Skirt details

[cupcake_goth]

I really some sort of sewing-themed LJ icon, don't I?

Anyhoodle, behind the cut-tag, the back view of the skirt! (And a repeat of the front view, and natter about the construction and so on.)




Aaaaaand here's the front again. Same photo as the one in the previous post, but I kinda want pictures of both in the post where I talk about sewing, just for completeness' sake.



This is the skirt I made from the stripy bedsheets I purchased at Value Village. The hibiscus tea bath didn't do ANYTHING to the color of the fabric, so I put about a teaspoon of Rose Pink RIT into the washer. Just enough to make the white no longer STARK OMG WHITE!, but not turn it pink. (This makes sense to me, just nod.)

The basic 4-panel skirt pattern is one I drafted off of one of my Retroscope "Dolly Bustle" skirts. The back panel is covered in tiers of ruffles that are about 9" wide, the side hem ruffles are about ... 7", maybe? I didn't have a pattern for them, that was just how wide the remaining strips of the striped fabric turned out to be.

For creating/gathering the ruffles, I used the very scientific method of scrunching/folding the fabric up as I was sewing them on. Yes, I'm serious. (This is where my friends who are talented designers and seamstresses ::facepalm:: and shake their heads at me.)

The lining of the skirt is made from a very lightweight pink poly satin, which was originally a sheet from a horrible "teen bedding" set I picked up at Ross for $14. (It was purchased ages ago for the express purpose of making skirt linings. It would be HORRIBLE fabric to sleep on, ew.) Because I'm crazy, I also made all 18 covered buttons. I am ... obsessive about certain things.

All told, I think the skirt took me about 8 hours or so. I get into these moods when all I want to do is sew, and this ends up being the result. I'm really, really pleased with how it turned out; this is probably the most "professionally-constructed" skirt I've made so far.

Comments

[raincollector.livejournal.com]

It's fantastic! Looks perfect construction-wise from here. May I ask how you learned how to sew? I really want to learn, but not sure where to start.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

I learned to sew by my mom teaching me a bit when I was little, taking a home ec class in high school, and then a LOT of trial and error over the years. It's only been in the past couple of years that I've become good enough at it that I feel okay using REALLY GOOD tools. My mom gave me her vintage 70s era Elna sewing machine last year, because she felt that I had finally gotten to the point where it would be useful for me.

Check your local fabric stores: a lot of them offer sewing classes, and that's a good way to start out. Also, don't be afraid to make mistakes. It is a very rare project where I don't have to unpick a couple of seams.