Flower Market Skirt

I have always wanted to make Dana's Market Skirt, but never had a good excuse until my husband's cousin and her daughter came to visit the last week of the year. I love the way the green compliments the the floral print.

And these pockets are just the right size for little hands. I decided not to add buttons, and I think they are a bit smaller than the dimensions the tutorial gives. I was having a total brain fart and the tiny pockets took as long to make as the whole rest of the skirt!

This adorable skirt is made even more adorable by my 2 1/2 year old niece*.

I am so sad these guys live in California and not next door! Can't wait to see you again soon!

*I know, she's technically a cousin once removed, or something, but I think I'll stick with niece. I have so few (2) that one more in the ranks is a good thing!

KCWC: Day one

Time spent: 11:15pm - 1am

I had hoped to sew in the afternoon, but the kids would not cooperate and nap at the same time (and in Hero's case, at all). Then I was going to sew right after they went to bed around 9pm, but the Husband wanted to watch a movie with me... so I ended up sewing late into the night.

Project sewn: skirt for Pretty of my own design.

Status: SO CLOSE!!!

It got most the way around the hem and then I ran out of bobbin thread. Noticing that it was so late, I decided to call it quits and finish the project today. Pictures on the model to come!

Tattered Chic Skirt

I made me a new skirt, without a pattern, though very much inspired by this denim skirt by Linda of at Craftaholics Anonymous. I even used the tutorial she had for the flower, with my own variation.

I bought this material for my birthday back in April. I had plans to make a shirt out of it, but decided that it was too heavy. Then I thought and imagined and planned. I was scared to cut it out and ruin it because the material was kind of expensive (for me). But I finally just went for it!

I laid down a stretch knit skirt I had. I cut an extra 1/2 on the sides for sewing. However, it ended up a bit loose. I learned that for stretch knit, you need to make it tighter, so if I do it again, I'm just going to cut right on the edge of the old skirt. I also ended up cutting off about 4 inches from the length so my ruffle wouldn't make the skirt too long.

I also cut a 6 in wide band for the top, and 2 bands the entire width of the fabric that were 5 inches to make the ruffle on the bottom.

Since knit doesn't fray, I decided to do exposed seams so they would roll and add some design to the skirt. To show you how I did that, I'll explain the waist band. (I had already sewn the side seams of both skirt and waist band before I took pictures.)

First, against your taught intuition, you need to pin the band to the inside of the skirt with the RIGHT side of the band facing the WRONG side of the skirt.

It should look like this when sewn:

Then, use a seam gauge to make sure it's even, fold the waist band in half and pin with the edge of the waist band past the seam.

Then sew the waist band down with the fabric lining up with the edge of the pressure foot. I also sewed a second line above it to hold down the now hidden seam.

I attached the ruffle in the same manner. I measured about 5/8 of an inch, but after sewing, it left some of my gather stitch exposed, so I would recommend pinning about an inch, but still sewing with the fabric lined up on the edge of  the pressure foot.

After sewing on the ruffle, I took my scissors and cut a line up the ruffle, then rounded the edges to create the slit/gap. I also added the spiral flower from Linda's tutorial, with one difference. I sewed the strip in half, like she said, but then gathered the folded edge to leave the raw edges exposed. That way the flower followed my theme of tattered chic.

This skirt is super comfy and I love it!

ReCap of things I learned for next time:

1. Cut stretch knit fabric smaller, it stretches...
2. Take a bigger seam to hide gather stitch (plus it would probably help with the fit to do the same on the sides.)