Friday 21 January 2011

Self-Drafted Poppy Skirt



Skirt back

I know sewing a skirt should be easy, but whenever I sew up a skirt pattern according to my pattern size it doesn't fit.   I assume quite a bit of ease is being added to waist and hip measurements (on top of wearing ease) - does anyone know how much, or how consistently?


So for now I'm making skirts the slow way, with no pattern, just my tape measure and a washable marker pen. 

I made this skirt using a pretty poppy print cotton voile from Tessuti fabrics and an orange-red lining.  My "pattern" was constrained by the amount of voile I'd bought. The skirt front and back are rectangles shaped in a little at the waist, to the length I'd measured would take the border print to my knees. There are two pleats front and back, made of whatever width was excess to my waist and hips. These pleats taper to fit me, sort of as darts would.  There's a (regular) zip at centre back, and to make up for the lack of waistband there's an interfaced inner fabric piece that fits snugly around my waist. To this inner piece the lining is attached - I used A-line skirt shapes cut a few centimetres wider than necessary so I could add some simple fold pleats in the lining corresponding to the position of the skirt pleats.

I'm pretty happy with this skirt - it's a nice light little thing that's perfect for our very warm summer.
Skirt front, viewed upside down
Inner waist & lining
Inside out, front view

Woo hoo!

4 comments:

  1. Your skirt looks terrific. I love your use of the border print, and the cheery lining.
    big 4 patterns tend to have a lot of ease. Sometimes the finished measurement at waist and hip is printed on the pattern tissue, but often it isn't. Here is a link a friend of mine found to the different amounts of ease in Vogue patterns according to the fitting description on the envelope. I hope this helps!
    http://ejvc.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/fitted/

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  2. Hi kbenco, Thanks for your comment, and for this link about ease. I really do need to make more skirts but am going to have to use this reference and lots of flat paper measurements to avoid adding to my half-sewn rubbish pile!

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  3. That fabric is so pretty - it makes me feel cheerful just looking at your skirt.

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  4. love your skirt! a lot of things I have to make my own pattern as well lol!
    Helen

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