Debut skirt, my first pattern published!

Today I published my first pattern on Etsy 😃, the Debut skirt. A milestone for me. It's been so much work. I had thought it would involve a lot of time, but it took even more time than I thought. Those last steps, when each time you think you're nearly there! If I had known in advance, I would probably not have done it 😁. 

The pattern comes in A4, US letter and A0 (copyshop) size and illustrated instructions. 

Without further ado, here is the link to my Etsy shop. 

You will find 2 patterns for the same skirt. The difference is that there is a regular (green background) and an hourglass (red background) version. 

For my Dutch readers: Dutch instructions are included as a separate file!

Let me know what you think. I'm open to constructive criticism. And when the pattern/style is not for you, that's perfectly fine. 

Skirt variations

 

It's a special experience to see a pattern that I drafted made by others. In this case my Debut skirt. 

I'm grateful for having such wonderful sewing friends. In the video you see me wearing my own versions and three others, made by a friend living close. She was so enthusiastic about it that she made three in a row :).  Lucky me that I could wear them for photos as she has a size close to mine. Another friend made a muslin and informed me that the fit was spot on. The instructions are being proof read and cheering along the way made me get this far. 

Waiting for a few more test results, then the pattern will be published officially!

Debut skirt - coming soon

In my post last week I mentioned I am working on a skirt pattern. It's being tested by a couple of friends at the moment and I hope to publish it very soon. Today a few photos of the skirt, which is asymmetrical and has pleats in the right front. In the second photo I wear it with a blouse in the same fabric, making it look like a dress. 

Always one of the most difficult things for me, taking photos. As you can see we had a little fun too :).

Seeing on the photos that there's a little wrinkle under the arm. Pity.

A skirt

I started to write about blogging in general, inspired by Bunny's post on blogging, but have deleted it all. Too many words and I'm realising I'm mainly thankful to be part of this amazing community. It gave me real friends too, both near and far and even a group of sewing friends I share a week of sewing with each year (next one is already in the agenda!).

Bunny's post made me realise too that it's been a long time again since I posted, without intending to leave so much time in between. December is of course a busy time for most of us and January... well, I can't wait till it's over and days are getting longer.

I'm certainly not planning to put a schedule on my blog posts, but will try to document my sewing a bit more. Let's start with one of my recent makes, a skirt from the May 2012 Burda issue.


One of my sewing friends traced it for me (thanks Viv) as I didn't have the issue.
Though it looks like a wrap, initially I thought it was, it's a pegged pencil skirt with some lovely features:

• asymmetrical seamline at the front
• high/low hem
• high waistline in the back, lower at front

Here's my version.

I made it in a heavy ponte knit in size 42. I ended up making it shorter and taking in the waist a lot. Think it was at least two sizes. As you can see in the first photo, which is not the most flattering, but the one where you can see the detail best, my difference in waist/hip ratio is substantial.

When I had sewn the base of the skirt and only had to do the facings, I tried it on, not having altered the depth of the darts. It looked ok and I finished it, including top-stitching.

The horror of putting it on then. It was far too wide in the waist. Probably it had set a bit lower when I tried it on. It meant taking all the topstitching out, taking the waist in by sewing wider darts AND making seam lines in the facing to remove the extra width. 

Something that would have make me throw it in the wastebin when I was younger...(my mother knows!) but now I'm really happy I didn't.

Dark blue is difficult to make photos from, It's close fitting but the ponte knit makes it quite comfortable.

Burda skirt–May 2012

Browsing BurdaStyle online I saw a skirt pattern I liked very much, but from an old issue that I don’t have. I tried to buy the pdf pattern but their system blocked (tried it twice, called my bank and they saw I tried to pay it and assured there was nothing wrong at their end). Then a sewing friend came to the rescue who has this issue and traced it for me (Viv, again a huge thank you!).

It was not in my set of patterns I cut in a batch a few weeks ago, almost finished those and update on those items soon. With warmer weather finally arrived here I just had to make this skirt, sewed on the buttons last night and am actually wearing it now.

At the time I might have thought this was not a skirt that was very current, at least I don’t remember seeing wide skirts for a while. They definitely are around again and this is a great pattern. Burda often is fashion forward!

The pocket is very easy, no need for a single welt construction here. It’s between two seams so you just sew the pocket to the bottom pattern piece and lay that on top of the upper pattern piece.

 

Fabric is a bit prone to wrinkling. I already sat down in this skirt, which is visible in the back picture.

I’ve not subscribed to Burda for a long time, but as I eventually like patterns from issues that I dismissed before, having used quite a few patterns from more recent issues AND having seen the preview for June with some great patterns, I will subscribe again.

Follow up on a skirt

Hi all. It’s been a bit longer than I thought. October already. I moved house and now live close to the city of Leiden, which is a lovely old Dutch town, not very far from Amsterdam (the city that most of my foreign readers will know).

I’ve been sewing a little bit and have lots of sewing plans for the next months. Time to pick up on blogging again too.

The first project I’d like to share is a skirt. Remember the Knip Mode skirt I started in March? A reminder of the line drawing and my initial, unfinished version.

I did not finish it in the end because of the fact I did not like the fabric, the back felt too low and the yoke didn’t do a lot for me (actually accentuated my hip a lot). Also I felt the curves stopped abruptly at the top. Still, I liked the general idea of it and made a different version in which I omitted the yoke and settled for a dart both in the front and the back. The difference in sizes between waist and hip is too big to be able to rotate the last dart out. At least, that’s how I felt about it.

This is my new version, much better for me. Not as much flare in the back as the original pattern, but still a distinctive feature of the skirt. The dressform is not really my size. I’ll show pictures on me when a jacket I plan to sew is finished. The fabric is deep black, so very difficult to photograph the details.Even making the photos lighter doesn’t improve it much.

 

Skirt in progress

Just wanted to show you where I got with this skirt. All that’s left to do is the inside waistband, lining and hemming. The fabric is a kind of faux suede you see a lot here at the moment in all kind of colors. My fabric is a greyish brown, I had expected it to be more grey than it actually is. The downside of buying online.

The wrong side of it feels uncomfortable and sticks to your skin. So anti-static lining is necessary. I might will re-do the zipper as I’m not satisfied with it.

    

Drafting the skirt

It was good to step back from the draft for a day or so. This is the basic draft in my skirt block. Because there is more width to be covered than in the original pattern, I realized that I had to change the back if I wanted the center back panel more or less as narrow as the original. I had already made the panels a bit wider, but on the back that was not enough.

The dotted line in the back indicate where I started to move out the pattern pieces to create the fullnes in the back. Also a lot of notches to make sure I know which parts belong together.

This is an original pattern piece for the back.

Below pictures of how I created this on my pattern:

I traced the top part to the dotted line (in my block these are the pattern pieces marked 5 and 6). On a separate piece of paper I traced the bottom part, have drawn lines in it and spread the four pieces I now had.

 

The corner was curved to get a smooth transition.

The final pattern piece.

For the waistband I closed the darts. The back waisband is curved and the length of the darts were not exactly the same any more.

Here I trued the lines, adding a bit at the top, taking away a bit from the bottom. To make sure the waistband is even, I checked the line of the center back and the lenght of the lines where the darts were. There was one line I had to adjust a little.

I’ve cut out the skirt and plan to do some sewing tonight. I’m very excited to see whether this works as I see it in my head.

Intrigued by a skirt

This February the Dutch magazine Knip Mode had a skirt in the pattern collection that I was immediately attracted to.

There's only one version in the magazine, hemming is not very well done and as so often there is a difference in the line drawing and the actual pattern. In the line drawing the design lines of the front are straight, in the actual pattern these lines are curved, as can be seen in the photo. I prefer the straight lines.



I traced the pattern in the size based on my hip measurements. When I checked the circumference I was a little shocked to see so much "negative ease" there was. The skirt is intended to be made from a fabric with stretch, but it would be a lot of stretch for me and my hips are wide enough without stretching fabric over them.
So: back to the drawing board, literally (almost, it was the floor, looking forward to a bit more space).

My creative space, a mess! Original pattern pieces, my skirt block with lines drawn into it. The worst part is not captured in the photo ;).

I plan to make this skirt from a fabric with almost no stretch. The instructions in Knip Mode indicate no zipper because of the fabric with stretch they used.  Even if I would have used that kind of fabric it would not do for me, the difference between hip and waist measurement is too big. So I will add a center back seam and incorporate a zipper. 

I use my skirt block in combination with the original pattern to get a pattern based on my measurements. Not very straightforward, there are still a few decisions to be made in the distribution of the darts but that's for tomorrow. 

I'm not sure whether I'll succeed and whether the style will suit me,  I'm in an experimenting mood. 

Skirt from ponte fabric

The other garment I made from the border print fabric is this skirt.

Can you imagine this being part of the same fabric as the top I showed yesterday?

  

So much was happening in this print. For someone who in general wears a lot of solids it was too much. Using the fabric this way I managed to get two garments I like. The fabric quality is great, originally it was an expensive fabric. I had a remant at only 12 euro's. A bit extra for the lining of the skirt, I'm pleased with my bargain.

(I made my own pattern using Suzy Furrer's book).