I need to start sewing long-sleeve shirts and hoodies! Every time I sew something even remotely spring/summery it snows around here. Some days I feel we’ll never see spring until Mid-July. I think I wouldn’t mind this weather so much if spring didn’t come around and tease me so much.
So I made a circle skirt. I scored this fabric at the fabric swap a few weeks ago. It’s a light-weight rayon jersey. I wasn’t too terribly excited about the pattern, but I loved the feel and stretch of the knit. But as I looked at it more, I fell in love with it. It’s got little stripes of blue, white, tan and teal that make it quite easy to style with my wardrobe.
I keep thinking, I need an awesome oxford/chambray shirt to style with this. Now I ask you, where have you found such shirts? I’m looking for something very light weight. Any good recommendations?
I based the pattern off of Dana’s circle skirt tutorial, but I used a negative seam allowance for the circumference. Instead of doing a radius of 4.5 inches, I used 4 inches. It worked out perfectly. I also opted to cover my elastic waistband in a coordinating green jersey. I’m sure it would’ve looked fine as an exposed elastic-waisted skirt, but I like the finishing look the coordinating knit gives. With the structure and support of the elastic on the inside, it’s much better than a yoga waistband, too (which I’ve been using a lot lately).
I drafted the pattern as a simple circle skirt, but then opted to do a high-low as I realized how much fabric was left. I sort of winged the measurements along the bottom, so I ended up cutting it twice to get the hem more even. Lesson learned for next time: don’t eyeball a hem.
As for sewing the hem itself, I serged along the bottom with a slightly rolled serged hem. This took very little effort on my part. And considering the time saved on that hem alone – the serger just paid for itself. Let me know if you’d like more details on how to do this than offered here. I’ll be happy to put together a tutorial.
Click here for the full high-low circle skirt tutorial (and a free printable pattern).
Outfit Details:
- top: walmart
- necklace: Ardor, bigcartel
- bracelet: handmade
- jacket: thrifted
- skirt: handmade
- shoes: NY fashion district
Also – this is another Utah spring outfit. I can’t decide if I should be wearing a jacket or not!
