Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Sewing journey: Cupcakes and circle skirts





All you sewing pinups out there know how it begins, you walk into a fabric store, scouting the joint... then suddenly out jumps the most beautiful fabric you have ever seen. Immediately you see the garment form right in your head, like the fabric told YOU what to create!

I must mention upon further inspection of the fabric I saw it had a slight sheen to it, nice :) but also had that vinyl table cloth like backing, fortunately I could care less because it was BE-AU-TI-FUL!
The weight of it reminded me of my fave home sewn thrift find...

Fabric for circle skirts

So follow along to watch me turn that into this...



How to make a circle skirt
















Anyway let me find a good tutorial... I've made a few circle skirts so far, but none as perfect as that black one. Each time I try a new approach but haven't found one I love. This method worked great!
I pretty much followed her directions until the waistband. I wanted mine thinner with the zipper closing UNDER the waistband. So after inserted the zipper in the skirt only I approached the waistband. I tried this;

I cut out a 4" long strip as wide as the fabric from my excess. I pinned my strip to the waist opening of my skirt for measuring purposes, left 3-4 inches extra and cut the rest. I fused very sturdy interfacing to both sides, since vinyl can be very stretchy.

Circle skirt waist band

Ironed my 4" strip in half to become a 2 " wide strip, then folded the raw edges and corners under and pressed to give a clean finish on all sides. Next pinned to waist, with raw edges tucked in, tried my best to align and stitched all around. This worked out ok, but I found there were a few areas it wasn't matched up perfectly, so I had to go back a redo a few spots. Since vinyl has a clean edge I skipped the hem but had to trim off about 1 1/2 inches.Added a hook and eye and it's a go!
Time spent from start to finish: from measuring to completion about 3 hours, great for me :) I'm a slowpoke. Amount of fabric: 2 yards. Here it is...






    Can't resist a twirl

Sewing a circle skirt without a pattern

1 comment:

  1. You know our connection..... Something just told me to check today to see if you had any new post, and of course there's one from yesterday.... Luv the print, and the top works perfect with it. Good job. :) Keep up the good work.

    Miss you,
    Love you,

    L.

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