Posts Tagged ‘skirt’

Sponsored: Full-Coverage Wrap Skirt Tutorial

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Inspired by this month’s style theme for the Fiesta Movement, I wonder what styles are out of your comfort zone? Bold patterns? Hats? Harem pants?

Have you seen those little challenges they post monthly? It’s cool what Fiesta Agents have been doing, taking on challenges outside their respective comfort zones. Last month I went outside my comfort zone and sewed up some harem pants, and I’d say they were a hit! I wear them at least once a week (which is tight rotation considering my closet).

I don’t do hats. Maybe that’s next. What clothing item would you like to find within your comfort zone?

istillloveyou-sewing-maxi-wrap-skirt-5

I love this skirt. I didn’t know how much I would wear it because of the bold pattern, but it gets just as much play as the other skirts in my wardrobe. It’s been amazing to wear this fall. My legs don’t freeze to Otter Pop status.

This skirt (as mentioned in the original post) has a super power. It’s a full-coverage wrap skirt. It’s not going to show off my lady bits with a small gust of wind. NO. It’s going to take 15+ mile an hour winds to achieve that.

When you’ve got winds that crazy, you don’t want to be wearing any kind of skirt anyway.

istillloveyou-sewing-maxi-wrap-skirt-2

Now let’s make ourselves a maxi wrap skirt that won’t give you a red-faced Marilyn moment, shall we?

Full-Coverage Maxi Wrap Skirt Tutorial

istillloveyou-a-line-maxi-wrap-skirt-sewing-diy-01

Supplies

  • 2 yards rayon challis
  • pins
  • scissors (paper and fabric)
  • seam ripper
  • ruler
  • measuring tape
  • pencil
  • paper
  • large roll of paper
  • sewing machine
  • coordinating thread
  • coordinating buttons
  • iron

You could get away with any drapey fabric. A knit, a silk georgette or a cotton lawn. Rayon challis is going to give you a lot of drape and it’s not terribly expensive.

If you don’t have a large roll of butcher paper on-hand, several small sheets taped together will do. You’ll still want a large-ish floor or table space to draft up your pattern.

Let’s get drafting!

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Handmade Paper Bag Skirt

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I made two of these skirts a couple months ago. The first one was for my sister’s birthday present and after I made hers; I was a bit envious. I had to make one for me! The hem (unpictured) was just a satin stitch all the way around. I had to be pretty careful sewing the satin stitch, but I think it still was faster than if I had done a traditional hem.

Also, the fabric is completely sheer, so I doubled it up. I like how the stripes move & play with each other since the fabric is so transparent.

I made this skirt exactly how I made my Easter skirt. It was super simple & took about 30 minutes to make from beginning to end.

This skirt is a very unexpected color pallette for my wardrobe. I’m not entirely sure what drew me to the fabric, perhaps it was my subconscious telling me that I needed something different in my wardrobe. I bought the  fabric on clearance at Walmart (gasp) for $1 a yard. I made two skirts for $2. Not including my time, I can’t even find skirts at my local DI for that little.

This outfit cost under $10, see outfit details here.

This weekend we partied in Provo & listened to my cousin perform. He’s fantastic. Their band is fantastic. I was impressed by James’s percussive skills on the Ableton pads & the lead singer’s vocals. Here’s a little clip of some video I took at the show. And, yes, I’m totally having a blast playing around with my new camera.

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Matchy-Matchy is all the Rage

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I made a skirt last weekend; using the leftovers from the pomegranate fabric I blogged about two weeks ago. In fact, I finished it just in time to be all matchy-matchy with Penelope at church on Sunday. SO FUN! There’s something just so utterly fun about coordinating outfits with Penelope. I can’t get enough! We did it with that awful dress I repurposed, then on Mother’s day and then last week with the pomegranate fabric. Pretty sure this is the beginning of something ridiculous.

I made a basic gathered skirt with a straight waistband. It wasn’t too hard, but it did get a little tricky with the zipper. I couldn’t seem to find my zipper foot anywhere and I didn’t have any invisible zippers on hand. I ended up using a button-hole foot to attach the zipper, it worked. I’m hoping the zipper foot will turn up somewhere before I have to go out and buy one. Whatever. I’m sure Penelope already got to it and either threw it in the garbage or flushed it down the toilet.

This skirt is really light weight and flutters at any slight breeze. It’s a good thing when it comes to hot summer days, but a very bad thing when a gust of wind decides to blow my way. Going down stairs even causes the skirt to fly up! The skirt is also very see-through so I need to wear a slip with it; like the one I’ve been meaning to make for the last 3 years. Maybe this skirt will give me the motivation to finish it.

I’m Ready for Summer

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I’m almost wishing for 110º weather. Almost.

Instead of dancing around hoping that it will please mother nature enough to let the sun come out and play, I made a skirt. You know. . . just in case the sun comes out for more than 15 minutes in the next 6 months. Now the sun is out! I must have done something right. ;)

I made a sweet little mid-waisted jersey skirt from an XXL men’s shirt. It was so easy. I spent 30 minutes sewing (15 of which were pinning the skirt to the waist) and $2 total. Not bad for a summer staple.

I did a muu muu refashion back in September that was very similar, but after seeing Susan’s method on her skirt tutorial, I thought I’d take her approach with this refashion. I like it much better. For the muu muu skirt I sewed the gathered material under the elastic, which created bulk in the wrong spot. So now I’m thinking I’m going to get my picker and re-do that one.

I’ve had XXL t-shirts on the brain recently. Can you tell?

I’m all biased out.

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[This is a pretty long post. Sorry]

Excuses, excuses: Chris and I got back from our Idaho/Montana trip late Thursday night. We’ve not been in one place for more than 3 days for the last 2 weeks. We’re living out of suitcases at my parents’ house. . . Therefore it’s been just a teensy bit difficult to do much of anything crafty, especially in time for Easter. I was hoping to make a big deal out of it this year with dying eggs, homemade easter baskets with sweet treats, and matching dresses (all traditions from my childhood), but it just wasn’t very realistic (just like my idea of having an elaborate party for Penelope’s first birthday).

However. . .

For the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking non-stop about making a striped skirt like the one from Anthropologie and I just so happen to have 5 yards of very similar fabric. I think it was Saturday afternoon that decided that now was the time to make that idea happen.

biased skirt

I used the skirt pattern from the Sew U book (it’s genius), and modified it just a tad. It probably took me nearly an hour to figure out how to place the pattern pieces on the fabric to get the stripes to line up just right.

high waisted striped skirt

I like the enclosure in the back with the grey buttons, I also like the light weight fabric and the look of the bias. Overall, I think it turned out ok, but Chris just might say otherwise (he’s just not a fan of the pleats in the front). So, I’d like to ask you: Should I keep the pleats in the front, or should I modify the skirt to make it flat-fronted?? I’m not sure, because it looks like pleats are all the rage, but I’m a little self-concious about it. Seriously, I need your opinions!!

striped biased skirt 1

Anyway, It turned out ok, but I’ll definitely make this skirt again so I can learn from my mistakes.

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Penelope’s dress turned out slightly better, but it too, has its flaws. The inspiration for this dress comes from a Martha Stewart magazine photo of a girl in a pink scalloped dress. SWOON with a capital S! This was my attempt at making that dress from a japanese dress pattern. The pattern is starting to get a little small for Penelope, so I tried to enlarge it. The proportions came out a little funny, but the dress still looks as cute as a button.

Nel's striped scallop dress

I love this little girl, and the grey stripes with the pink ribbon fit her personality just right.

Penelope's striped scallop dress

Overall, my attempts to be matchy, matchy for Easter were fairly successful, and all it took was 10 straight hours of sewing and $5.

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