The Shirred Skirt (with tutorial)

My sister showed me the picture of a skirt she saw in an online clothing store, and she wanted me to make one for her.

Original Skirt from store.

I would rather refer to it has the shirred skirt.
The skirt is made with light to medium weight  shirred at the waist, with belt loops for a belt to hold the skirt firmly to the waist.
it looks pretty simple to make, made the skirt in about one hour and the belt loops took about 45 mins. this will be included as part of my 'Easy fixes' and I will be showing you how to make one.


Measure your waist and cut 2x of your measurement as the width
Decide how long you want the length to be and add 3inch the length. (1.5" for hemming on top and 1.5" for hemming the bottom)
for illustration purposes. the measured waist was 30" (76cm) and desired length was 20" (51cm)
so i cut out two pieces of fabric width 30" and length 23" (59cm)

Hem both pieces at top of skirt only
Change the bobbin thread for a shirred elastic thread. (without any extra pressure or pull, wrap the elastic thread on to the bobbin and return in the machine.)
Sew as normal. although I increased the pressure of machine by one digit i.e from a 3 to a 4
Make 5 rows of shirring with 0.5"  (1cm) spacing between each row.

 Remembering to lock the stitches at the start and end of each row. At the end of each row, I lock stitch, lift up presser foot, turn fabric in other direction and kept sewing.

Join the fabric pieces together at the sides.

Hem the bottom of the skirt. (I finished the insides with an overlocker, you could use bias binding, pinking shears.. to finish)

Next is belt loops.
Cut a strip of fabric about 2" wide and 18" long.
Finish the sides eg pinking shears ( i overlocked) fold in both sides, Iron and sew to secure

Measure about 2.5" and out out 6 pieces.

 The tips are folded and this is then attached to skirt at the two edges to secure in place.

Your skirt is ready

Just don't miss out a belt loop as she did.

She decided she would rather use a purchased belt with this skirt, its up to you however if you want to make the accompanying fabric belt :)

Until something else interesting comes up, Adios.

Ever so grateful you came, hoping you learnt a thing or two. ha.

The white & red with black pleats dress

My sister got this 'three in one' fabric that flowed from the white to the red print to the black but shockingly this fabric design was off grain so to maintain this flow i had to cut and then join them differently that is how i came to include this Julia inspired pleats into the dress.

This is one of the pictures from Julia's blog,

This dress was made using buttterick's see and sew category, using the v neck version but with a straight skirt.
it turned out OK for my sister as you can see but even though we are very close size wise it didn't fit me at all. Luckily I hadn't cut out my own dress. ha ha

This is how it all comes together with a jacket.

Am working on some easy fixes, will let you know when it all comes together and if it was truly 'easy'
This is all for now, until another dress is complete, Adios.

This for coming, come back soon :)

Vintage Stylish

This dress is my version of Butterick 5603. I love the upper body fit and tend to go for fitted empire bodice and free skirt due to my shape.

Could say it fits like a glove.

 I couldn't just understand the facing that was explained in the pattern. lol (still coming to grips with facings) so I used bias binding and a lace trim for the neck.

Butterick pattern used

Don't think i could get away with such slim waist showed in the pattern.

So I cut a big A-line skirt full length to ankle making the upper part of skirt 8" more than 1 needed and made 8 darts, four in front and four at the back.

Talking about the back it gaped a bit at the 'v' so I just pulled the shoulder seam at the back in about 1/2 inch.

Don't mind the crease, dress had been worn all day.

There you have it. simple, vintage but stylish.

Thanks for coming, until the next posting, Adios.

A-Line Dress Variation

I love easy fixes. My fastest 'easy' dresses usually takes up to four hours from start to finish after cutting.
so I have been thinking of how to shorten this time???
Eliminate steps like seam lines, zips, linings might be the way forward.

That's how I came up with this fully lined (I much prefer lining my dresses :) ) button at the shoudler dress.
The back zip/button and the whole back seam line has been eliminated.

Only a button at each shoulder

Both front and back was cut on a fold.
Tip: If the fabric used for the dress/top is light weightily, interface the shoulder properly before sewing in the button hole this is so that the weight of the dress and normal wear/movement does not exert too much pressure to the button hole which will cause the fabric to widen unnecessarily at the shoulders. Heavy weight fabric like denim, corduroy should not be so affected but could still be interfaced.
I had to double the interfacing I used, I didn't really have a heavy weight interfacing.(when i noticed the fabric seems to be pulled down during our photo shoot.

A skirt attached to a shortened regular top bodice piece

I also love mixes (as in) the top bodice is crepe satin and the skirt is some fabric with flowers embroidered into it. you will have guess by now that 1 dont know much about fabrics, lol.

the peach fabric however brings out the flowers of the skirt more.

Top bodice altered from regular girls top pattern

All I did was take a the top part of a dress pattern and remove 1" (inch) from the length of both the front and back to get an 'empire effect' top which i then used to cut my fabric.

the skirt was just an a-line cut skirt attached to top.

(I have got quite a few variations to the standard a-line, will keep them coming.)

                                                                                              

Did i hear you ask how long this 'easy fix' took? well about three hours. I still need to work on my timing I know!!

....As long as there is a happy bunny (or in this case two) its all worth it.

Thanks for coming, leave a message and please come again soon.

Adios.