One yard cardi, one yard skirt — Victoria Martinez

Last year, I bought two yards of this lovely double sided jacquard from Matchpoint, This year, I pulled out a cute “one yard line” pattern to make it into a skirt and cardi set - Butterick 9476, circa lat fifties.

A classic “quick” project that didn’t go quickly, I cut out the skirt piece one night thinking, damn this is gonna be fast and fun. The pattern is a bust 34, so the waist was a… 26. And I cut it as such. Then went oh right that won’t fit at all. I also cut it as two pieces instead of on the fold so there would have been a centre front seam, no thank you.

So the next night I got to work on this, I switched tacks and cut out the body of the cardigan from the skirt pieces, adding seam allowance at centre back to make it fit properly and aligned the front edges with the selvedge (previously the skirt bottom).

This pattern was designed to be lined but to make it extra quick/show off the jacquard, I omitted the lining. However, I didn’t eliminate the edge seam allowances where the lining would have been attached. This was a gamble, but I’d held the pattern pieces up to my body and decided the extra half inch would work.

Sleeves were also cut so instead of a hem or a lining, there would be the selvedge. LOVE TO SKIP A HEM

Found this fabric hard to mark but didn’t want to poke through the pattern paper nor trace it out to be able to nicely thread mark the darts, so i just pin marked the tip and the beginning of the dart legs, then eyeballed the sewing. I also ditched the back darts and converted to ease. Weird combo of careful and shitty sewing on this one, I tell ya.

That careful sewing: the actual seams. While the dart kind of makes this non reversible, I still wanted supremely clean seams where they existed, so the centre back is clean finished and zig zag topstitched down (the stitching barely shows, which is great). I wish I’d done this part with a flat fell as I did the shoulders, which doubles as strengthening that seam, but also looks pleasantly invisible. The sleeves are not felled, but are zig zag stitched down into the sleeve so are fairly well integrated as well.

I didn’t want to finish the jacket edges without selvedge until I finished the skirt, because I wanted to make those finishing decisions based on how the combo would look together.

So the skirt I recut doing a quick and dirty move the skirt side to side to add the extra four inches i’d need for the waist, and actually cut it on the fold this time. I ended up doing the front pleats and back darts the same quick and dirty way as i had for the top, but the side darts (no side seams) i did by pin marking then drawing on a hip curve when i tried them on.

At this point I decided a straight straight skirt as long as this one (illustration looks like knee length but it was solidly midi) was not gonna work for me. So then design decision: shape and effectively eliminate the one yard design of only a back seam? Or hem it up, eliminating the selvedge bottom?

I went for making it a mini. This gave the chance to do a nice deep reverse hem (two projects in a row with this, wow) on the bottom edge, to show off the other side of the jacquard! What a treat! This also eliminated the back kick pleat, woo! This came out so smoothly and is well secured by a zig zag stitch, which I’d already discovered was more or less invisible on this fabric.

So, the little bit of selvedge I had left over from the original cutting could adorn the neckline, which I’d also enclosed in bias binding for a bit more strength. The downside of omitting lining on this pattern was of course nowhere to hide interfacing so every bit counts; despite my efforts you’ll see in these photos that one side of the neckline flops open without fail.

The bottom of the jacket got the selvedge that had previously belonged to the skirt. I folded corners in at 45 degrees to mimic a mitered look with the front edge selvedge which had been cut on with the jacket.

The waistband of the skirt got real, actual ban-rol inserted in it, sourced from Wawak in an entire roll because I couldn’t find any locally or by the yard at any of the Canadian vendors I use. Happily, the firm waistband produced suits my tastes and my nemesis crumpling waistband is nowhere to be seen here, so the roll will likely have a long and happy life in future trousers and skirts.

Back closure is a lapped zip and hook an eye on the waistband.

At last I added a pocket to the jacket and couldn’t figure how to interface without having something visually displeasing peeking out inside so this is a bit risky. It’s a tiny long pocket, just phone sized, for the occasions at work when I’m walking and talking without my purse in tow. It’s also more or less invisible, tacked with a zig zag because again, nothing fancier needed for invisibility, and hopefully it won’t stretch out too badly. I probably should have put some twill tape along its top edge at least but that I actually forgot about.

And that’s all she wrote on this little project! All this work wear and nowhere to go… but I had been putting all these types of projects off and they’re frankly what I want in my wardrobe so no more fighting it.

Pattern: Butterick 9476
My measurements: Bust 35, Waist 30, Hips 39
Size made: Bust 34, skirt adapted (not rly graded) for a 30 waist
Fabric: double sided jacquard (forget the fiber but at least it’s deadstock) from Matchpoint
Next time: paying attention matters even more when you’re doing a quick and easy project. Baby mistakes will make it not so quick and easy