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Friday, June 12, 2015

Clemence-esque Skirt


I bought this beautiful pre-cut length of Thai-style printed cotton (plus 5 more in different colors!) at Bangkok's Chatuchak market earlier this year and have been struggling to make it into something since then. I really wanted to make a dress, but the length of my piece plus the deep border print made it really hard to fit the pattern pieces. I must have tried laying 5 or 6 different sleeveless dress patterns over this fabric, but couldn't make one work. In the end, I decided to make a simple gathered midi skirt to really showcase the cool gold foil-y print.


 My gathered skirt is loosely based on the Clemence skirt in Tilly's "Love at First Stitch" book. 


Rather than cut the skirt in three pieces, I made the skirt with one piece that ran the length of my fabric (about 2 yards total) since the border print is along the selvage. I cut it to the length I wanted, plus about 2.5 inches. I cut the waistband to my measurements (plus seam allowances, of course) and then followed Tilly's instructions for attaching the waistband and inserting the invisible zipper.


My invisible zipper is not perfect. For some reason it always shows at the waistband seamline, even if it's invisible elsewhere. Does anyone else have this problem? How do you solve it?


I was also quite chuffed that my new skirt goes perfectly with this blue and gold necklace I made several years back to attend a wedding. It hasn't gotten much wear since then, but it is great with this skirt.