Skirt and Jacket - getting started

I’ve been thinking about making a wider long skirt for winter. I have all these narrow long skirts that I love and I wear them with knee high boots but I got this riding skirt in my head and it won’t let go. Now, the skirt I am making will not be mistaken for a riding skirt but it does flare out and it will go below the knees so there is that.

Plus I will be using some fabric that I don’t care about and making the skirt pattern for the first time so if it doesn’t work out, it won’t be a total loss. I also have so much of this fabric that I decided to make some sort of top to go with the skirt. I settled on a cardigan style unlined jacket that I have made a couple of times with success.

The fabric is a dark chocolate, almost purple brown polyester. I remember buying it because it was on SALE (what else is new?). It also has a very slight texture to it - hard to tell really, even up close. But I think I thought it might make nice pants.

After I cut it out, I decided that this time I would use some of the non-iron-on interfacing I have yards of in a box. Not that I care about the fabric but I have been having “issues” with iron-on, in that it makes little bubbles after a few washings. I stopped using iron-on for that reason some years ago but I went back to it for the convenience. However, if I am serious about sewing nice things, I should get used to using sew-in interfacing because it will do a nicer job IF I sew it in right. In the next photo, I have pinned the interfacing to the facing part of the front section of the jacket. I ironed the front first and then placed the interfacing on it and ironed it too. Then I went around the edges and pinned the pieces together. I will baste down the fold line and later, when I top stitch the front edge, I will take the basting out because the top stitching will catch the raw edge of the interfacing in the fold. Or something like that.