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Monday, October 22, 2012

Dotty Tee Skirt

I bought a bright orange tee-shirt dress last year off the sale rack... I love the color and the cut of the top half, but I found myself avoiding wear it.  I think it was just a little bit too much orange.  Thus, I decided to cut off the bottom of the dress and turn it into a top/tunic.  But what to do with the fabric I trimmed off the bottom?  Skirt for Miss Zoe.



The skirt is pre-hemmed, which rules, so all I had to do was conquer my fear of sewing with knit fabrics, set my machine to zig-zag stitch, and add an elastic waistband.  Quite easy.

Then, inspired by this tutorial on Craftiness is not Optional, I added some reverse applique embellishments to the skirt using squares of knit fabric cut out of a couple of old tank tops that I never wear because they are... how can I put this delicately?  I can't: they're arm pitty.  Gross.  But besides the armpits, the rest of the fabric was totally usable.

I traced evenly-spaced circles onto the skirt hem using a round cookie cutter, backed each circle with a square of contrasting color fabric, sewed around the circle, then trimmed the extra fabric on both sides.
The inside of the skirt, halfway through the embellishing:

... from the outside:


And the final product:


I sewed around each circle three or four times with contrasting color thread, not worrying about getting the circles exactly perfect.  I like the slightly chaotic stitching style, a la Alisa Burke, whose mixed media, free style sewing I have been admiring for a while now.  Also, sewing knit fabric in a small circle is hard, so there's that, too. Ha.


I think with a little white t-shirt, this will be a pretty rockin' outfit.