Sewing pattern review - McCalls 5474

After the last two projects, both of which are a bit unwearable, atleast to me, I decided I wanted to actually sew something useful that I could actually wear.

Enter McCalls 5474, which I've made before but have never reviewed.

Fabric: One meter of a black cotton, that my mom bought me from India atleast 2 years ago. This was bought before I started sewing clothes, hence the one-meter cuts. (I vaguely thought I'd make a bag with it, or something, I guess.) Anyhoo, I used up all of the fabric on this, but I love it as a skirt.

Pattern: McCalls 5474. View B. I've called this the Catholic school girl look before, but this is a great basic skirt pattern, once you add some length to it.

Pattern notes: This is a pretty easy sewing pattern, and I didn't make any adjustments to it at all. A couple of things worth commenting though:

- I made view B - where the pleats are sewn, which is a look I really like - since I get the fullness of the skirt, without the corresponding fullness at the hip (which I don't need at all.) The pleats are 3 inches long, but it might be worthwhile measuring where you want the fullness to end, and sewing it to that length. (For me, 3 inches worked ok, but I'm petite. I'd imagine that for a taller person, the pleats might end at the widest part of the hip, which might not be good.)

- Also on the pleats - it is worthwhile marking them reasonably carefully. Since there are 6 pleats in all, less than a quarter inch extra on each pleat will make a big impact to the finished skirt size. My skirt is a bit tight, and I think that's because I did my usual half-assed job of marking. (I don't really mark most things.)

- The border band in my fabric was part of the fabric, but it was originally attached horizontal to the stripes on the black, not vertical. Since I didn't want the stripes going horizontally on this, I cut the border out, and then re-attached it once I cut the skirt pattern out. It works fine, and I like the little extra touch the border brings - it makes this seem like a more expensive/finished skirt. (Bonus - the border is finished, so no hemming required.)

Apart from that, this is a nice, beginner pattern - very easy sewing, only 2 pattern pieces, etc.

Time taken: About 3 hours, split over two evenings.

Good things: Wearable & pretty, what's not to love?

Bad things: It is a bit tight, but that's just a reminder that I need to get my ass to the gym. It doesn't bother me too much though, since I never tuck in my skirts.

A little post-script:

A shot of my fabric closet (which to most normal people would be a linen closet.)



Notice anyone?



Yup. Evidently, I buy, fold and store fabric just for Biscuit to sleep on. She doesn't even bother to hide that she runs my life.