Bodacious Booty Skirt Design

I am having so much fun with skirt drafting designs. I love vintage patterns especially historical dresses that have back bustles. So this is my inspiration with this design I sewed it up in muslin to see if I would like it. The back peplums I could not put on the bias due to lack of muslin so the drape is not as good as it could be plus I couldn’t put them on a fold for the same reason.

I wanted to have a longer skirt but maybe too long? I will have a side zip in this skirt so I don’t disrupt the back peplums. I still have a back center seam on this dress because I wanted to have a slit since this skirt does taper down and is essentially another pencil skirt. The slit gives much-needed room to walk in this long pencil skirt design.

The peplum design line itself I think I will narrow so it doesn’t fan out so much in the back, I want it to drape down more but again it would have a better drape if it was on bias. I think I am just going to have a facing for this skirt or else it will be just another straight waistband.

So what do you guys think? Too corny? Or different and cute? What sort of fabric would you use for this skirt?

Here is a pic of another pattern I drafted that is sort of a mermaid type of design fitted to flared but I need 60 inch fabric for this to work as it needs to go onto the bias and it is also a long skirt.  I also drafted a circle skirt that is mid calf length and also puts me in the same fabric conundrum!!

Happy Sewing 🙂

Tissue Fitting and No Muslin

Ok I recently came across the names Palmer/Pletsch for easy and faster alterations. I know where have I been hiding under a rock? Did I have my head in the sand?  I love their books!!!! You can find out more about them at Amazon.

Remember this?

So I thought I would take a whirl at this and start on the skirt with this beautiful herringbone linen in steel-blue.

I ended up adding quite a bit of alterations for it to hang straight in center front and center back. Center back was really swayed to the side! What the heck is wrong with my warped body lol

I also added two inches in length so I can have the skirt a bit longer.

Here is some progress in the fashion fabric:

Different lighting is making the color vary from dark to light but trust me it’s the same skirt 😉 I like the flounce unfortunately this linen is quite stiff and I plan to line this skirt so I decided to just preshrink this by steam iron vs washing it. I think it needs to soften up a bit I will wash it gentle cycle with fabric softener and hope for a bit of a better drape. I also hate how easy it wrinkles I really hope the lining helps with this.

I hope to pick up some lining material today with an invisible zip and have this finished by the end of the week.

Spring fun skirt

I finished Abbys  skirt!!

So cute!  With or without the bow do you think? I ended up doing a hong kong finish on the hem, it was sort of an experiment and I knew it would change the drape of the fabric but I was curious how.  I wanted to add some more pink accent to break up this clowny fabric. lol   The stiffness the finish added to the ruffles makes them more “puffy” and playful.  I ended up loving it!

I am going to make the top and shrug in that solid hot pink slinky knit fabric I have.

Sew Frustrated Turns to Sew Pretty!

Ok yesterday was a VERY frustrating sewing morning.  Has anyone out there spent days tweaking a pattern, making a muslin and tweaking some more so that it custom fits? Well I have too and………Cut my fashion fabric and sewed it up only to see that it looks like complete crap!! I found myself tweaking the fashion fabric like a muslin all over again! What is the use of making a muslin I ask if the results are going to be so different in the fashion fabric????  Here is Exhibit A:

Ok my daughters mirror is spotted. I know it is distracting sorry about that. So see all the wrinkles in the crotch???? Any ideas? My muslin did not have that. Also I am not happy that my seams seem to have puckered on the princess lines ALL 4!!! So I will not be able to do anything about that. Exhibit B:

Again you can see what I am talking about with those princess seams?? I still have to install the invisible zip in the back. Exhibit C:

It feels like the only thing I did right was the waist band fits well, no gaping.  So now what? If anyone has any suggestions on how to correct these problems I would love to hear from you!!

So after completely being frustrated and no idea on what to try next I decided to sew pretty instead!

My daughter wanted me to make this outfit first and this is the fabric she picked! Only problem is I have very little of this fabric so I will have to be happy with one ruffle. I am thinking of using some of the printed pink cotton as a contrast on the ruffle hem.  I have some great dark pink solid knit for the shrug and t-shirt.  I love the thick rick-rack and I am going to place that just before the ruffle.

This skirt has an elastic waist band so it will sew up super quick while I take a sabbatical from my horrid pants!