Given the price of the Drafters Grid Dress pattern, you knew I was going to make something else from it before too long! Plus I really love my first Drafters Grid Dress project, but it's definitely a statement piece, and I was hoping for something more wearable for every day.
I decided to try making just the elastic waist skirt from the Roberts Wood Drafters Grid Dress. The pattern is very modular- you can do a dress, a skirt and top, switch the length of the skirt or sleeves, add elastic to the waist and cuffs, play with different color combos, use scraps...
Same size as last time, a size 20.
I used some fabrics from my stash: two Indonesian batiks Tim brought me back from a work trip to Bali, plus a coordinating batik my mom had purchased from fabric thrift shop Paper City Fabrics. All quilting-type cottons.
Unlike my last Drafters Grid project, I stuck with three colors, which made cutting and piecing easier, as that's what the pattern is designed for. All of the pattern pieces have a design on them to indicate which of the three fabrics they should be cut from.
This fabric was easier to use than the last fabric I used for this dress because I was able to mark the pattern piece numbers and grainlines directly on the pattern pieces with chalk pencil. My previous fabric didn't mark well, so I used painters tape to ID the pieces, which was time consuming.
It's so interesting how fabric choice completely changes the look of the pattern! This fabric has less drape than the viscose linen blend I used for my last Drafters Grid, so the skirt is more voluminous. A lot more body and less flow, but still lovely shape.
I serged my seam allowances and pressed them to the dark (the blue here), so my seam allowances nested pretty nicely, making it easier to match them up. Not that every corner is perfect- far from it!
I also did some topstitching this time, which I didn't do last time. I topstitched along the blue grids:
For the waist, I used 1.75 inch elastic, and I stitched in the ditch over the elastic on a couple vertical seams in the waist to make sure the elastic didn't twist.
When topstitching the hem, I switched thread colors so that the stitching matched each section. A pain in the butt, but worth it!
My skirt definitely has more of a Holly Hobby/country quilt vibe than I intended, much more so than my last version, but I think it's still lovely nonetheless. Very cute for summer with a casual tee.
I still have enough of each of these fabrics left over to potentially make a coordinating crop top, but I haven't decided if I want to go that route. We'll see where summer sewing takes me!
