Getting From A to B

I had an epiphany a couple of days ago, as I was trying to decipher how I'd turn an unlined, vented pencil skirt-with-self-fabric-facing pattern into a lined, vented pencil skirt with petersham-facing pattern.

I know, it sounds boring, but it was the substance of an a-ha!

Here's what I realized. The V8640 pattern instructions are not going to help me this time. Fortunately, I've used them a few times already, so the nub is engrained. But you can't use instructions that don't instruct you to do what you need to do.

Being the internet research queen that I am (oh, I'll go there), I found awesome tutorials on how to accomplish the task. In addition to those, I have to credit Ms. Sewaholic, Tasia, who does amazing tutorials that rival her excellent patterns. This young woman is an example to us all... Check out these relevant posts:

• Inserting a zipper into a facing unit
• Inserting a facing unit into a fashion fabric skirt shell

What I finally understood is that point A is the place where nothing exists. Point B is the finished product. The only way to get from one to the other is to problem-solve. The only way to problem-solve is to determine the order of operations.

Were I to begin assembling the Tailored Suit skirt, without understanding all the steps, the likelihood would be error. One thing I've learned from working on very detailed projects is that you need to know exactly what comes next (at least theoretically).

So, I spent a few hours compiling and cross-referencing the awesome tutorials that others have spent hours compiling, and came up with 32 steps of (really detailed) skirt-making instruction.

Below, I'm outlining the (as-yet-untested) basic order of operations (not detailed). For my own purposes, I referenced a bunch of great sections of the Sewaholic and Fashionable stitch tutorials mentioned in this post or linked to. 

• Sew the fashion fabric darts. Sew vent. Sew side seams.
• Sew the lining tucks. Sew vent. Sew side seams.
• Confirm the lining is the appropriate length. Make those adjustments.
• Attach the petersham facing to the lining (now it's called the facing/lining unit).
• Insert the zipper into the facing/lining unit.
• Insert the facing/lining unit to the skirt at the zipper, and then at the waist.
• Attach the lining to the vent of the skirt shell.
• Hem the skirt shell.
• Invisibly slip stitch a turned-under lining to the hemmed skirt shell.

Note: I've distilled 32 detailed steps into 9 bullets. There's a lot I'm not getting into. But it gives you an idea.

How do you approach new elements of TNT projects? How do you approach projects in general? Let's talk.