Sunday 2 February 2014

Skirt refashion step by step

I was itching to do some sewing this weekend and I have had this lovely piece of fabric with deer on it since before Christmas ( a fat quarter) and I have just used one strip of it on a cushion.  I also had a khaki skirt my mother in law picked up a charity shop for a pound because she said I would use the fabric.  Now the deer fabric is not very big but pretty, the skirt has a nice shape at the top but all pointy handkerchief bits around the bottom which I don't care for.  So I decided I would take most of the skirt away just leaving a sort of yoke at the top ( not sure if that's what you call it but never mind). I then placed my other fabric beneath it and shaped it so it would be 'A' line.

Here is the scary crumpled skirt, I didn't bother ironing it yet, not when I'm going to chop off most of it!


You can see here a lot got snipped away, I did check the length with another skirt to make sure it would be long enough when I added the new piece of fabric.

The fabric is brown with a salmon pink, beige and green deer. I think it goes well with the khaki.
                             Ha! More crumpled fabric this time the slip. It will see an iron, promise.

I also had a green slip dress in a lining that again my mother in law gave me from under a lace dress, I chopped and shaped the bottom of this to make a lining.
I stitched down each side of the new fabric, then laid it right sides together with the original skirt making sure side seams lined up then sewed all around.  I then turned it over and top stitched (number 24 on Toyota machine) so the seams were folded back toward the thicker fabric ( in this case the top of the skirt).
Then I sewed my lining in by turning it  through and just catching on the edge of the existing facing at the waist, I didn't machine stitch down the sides of the zip I did this by hand tucking it under as I went. I prefer to do it this way I think you have more control over how flat it lies.
Now it all got a really good iron and a try on. You can't actually see all of the top of the skirt with the top I'm wearing but who wears tops that short anyway in February in England? I like the colour combination, I also have a salmon pink long sleeved T shit and a brown jumper that would go with this so I'm  sure it will get lots of wear.
So I have managed to make that fat quarter into something wearable and recycled something at the same time.  The only part I may change is the lining, the slip was on the bias so I can feel that when I'm wearing it so it may annoy me, I have some other lining so if it proves to be annoying I will change it as that part is very 
quick to do.

So does anyone out there have any small special bits of fabric that could find their way into an item of clothing.  I have been looking at some of the fabulous bright clothes on the  Desigual site here there are skirts that look like they are made from about three or more different fabrics so lots of inspiration there.

I like this skirt


3 comments:

  1. I love that site for inspiration, also this
    http://www.gudrunsjoden.com/uk/start-pages-shared/2013_1_1/classics/chapters

    never likely to spend that much money on clothes but both sites are great for ideas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the tip I've not seen that store before and I've just had a peek, great stuff. Love the Kamelia rain coat but I see what you mean about the prices. We can look though can't we, and come up with our on take on things. x

      Delete
  2. I love how you did this, very clever.
    Pam in Texas.

    ReplyDelete

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