Sew House Seven Elemental Skirt

Free pattern alert! 

This is the Sew House Seven Elemental Skirt pattern, a free pattern that goes up to a 62 inch hip. Woohoo! I couldn't resist downloading and making this super simple but well fitting knit pencil skirt in two lengths.

Sueded Scuba Style Arc Halle Skirt

In which I share awful photos of an awesome skirt...

After admiring Halle Skirts from Lara and Pauline, I bought the pattern during the most recent Style Arc sale.

Emerald A-Frame Skirt

Finally writing about my Blueprints for Sewing A-frame skirt! Spoiler: I am delighted with it...

Style Arc Charlie Skirt in Olive

This is the new Charlie skirt from Style Arc, a slim jeans-style pencil skirt with a front split and an elastic, pull on waistband. Comfy and a bit sexy? Yes, please.

Deer and Doe Brume

More skirts! Lots of skirts for me these days. I think my unjustified pants sewing fear, combined a plethora of cute skirt pattern releases is keeping me firmly in the skirt camp these days. Also, I am apparently into pairing skirts with this striped Bonnie top... maybe it's time to work on another one of those, too.

Arielle Skirt

Just in time for Me-Made-May, I've made myself a new skirt! I noticed last year that my me-made wardrobe was mostly tops and dresses, sorely in need of pants and skirts. I've failed to make a significant dent on the pants front (with the exception of my Ginger jeans and a couple Hudsons), but have made progress in the skirt department. Add this one to the list.

Floral Charlotte

Since my Me Made May adventure revealed that I need more me-made bottom coverings, I decided to sew up By Hand London's Charlotte skirt:

I used a floral printed stretch bottom-weight... maybe it's technically denim?  I got it from a local fabric store here in Bangkok, Hieng Yoo Huat.  Not sure why everything I am posting this week is pink, considering pink is not normally my jam, but here it is, in all its rosy glory!:

I shortened the length by about 7 inches by very scientifically holding my Colette Mabel pattern pieces up to it.

My two issues: one, for some reason my waistband was very short as compared with the skirt, so rather than having a couple of inches of overlap, I only had about one inch.  Hmmm.  Not sure what happened. Next time I'll have to lengthen it and maybe widen it, too.

Two, I am getting some poofiness in the front area, not necessarily when standing still, but when I walk, the fabric bunches up. You can kinda see the weird hip-to-hip horizontal wrinkle below, although the print obscures it a bit.  Any thoughts on how one might go about fixing this problem?  When I look at images of other ladies in their Charlotte skirts, it appears others may have a similar problem, to varying extents.

I'm pretty happy with my Charlotte!  I'll definitely have a few improvements to make on my next iteration, but it's a pretty cute and wearable skirt as is, too!

Mabel, Take 2

After my first Colette Mabel skirt came together so quickly and fit so nicely (until my fabric crapped out on me with its lack of recovery: be wary of french terry!), I was jazzed to sew up another one post-haste. Luckily I still had ikat ponte (care of Girl Charlee) left over from my Anita pants and there was enough for a Mabel.  Really, enough for two Mabels... this pattern uses so little fabric. Scraps, practically! 

Having worn my Anita pants a couple times, I knew this ponte was likely to be a better fabric choice for Mabel because it doesn't get stretched out of shape easily like the french terry I used for my first Mabel. This one worked out better than my last since the fabric has such awesome recovery... nice and snug. Snug enough that I felt I had to ask Tim if he thought it was still appropriate for work.  But I love it!  Keeps all my bumps under wraps.

I was going for pensive model pose.  Kinda looks like I need to vomit, huh?

The only problem is that the kick pleat would not lie flat.  After hemming the skirt with my twin needle, the kickpleat stuck straight out and this ponte refused to be pressed.  Sigh.  So I pinned the kickpleat down, walked around in the skirt to make sure I could (no problems there with the stretch fabric), and then ultimately chopped the kickpleat off, sewing the back seam straight up.  Worked out fine in the end!:

Mah butt.  Sans kickpleat.

I love this version of the skirt.  Comfortable, slick, animal-print-esque without being animal print... good stuff!

Black Mabel Pencil Skirt

When I made my Me Made May pledge, I knew in advance that my me-mades mainly consisted of tops, with a few dresses and scant bottoms thrown in.  Making more skirts and pants (beyond just elastic waist pants) is on my to-do list.  I thought I'd start simple: the new Mabel knit skirt from Colette.  Easy, basic, comfortable...

My new skirt is made from some black french terry that I bought at L.GEmini on Sampeng Lane in Bangkok's Chinatown (same place I got the cool grey knit for Tim's Strathcona t-shirt, which I aso used for the waistband lining).  I went looking for a stable knit as required by the pattern, but there was a little communication difficulty on my part, so I ended up walking around the entire store feeling and stretching each roll of knit fabric until I found this black french terry. Sewing with the french terry was great... stable knits are so easy to cut and sew!  Zip, zip, zip on the serger and I had myself a skirt within a few hours.

Unfortunately, in black, the details like the cool seaming, are completely invisible.

The skirt turned out pretty great!  I made the longer pencil skirt with the kick pleat (view 3), the one with the seams down the front of the thighs (like princess seams on your legs? is that a thing?). The fit was good in the hips, although next time I might make the waist just a tiny bit smaller... The only thing I noticed is that the bottom hem seems to have flared out a bit.  Maybe I stretched it out when doing the twin needle hem?  Who knows, it might settle back into place after a wash. Or it might not, because I don't have a dryer and knits with poor recovery don't fare well here in BKK. Hmmm.  

All in all, a great pattern and a great basic skirt, good for work or bopping around town. I definitely want to try making the version with the button placket in the front- so cute!  But I'd like to make it the length of the pencil skirt since minis are not my thing.  I could also see making the pencil skirt version with a fun contrasting front panel.  I've also got some ikat print ponte left over from my Tessuti Anita pants... that could be a fun Mabel, too!  Lots of options.