I Made A Skirt!

I've never been great at sewing. Probably because I've never really sat down and tried to learn. Over the years, I've sewn simple things - curtains, pillows, a Nook cover, a stuffed animal here and there - and I've done alterations on existing clothing, getting them to fit me right, but make something from scratch? Nope.

But I did it!








I've always admired Pinup Girl Clothing's "Just Desserts" dress in pink, yellow, and black, but I've never been able to locate one in my size. Being the impatient person I am, I decided to make a replica skirt, but put my own twist on it.

So, earlier this month, I ordered a bunch of fabric from Fabric.com: 5 yards of black cotton, 4 yards of blue cotton (because I have plans for something else), three yards of pink cotton, and a yard of yellow cotton. The fabric got here a couple weeks ago, and I have been planning this project ever since. If you look at the Pinup Girl Clothing dress, you'll notice that the stripes alternate pink, yellow, black, all the way around. On mine, I decided to alternate them pink, black, yellow, black, instead. Then, I also decided that I wanted a gathered skirt, so I sat down and did some math and figured out what I wanted.

I first cut the panels out, accommodating for a generous seam allowance, since I am a beginner seamstress. I made the top of the panels 6 inches wide, and widened it out to 13 inches wide at the bottom. I made 16 panels: 8 black ones, 4 pink, and 4 yellow.

Yes, I do just sit around the house wearing these fancy dresses.

Next, I pinned them together in the right order, and then cut the waistband, cutting it 4 inches longer than necessary, you know, just in case.

Then, I sewed all the seams together on my machine, making one large piece of fabric. Then, I gathered the top, pinned it to the waistband, and sewed that together.

Next, I hemmed the skirt, going one panel at a time. I hemmed all the black panels first, then switched thread colors to pink, and hemmed all the pink panels, then switched again to yellow thread before hemming the yellow panels. I think this gave it a real finished look.

The final step was inserting the zipper. I measured and pinned where the zipper would be, then sewed the back seam of the skirt together up to where the zipper bottom would be. Next, because I am 'fraidy cat and didn't want to chance the zipper getting off somehow while I sewed, I hand stitched the zipper into place, then went over the stitches on the machine, both reinforcing the zipper seam and making it look more finished... AND I changed thread colors before sewing to the pink panel in the back so that the stitches on zipper seam can't be seen, either!





And that's it! I am thinking of adding a detachable ribbon to the back, but we'll see. My next project will be a similar skirt, but in black and the aqua blue fabric I bought. After that, I have plans for a wiggle dress using satin with a harlequin print and a back detail piece that I can't wait to share with y'all!