tulle would cover a multitude of sins.

My client needed eight extra inches and I wanted to make sure that the new addition wasn't too EXtremely obvious.

After painstakingly folding and cutting, I found that the tulle wasn't going to go completely around.  Working with a three or so inch gap, I had to cut an extra bit of tulle to overlap. 

It turned out pretty nice!

As bizarre as this sounds, almost as soon as the last stitch was made on this dress I got a phone call from one of my Sunday school students.  She needed a couple of her skirts fixed.  Bam.  My yesterday afternoon was full of new surprises.  I'd never done anything like that before either, but I had an idea as to how I was going to do it.  Most people use a cotton fabric, that has no stretch.  And they use fabrics that, in my opinion, are gaudy or tacky.  (how is that for my *honest* opinion?)  That wasn't going to be the case with me.  I dug around in my stash of jersey and pulled out three versatile pieces and set to work.
The first skirt.  All I did was sew it about an inch up from the bottom.  I didn't want it to be flush with the bottom of the skirt.  Basically, I started sewing at the hem, so as to leave a little extra gap.

The second skirt.  The slit was in the front and I used some of my stretchiest jersey to give her a little extra leg room when she sat down.  A pretty fuschia.  When standing, it isn't but barely visible.  And that's just how I wanted it.

The third skirt.  The slit was on the side and I figured stripes would be cute. (*sigh* me and my undying love for stripes) She was so happy about them all and I managed to make each skirt with a discreet jersey panel that was agreeably cute.  In all three skirts, I either sewed directly over the current stitch, so as to blend, or I sewed next to it creating a double stitch. (like in the skirt below).  I matched the thread colors as closely as possible so it wouldn't be too obvious there was a new addition. 

Busy!