SoNP Skirt #1

Skirt #1 for the "Summer of No Pants" challenge (a skirt a week for 4 weeks). Given the current fabric embargo in force here, I'll be making all my 4 from stash.

This is last week's skirt, and I did get it done on time (finished Sat. am), really. It's the pics part that slows me down. Even with a flash it was tough to get these to come out. I need to find a better photo location somewhere around here, but that's a task for another day.

As you can see, this is another pieced, slapdash, summer skirt made up of various quilting cottons; TNT self-drafted pattern; comfy drawstring waist. Here's the back:

Skirt #2 is on track for completion by the end of the week, but no promises about when I'll have a photo of it!

Another just-for-fun skirt

You'd think, having completed the Pattern Review Mini-Wardobe Challenge, that I'd have had enough of sewing for a while. Yet I felt this odd compulsion yesterday evening to sit down and make another skirt.

But not just any skirt. This one had to be a goofy, slap-dash, just for fun skirt. An anti-challenge skirt. A skirt that might get posted online, but which is not part of a wardrobe or in the running for any prize other than, just possibly, even 'though it's only April, my most favorite thing I make this year.

I used my TNT self-drafted, drawstring Fat Quarter Skirt pattern, based on the Sew What, Skirts! method, and went to town with some large scraps from the quilting stash:

* big bold flowers: Anna Maria Horner

* pink on white bird-in-a-tree: Jennifer Paganelli

* blue floral hem: Kaffe Fassett

Total sewing time: about 2 hours, including cutting fabric and making the drawstring. I eyeballed the blue border piece, with the help of a ruler, rather than cut a new pattern piece for it. Pins employed during the entire process: 0.

The hem is faced with a bias strip, with a length of lime green rick-rack sandwiched in the seam, because I found it in my "trims" drawer and it was just the right length. Don't you just love using something up?

The back is similar to the front, but with a narrower piece of the pink-on-white, and more of the bold floral.

I'm itching to wear this, but eeesh, It's COLD here: overcast with intermittent rain and temps barely into the low 70s, if that. (Our daytime high on Wed. was only 69! laugh if you want, but that's chilly for Hawaii.) So, I'm huddled in yoga pants and a velour pullever, with fuzzy slippers on my feet, waiting for the sun to come out and warm me up.

A-line skirt #2

Inspired by the success of my pink A-line skirt, but decidedly uninspired by the prospect of more darts and zippers on what was intended to be a super-quickie project, I decided to make the next one with a drawstring waist. This is the front:


And here's the back:


I used my "Sew What! Skirts" A-line pattern, and redrew the "A" angle to be about an inch narrower on each side at the hem. The challenge with a drawstring is that any skirt big enough to pull on over my hips would have way too much fabric bunched up around the waist by the time it's cinched in. So I compromised, drafting the waist to be several inches larger than the finished size for fitted waist, then left about 3" open at the top of the left side seam, with the drawstring ends coming out at that side instead of at the center front (which, conveniently, eliminated any need to make a buttonhole). The side-seam opening makes the skirt pull-on-able, and allows for a narrower waist to keep the gathers manageable.

Because I was working with fabric pieces from the stash (Amy Butler and Michael Miller), I didn't have enough length of the pink print to allow for a folded-down drawstring casing, so I used a separate strip of the green to make that part. Again, I pieced two fabrics together first before cutting the front, then pieced three more and cut the back. Much easier to do that way than to draft, cut, and seam precise pieces that add up to the desired front/back shape.

The drawstring is a long strip -- I think around 1.25" -- pressed lengthwise (wrong side in, raw edges matching), then raw edges folded in to the center and pressed again, (like double-fold bias tape, but not on the bias) edge-stitched to close.

Rather than make the drawstring casing and then thread the drawstring through it, I made the drawstring first. Then, with the casing piece sewn to the waist edge of the skirt, I pressed under about 1/2" of the raw edge. I lay the drawstring in place and folded the casing edge down over it to the inside, and stitched in place with the drawstring inside.

I also topstitched up and down over the casing and drawstring vertically at the right side seam (opposite the opening) to hold the drawstring in place so it won't pull out when I toss the skirt in the wash. I finished the drawstring ends by putting the skirt on and tying the drawstring to fit with a bow, long ends hanging down. Cut off to leave about 6-8" of each end, and tied each end with a knot.

As I wear it, the "waist" actually sits about an inch below my navel, which I find a comfortable fit for a casual skirt. I finished the open edges at the top of the left side seam with a very narrow double-fold edge. Yes, it leaves a couple inches of open slit below the waist at the side, but since I never, ever tuck in a shirt, it's hidden by whatever T, tank-top, or camisole I happen to be wearing on the top half.

A-line skirt #1 (pink)

This is the quickie project that began the skirt binge I've been so remiss about photographing.

It's self-drafted from the basic A-line instructions in the ever-so-clever "Sew What!: Skirts" book.

I pieced the fabric first: sewing a large piece of each print together, then pressed seam to one side, edge-stitched, and trimmed the SA with pinking shears. Then I cut the lotus print at an agle and seamed another piece of the main fabric to it, finished the same way. When I had two biggish pieces I used my pattern piece (drafted on freezer paper) to cut the front and back.

Fabrics are Michael Miller quilting cotton from the stash. I figured adding a strip of the lotus blossoms was so much more interesting than just a plain skirt all of the same fabric. There's another similar strip on the back side.

I put in a lapped side zip and some very slap-dashy darts to accommodate hippage. Waist is finished with a piece of packaged double-fold bias tape. Narrow double-turned hem. It's a few inches above the knee, comfy for sitting at my desk or running errands, but not so short as to be age-inappropriate.

The A-line angle turned out just a bit wider than perfect, but this is hardly haute couture and never meant to be, so I don't care.