Pirate Skirt
This year I really wanted to make something to wear to Arisia. I had been thinking about different designs, but after some shopping around realized I wanted something with a handkerchief hemline. Fortunately a friend sent me a link to the instructions for a handkerchief skirt she had followed for a dance costume she made. Perfect!
So next came fabric selection. The corset I wanted to wear with this skirt has black satin panels, so in an effort to match materials I knew I waned a satin of some type, though I was worried that it would have too much drape and would just lie flat against my body. After poking around at JoAnn Fabrics though, we came across some satin taffeta.
I had never worked with it before, but it was exactly what I was looking for. It had the silky shiny-ness of satin, but with a little more body and stiffness. Perhaps even a bit too much stiffness once the turned hems were put in, but throwing the finished skirt in the washer and dryer fixed that. Plus it came in very wide bolts (58"/147cm!), which allowed for a longer skirt.
The instructions at the link above were pretty good, although after following them exactly the first time, I found I had to have both layers face up and with the top layer on the bottom rather than how it suggests. I also just used 0.75"/2cm wide elastic, mostly because I already had some in the house.
I did not use the table of circle radius to hip circumference measurements, instead opting to do my own math, but it seems to be correct. It does not account for the fact that your circle will gain about another inch/2.5 cm to the radius (and thus correspondingly more to the circumference) after making the waist band. So if you are on the fence between two measurements, you can fairly safely go down to the slightly smaller one and it should still fit over your hips.
I would remind anyone making this skirt however, that you probably want to sew the elastic into a loop so that it sits high enough. I found that I preferred to sew the elastic to a circumference just smaller than my natural waist, otherwise the elastic would stretch slightly during wear and sit just on the top of my hips.
Over all verdict, fairly simple but really cute. I think I will end up making other variations of this skirt in different materials and lengths.
So next came fabric selection. The corset I wanted to wear with this skirt has black satin panels, so in an effort to match materials I knew I waned a satin of some type, though I was worried that it would have too much drape and would just lie flat against my body. After poking around at JoAnn Fabrics though, we came across some satin taffeta.
I had never worked with it before, but it was exactly what I was looking for. It had the silky shiny-ness of satin, but with a little more body and stiffness. Perhaps even a bit too much stiffness once the turned hems were put in, but throwing the finished skirt in the washer and dryer fixed that. Plus it came in very wide bolts (58"/147cm!), which allowed for a longer skirt.
The instructions at the link above were pretty good, although after following them exactly the first time, I found I had to have both layers face up and with the top layer on the bottom rather than how it suggests. I also just used 0.75"/2cm wide elastic, mostly because I already had some in the house.
I did not use the table of circle radius to hip circumference measurements, instead opting to do my own math, but it seems to be correct. It does not account for the fact that your circle will gain about another inch/2.5 cm to the radius (and thus correspondingly more to the circumference) after making the waist band. So if you are on the fence between two measurements, you can fairly safely go down to the slightly smaller one and it should still fit over your hips.
I would remind anyone making this skirt however, that you probably want to sew the elastic into a loop so that it sits high enough. I found that I preferred to sew the elastic to a circumference just smaller than my natural waist, otherwise the elastic would stretch slightly during wear and sit just on the top of my hips.
Over all verdict, fairly simple but really cute. I think I will end up making other variations of this skirt in different materials and lengths.
Labels: sewing
posted by omly at 5:34 PM
1 Comments:
Handkerchief hemlines are very flattering. Yours turned out so well.
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