Fixed, repaired and upcycled - my me-made tartan skirt.

 

I made this tartan skirt from very expensive hand woven scottish tartan a long time ago. Or at least it feels so long ago. I never made it fit right. Really the fabric was very expensive and I was so scared I would wreck it so I cut it two sizes at least larger than I was and since then I have dropped 1-2 sizes more. I ended up trying to get the skirt to fit by adding side adjusters in the form of faux leather straps. Did not work well. The garment was just far to big for me so raely got worn and being a very warm wool skirt that's very sad.

It does not look so different but in fact its now much smaller. Below is the original skirt:

Around this time last winter ( 2024) I decided to take it apart and put it all right and make it fit. But because of the fabric again I hesitated. Then summer came and it went on my UFO pile.

But having just upcycled my very old River Island skirt I have decided I should really have another look at this one because in the end whats the point of making clothes if nothing ever fits and you are too scared to sew them to make the do so?

It took quite a long time of pinning unpicking and unpinning, folding and sewing then resewing to make this right. 

You can see from the back its not quite even pattern-wise. My original pattern matching is slightly out but I am more skilled at that kind of thing now ( or so it would seem) and I did my best with what was available. I am not unhappy with the result. I actually removed excess fabric from the two side back panels rather than the sides because the pattern worked better there, so this has a different shape to the original Burda pattern. That does not matter. It works and the pattern is not too far out to get away with:

I then had to also take in the lining of the basque and make it match the tartan outer. 
It's come out a bit shorter though I think that is the length its meant to be on the Burda pattern and I prefer it. I had to lose a few cm from the skirt peplum (?). I also moved the CB peplum back seam to the side where its actually meant to be, but I messed up when I originally sewed this up. This makes the front (virtually!) the same pattern on each side of CF. Thats how I cut it and something that's annoyed me for yonks. 

And it now fits!

This is as close to perfect as I can currently make. Especially given I originally cut it pattern-wise slightly ( only slightly though) out. Its lined n the basque part. 

I finished the inside with overlocking and rehemmed the skirt where I needed to unpick and make it slightly smaller. I am happy and it's wearable and just in time I would expect for the cold weather to arrive. We have had a few cold frosty days but it's really just begining so I now have a warm skirt to wear and it's even in fashion. And I am enjoying upgrading/ upcycling my own me-makes. Much better than just giving them away though it does not help my rather large fabric stash which has grown recently due to me being unable to sew. Ah well. This skirt is a win and thats what I am focussing on.

These are the same photos but worth seeing together I think to get an idea of how this actually has worked.

The green polo top is here if you want to know more about that one.

Have a great week, thanks for visiting,

Bracken