In-progress skirt alterations

October has been a really busy month for me. Between work, hunting for a new job to replace my non-music part-time job, and an unusually busy social schedule for me (including 2 weekends in a row of visiting out-of-state friends), I've barely had any time to sew at all. :-( What little I've had has been mostly dedicated to making a from-scratch bag for a friend (she's paying me to make it, and I can't turn that down!) But I did at least start a new refashion, so I wanted to share that. Mostly for the selfish reason of making sure I get a post in this month so I can stay here with you all!

Another friend recently gave me a bag full of clothes--some with the request that I repair them for her, (including one that needs some definite refashioning so hopefully I can share that here before too long), and some for me to keep and do whatever I wanted with them. That's pretty much the perfect bribery for me to want to sew for other people! This skirt is one of the latter:

It's long, and denim, and was brand-new--tags still on and everything! And it has some really neat details.

Like a subtly two-toned zipper.

And the back, the shaping of which gives it the effect of having a train without the actual inconvenience of walking around in one. Love this!

The skirt was rather large on me, though. (No before shots of me wearing it, but it's pretty much the effect of the "after" shot in a diet ad.) I like the skirt as is, so all I'm doing is taking it in.

So far, I've managed to untack the facings and undo the topstitching around the side seams. Since those aren't topstitched down the length of the seam, I figured that would be the easiest place to take it in.

Then I put it on inside-out and pinned it to fit. As you can see, I do have to take it in pretty significantly at the top of the seam, but it'll taper out to the side seam pretty nicely.

So I have to actually stitch that down, take in the facing to match, and then redo some of the topstitching. Hopefully, I'll get to this before too long, but at least the seam-ripping and pinning was a good project for having about half an hour to do something between packing for the latest weekend trip!