Grey skirt with rainbow trim

 

I made this pattern before in both the short length (which this version is) and also the long length. The old blog post on the shorter version really shows how rubbish I was a few years ago at blogging and how much better my posts have become! It seems I never got any decent photos of my previous version of this pattern so I may need to do something about that because the black velvet skirt is a really nice garment and worthy of a better post. 

Its a Steampunk pattern but really the skirt is a lovely every day wear, that in the right fabric, works even for work. The last shorter length one was in velvet. I have worn it loads. This one is slightly different since its a woven stretch fabric. I made a short flapper dress frrom this fabric a couple of years ago and its a nice summer weight woven so I decided to see if it would work with what is really a stretch jersey fabric pattern.

I cut just outside the line I usually use for this skirt so its a little larger and you can see that in the photos. Its slightly too big really and less figure hugging than the velvet version and the other jersey versions I made before. I thought that cutting slightly larger should allow for the woven rather than jersey fabric, but maybe I could have got away with just cutting as usual? 

I do not know and did not want to take the risk but maybe next time I use a woven I should just cut my usual size and see if it works. I am working through offucts of fabric from my stash at the moment to reduce what I keep storing so I might make another in a woven just to see if it will fit. In theory it shouldn't because \i understand the jersey garments have negative ease, but who knows? Its worth a risk to just find out so I will make another of these in a similar grey "work" fabric and clear some ore stash. This will still be a decent enough summer short skirt that I can wear everywhere.

The pleats are large godets which are cut as part of the skirt anels. It has just 3 panels and is very easy to construct due to the high low hem meaning the panels only fit together in the right place so really you cannot go wrong when making this skirt pattern.

The fabric is a "boring"grey because I bought it for work clothes but with the rainbow striped ribbing it becomes still easy to wear but a little more fun I think. 

 

Unfortunately, I made the waistband slightly too wide so it goes a bit ruffled round the top like a tea bag trouser/ skirt waistband but I can live with that because I never tuck in my tops. 

To make the "piping trim roud the bottom I had to cut the ribbed fabric the opposite way which is a pain because its a long piece cut off the selvedge side of my ribbed fabric. The ribbed fabric was actually a bad buy because its too synthetic for what I bought it for and I canot handle wearing it as tops so I have 6m of the stuff but it does make a very cheap alternative to expensive ribbed cuffing and tubular ribbing for things like sweatshirts. I have recently used it for the cuffs of some kids clothing and it looks really good and is also nicely light weight. I may blog about the kids clothes another time. 

The top was made a while ago. Its a lycra dancewear fabric but was really cheap and I liked the print so much I made loads of garments from it a couple of years ago. Its used to fit me better but I have lost weight this year.

And for now thats it. I hope you have a great week and thanks for popping by my blog,

Bracken

Green velvet steampunk skirt

Ok so its summer and even in the UK generally people do not wear velvet in summer - or only to festivals, or at night, or if they happen to be a goth, or a rock star type. But this skirt has been in my half sewn unfinished objects (UFO) pile for literally years!

I think I cut this out back in 2017 or 2018. Then I sewed the side seams and it came out a bit big and I always meant to resew but never got round to it. Then the other day I was going to cut out a new pattern for a skirt, and I had to move the UFOs because there was no room for the pattern pieces and I remembered this skirt. 

So why did I worry too much about the waist anyway? Its meant to have elastic.

I decided this needs to be finished and right now I am having some serious problems with finding time to do any sewing so why not just work my way through some of these UFOs? 

So I added the waistband and voila: 

You will have to ignore my squinty eyes. It was a very bright sunny day when these were taken and I was being blinded by lovely sunlight.

This is a high low skirt and its a very easy make so it really should not have sat waiting to be finished for around 5+ years. The pattern is Simplicity 8020 and I made this before so should have found it really easy to make this.

Also this issue with the skirt being a bit too big - well bearing in mind my recent weight fluctuations thats no longer a problem. 

 

Right now I am much smaller than I usually am, so I made a waistband which fits and being elastic it works well and when I put some weight back on then it should still fit me because the side seams were left as they were, and after all I can always make this waistband bigger and it should still fit. My weight has fluctuated by 10kg in the last 6 months and I have not dieted so its slightly worrying.

Here its worn with the Burda top I made. That top took me 3 months to work out how it went together and sadly these pictures do confirm my suspicians that that CB back seam on the top is not straight. Its zigzagged not overlocked. Not really sure that should make any difference though, but it could mean my sewing was less than perfect. I am not used to sewing stretch fabrics with a zigzag stitch.

I wasn't sure on the original pictures of this seam being straight or not and assumed ( wrongly I think) that it was the way I had stood in the photos. Well it could be I suppose but really I suspect that these new photos this confirms its sloping and not a straight seam as its meant to be. It is made from very stretchy slippy fabric though and I have still worn it so I suppose its not really a problem, but once I find the time to make a new version, which should hopefully be more perfect, I think I will be recycling this top.

Have to admit, it does occur to me that perhaps this skirt would work well for a beach skirt. It will be warm in the cold wind and not so long it trails in the wet sand. Hmmm. One to try out later maybe?

Have a great week,

Bracken