Wednesday, 2 March 2011

2 March 2011: Hey, I Didn't Know This Was Wearable!

Day 2 of Me-Made-March and I have discovered a skirt I had considered unwearable can be brought back into my wardrobe - hooray!

This skirt has never fit me properly, but I recently lost a teensy little bit of girth and now it fits better if I wear it back-to-front, which in fact I never tried before. Do you think anyone will notice?? In case they laugh, I am equipped with a foam sword. And a miniature blue trowel.

This skirt is one of the first things I ever made from a Burda magazine (issue 7/2009, pattern 111). It's supposed to be a button front a-line skirt with patch pockets on the front, but I turned the button openings into mock button openings and added a side zipper - just because I was concerned about gaping.

I don't know if you can really see the buttons but they are just about my most favourite buttons ever; they look as though they've been henna tattooed!

I think the skirt fabric is a linen blend (see me thinking?).

The top is also from Burda magazine (issue 2/2009, pattern 108A), and is made from a cotton knit fabric.

I did pre-wash my knit fabric, I did lengthen the sleeves and body but it's still become a bit shorter than I'd like in both respects.  If I made this again I'd lengthen sleeves and body more and narrow the neckline, as this top always shows bra straps. 









Skirt up close: as I said above, I just love these buttons! I am happy with my top stitching too - but not sure how clear these details are...

Stripey top up close: the stripes match pretty well on the side seams. There's also twin needle stitching around neckline and other hems, which at the time was new and exciting for me, as was the use of transparent elastic in the neckline to prevent it stretching out.

PS My daughter, son and partner are all not me-made today, but they weren't part of my pledge - but if and when they do wear handmade I'll include them as a bonus.

4 comments:

  1. Your stripes are matching up perfectly, beautiful job :)!

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  2. Thanks Carolyn - luckily this fabric was pretty straight so not hard to line up!

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  3. The skirt looks really good on you. How funny that turning it around back to front fixed the fit! A small question though--is it uncomfortable to sit on the buttons?

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  4. Thank you! I was wondering why it fit better and then I realised: I'd made the from darts too pronounced (better for the back) and the back darts too narrow (maybe to compensate for overly generous darts in front). That's a good question about the buttons but I was working from home yesterday and sitting an awful lot and I didn't notice them at all. They are very lightweight wooden (maybe bamboo?) buttons and sitting on 3 layers of fabric though... I guess this is something to try for a bit of fun with other skirts :-)

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