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Man alive, I can't believe I finally finished sewing this skirt! Hey my hair isn't really this red! I was cleaning up the light in the photo and my hair color changed!
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Seems like I've had the
embellishment inspiration for
this skirt skirt, pinned to
my Sewing Inspiration board forever. Of course, I have one or two other items on that board as well - ok, I think over 600 garments- and I might just not make all of them!
Basics -
1) I drafted the pattern as a straight skirt, using my sloper. Here's how I did the pattern work.
2) I got together with
my buddy Susan and had a lot of discussion about whether or not to put the two layers of ruffle on both front and back or just front - we agreed front only. It's a heavy
embellishment.
3) I was using a
slight-stretch denim from my fabric inventory. Hummmm while the
no-waistband look is flattering - that is a challenge. Don't want the waist slipping over time, especially with the heavy embellishment. So...I did two things
a) I cut a partial
lining out of
heavy utility twill fabric. I both sewed it in and also tacked it down along the waistline to help the skirt hold it's shape.
b) Also.... I
stayed the waist, by running a grosgrain (or was it a petersham?) ribbon along the inside of the waistline, tightened it so it's a touch shorter than the waist circumfernce, then sewed that in place along the waistline as well.
Hopefully that waist is not going anywhere it isn't supposed to now. We'll see over time how the fit works. I got the ribbon stay idea from my Bustier claass.
I really like the fit of this skirt
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| My Skirt's Rose Embellishment |
4) The
Embellishment took a while to work out. A lot of laying, pinning (
safety pins as well as
straight pins) and
hummmming went on. Good to have Susan around while I did that. I turned up the denim
ruffle edges only once and used a
faux-serger stitch (
I don't have a serger but I have decorative stitches that mimic some of the concepts), Too much bulk for a twice turned hem on the ruffles.
The
rose was just challenging. I also spent a lot of time with the original photo of the rose on the embellishment garment (*), thinking about how what percentage of the height of my skirt, that rose, and the ruffle trim, should cover.
Too big and we're talking Carmen Miranda - which is fine if that is what you going for. Also getting the folds within the rose center was tricky. If I were to
recreate this skirt, I might use a
mid-weight denim. I used a heavy weight here.
