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Erin helped me get back my sewing mojo – so she’s got a place in my heart! And on top of that, I also find her beautiful ;-)! But let’s start with the lost sewing mojo: In September, I spent a week at a French Chateau, taking a Burda sewing course (I wrote about this week only in German, but feel free to swoon over the pictures here). At the chateau, I literally spent the entire week making one garment, a blazer. Although it was great to learn so many new techniques and make such a bespoke garment, it somehow drained all my sewing energy. And when I got back, I didn’t really want to get back to the sewing machine.
However, sewing addict that I am, during summer I had already booked my spot at another sewing weekender in the German city Würzburg that took place only 10 days later. So instead of taking a break, I found myself cutting out various projects to take with me. All very easy, a lot of jersey, nothing very challenging. And then I thought of Sew Over It’s Erin: She is an easy sew, but has some interesting details with pockets and a button placket. I am very happy with my other two makes from the ebook „Capsule Wardrobe: City Break“ (my shirt dress Alex and my top Molly), so I thought Erin would be the perfect project to ease me back into sewing and keep it interesting at the same time. Plus, I had fabric sitting in my stash that I had bought with the skirt in mind. Seemed like fate.
So on to the cutting table the fabric went – and laying there, it revealed its ugly secret: It did not take well to being folded and had creases all over. I wasn’t able to get them out, even with the most vigorous ironing. But since my sewing mojo had come flowing back a little, I didn’t want to give up. I engaged in some pattern puzzling and found out that you can easily fit the short version of Erin on 1m of fabric. Luckily I had 1,5m, so I was able to cut around the worst creases.
I made my usual adjustments, graded from size 8 at the waist to size 10 at the hips, and made a sway back alteration. You could probably get away without that on Erin, as you have two darts at the back that you could use to adjust the back piece – but I find it easier to just go with the sway back adjustment. The skirt has a very slim silhouette, so in order to avoid bulk at the hips, I chose a lighter-weight cotton for the front pocket piece. I still had some black and golden cotton left from making my Everyday Skirt from Malou Paris, that worked perfectly.
Erin really is an easy sew – as always with Sew Over It, the pattern pieces come together nicely, and thanks to the very detailed instructions in the ebook, the skirt could even be a beginners project. I did have to move the button holes a little bit – due to the slim fit, I moved them a little bit towards the middle to have more room. Now they’re not right in the middle of the placket – that does bother the perfectionist in me, but otherwise the lower two buttons would have popped when I sit down… The solution is okay for this version, but for my next Erin I want to solve the issue.
I don’t want to grade up the size, because the back piece fits perfectly, and I don’t want to mess that up by adding more fabric. I finally came up with the option to just add 1cm onto each front panel – not on the side seams, but towards the middle, just so that the pieces overlap a little more in the middle and give the buttons more room. I am going to try that with my next version and report on how it went! You see, I’ve already got the next version planned – the fabric swap at the Würzburg sewing weekender had some really nice lilac velvet on offer that just screamed „Erin“! But before I go onto the next one, let’s have a look at the Flying Needle sewing blog summary for this Erin:
Pattern: Skirt Erin from Sew Over It’s ebook „My Capsule Wardrobe – City break“
Fabric: Some mystery cotton/canvas from the remnant sale at a local shop
Changes made: Graded from size 8 at the waist to size 10 at the hips and made a 1,5cm sway back alternation; I didn’t make any changes to the length – the skirt is intended to be short, but on me comes down to me knees, which I really like
Summary: I like Erin a lot – it’s a simple shape, but can be done up in a lot of different fabrics. So the perfect wardrobe staple – I will try out a winter version next!
What about you? Do you have a pattern that got your sewing mojo started again? Tell me about it in the comments!
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I love this skirt! It’s such a lovely style and the buttons and fabric that you chose are perfect.
Thank you Let’s get sewing! Let’s see how it’ll look in a different fabric!