Tag: skirts

This is my latest experiment – a circle skirt with an elasticated waistband. For those of you who read my elasticated a-line skirt tutorial, this one is made in exactly the same way. Instead of being triangular, the pattern piece is a quarter circle, which you then cut on a double fold in the fabric.

You have to be a bit careful with prints and circle skirts. If the print only goes one way up, you can end up with it going skew-wiff at the side seams. This particular print is so busy that it doesn’t really matter which way up it goes! Circle skirts also take up quite a lot of fabric. You can get one of my a-line skirts out of a metre and a half of fabric, but the circle skirt takes at least three metres. You also need five metres of trimming for the hem.

The print is lots of koi, highlighted with gold.

Here you can see the skirt displayed without and then with a petticoat underneath.

I was quite surprised the first time I made a circle skirt and saw it without a petticoat. You see full skirts so often as part of 1950s fashion illustrations, and they’re always drawn with the expectation that they’re going to be filled out with lots of petticoats. They look so different when they’re on their own – very flat, and almost disappointing.

I plan to wear this one to work tomorrow, without a petticoat. The one on the mannequin is a bit too tight for me these days, and I don’t fancy wresting with thirteen metres of dress net and fifty metres of trimming to make a new one before tomorrow morning! I keep thinking that perhaps I’ll buy one instead, from Petticoat Perfection, but somehow that seems like cheating, when I’m perfectly capable of making my own.

Mind you, I’m perfectly capable of doing lots of things, but that doesn’t mean they’re all at the top of my to-do list!

I had been planning to make some slippers today, but I realised that I was missing a vital ingredient – the soles! I’ll work on those another time.

Instead, I fished out two pairs of my fiancé’s trousers, which had been in a box destined for the charity shop. They were made from a really nice heavy brushed cotton, with a faint narrow pinstripe. I decided they’d be much better off being given a new home in my wardrobe, so I turned them into a skirt!

It turned out to be a sort of fishtail shape – straight to the knees, and then flared out at the hem. This was dictated by the shape of the trouser pieces, once I’d cut them up. The waistline is in my usual choice of bomber jacket elastic, and there’s a very narrow lace trim around the bottom.

I’m now quite tempted to raid a couple of charity shops, and see what they’ve got in the way of interesting trousers. Two different pairs, in alternating panels, might make a really pretty skirt.

I’ve seen the doctor again, and have been diagnosed with “secondary viral labyrinthitis”. Sounds more exciting than it is, I promise! I have been instructed not to stay in bed feeling sorry for myself, but instead to “potter about” doing a few gentle bits and pieces.

And so, I present to you another skirt:

This one’s made from a recycled duvet cover. It’s faded black, with squares in light and dark grey.

There will shortly be six of these available, in the following sizes:

Waist 24-34", hips 34"
Waist 28-38", hips 38"
Waist 32-42", hips 42" (pictured)
Waist 36-46", hips 46"
Waist 42-52", hips 52"
Waist 46-56", hips 56"

Finished length is approximately 27", including the elastic waistband.

Let me know if you’d like to claim one, before I add them to the shop. 🙂

This morning I’ve made a skirt, as a surprise for my Mum. Who probably won’t be very surprised by the time she receives it, given that she reads this blog!

We had just one small piece of this fabric at work, and it was exactly enough to make one of my elasticated waist skirts. I thought my Mum might like the print – it’s a tiny floral on a black background. The flowers are yellow, with a pink centre.

I didn’t even have to draft a new pattern, as my Mum and I are conveniently the same size, so this one came together very simply and quickly.

This skirt is another commission for Lisa. I wasn’t sure whether the print would be too big for it to work properly, but I’m actually really pleased with the way it’s come out.

Considering the age this duvet cover must be, the fabric’s in absolutely excellent condition. I’ll probably make another skirt out of what I have left.

This one’s a commission for – she saw the fabric on the website, and couldn’t resist!

The print goes in all directions so it’s inevitable that something’s going to be upside down. I decided it was probably safest to make sure that Darth Vader was the right way up though!

Here is also a sneaky peek at one of the next projects I’m going to be making for myself. The Bambi duvet cover arrived this morning, and the printed front is backed with plain brown cotton. That makes it perfect for this dress with contrasting trim, I think.

Erin would be proud.

Remember the space bolero?

Now it has a matching skirt.

The waistband is bomber-jacket elastic, simply zig-zagged to the top of the skirt. The hem is bound, partly because I wanted it to match the bolero and partly because I couldn’t find any other form of navy trimming which was actually nice.

I like elasticated waistbands, because my waist size varies by up to four inches depending on my health (long story), and this way I know that I’ll be able to wear it whenever I like.

I think it might be time to investigate a new camera though. This one is extraordinarily fussy about what kind of batteries it will eat, and it seems to have completely forgotten how to focus. It’s a Canon Powershot A95 which I inherited from Paul. I love the flip-out viewfinder, and the zoom and macro functions are excellent, but I really don’t need the dozens of different settings, and the shutter delay (on a digital camera? why?) makes it really frustrating to use. I’m quite tempted to replace it with something smaller, which I can stick in my handbag and carry around with me all the time. If anybody has any recommendations, I’d be very interested to hear them.