Saturday, April 6, 2013

Sewing Project - "Pachyderm Shower" skirt

Michael Miller makes the cutest fabric, like this "Pachyderm Shower" fabric.




I wanted to make a skirt out of this fabric, but knew the fabric was pretty childish; in the end, I loved it enough that I didn't care. I hope to have some photos taken of me in this skirt within the next week or so.

This is my first sewing project for myself that I have completed; I cut out a dress pattern from different fabric weeks ago but haven't worked up the courage and motivation to sew it together. I didn't use a pattern for this skirt which made it less intimidating to me.



4 comments:

  1. Oh I love this! I want to make a skirt for myself so badly, but I am super nervous! But yours turned out really cute. Did you just wrap the fabric around you to figure out how much to use? Or did you measure? I literally know nothing, and I am even worse when it comes to my sewing machine, but I am determined that one day we will get along and I will be able to make at least a couple of outfits for myself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did something similar to this: http://www.deliacreates.com/2012/06/green-easy-mommy-skirt.html

      The idea of the tutorial above is that you cut your elastic waistband to your waist size, and then stretch out the elastic to the width of your fabric as you sew; once you are done sewing and let go of the elastic, the elastic returns to its original size, and bunches the top of the rectangle together creating a skirt.

      I cut my two rectangles in the width of the fabric so that I could make the skirt as full as possible; since the fabric is 44" wide, this resulted in a "waist" of about 87 inches once the two squares were sewn together on the sides.

      I could not get my elastic to stretch more than a couple inches, so I did some quick pleating/folding of the fabric around the top of the rectangle so that the width of the top of the rectangle was only a couple inches bigger than my waistband (while still leaving the skirt as full as I wanted it). Once I was done with the folding/pleating, I just sewed around the top of the rectangle to tack the pleats down, and THEN I was able to sew the elastic waistband on as per the link above.

      Delete
    2. By the way, a circle skirt would be a lot easier, the skirt would be fuller, and personally I like the shape better. Unfortunately if you have fabric that has a printed design that has an up side and a down side like mine does, you can't make a circle skirt, because the pattern of the fabric will not all be the same direction (the elephants would have been sideways on the skirt in some places and upright in others).

      Delete
  2. Well now I've got all kinds of ideas and not enough time to make one today. :( Or the right supplies. hehe guess I have to make a run to hobby lobby and/or wal-mart tonight before work, Oh darn. hehe

    Thank you for the details! :D

    ReplyDelete

Let me know you are out there.