The Saskia skirt

A few weeks ago I had my day long craft day with friends. One of them (Saskia) gave me a bag of material that she no longer needed. It was perfect for practising skirts! And so my skirt was named.

The first thing was to dig out my blocks. When I made them, they were pretty much perfect so I figured I could go straight in and design a pattern

Blocks to pattern

I chose a leopard print brushed cotton from my new stash and traced off my blocks onto a2 paper.  I didn’t want darts, just a waistband…a really deep one that was a design feature, not just a waistband.

I drew a curved line on the back panel at the bottom of the darts and a straight one across the front. Then I cut the pieces off and closed up the darts. Voila, my new skirt pattern.

Nice waistband!

I was really excited to sew it up, it’s the first pattern I’ve made from a block. I really wanted to pipe along the new seams, but I couldn’t find black piping anywhere in town (or black bias tape and cord) For the first time, I actually took time to press everything, my seams are all neat, my facing fits neatly, I even hemmed it by hand! I really wanted this to be something I’d wear.

Neatness 🙂

The back fits like a glove, the front, not so much. Unfortunately my little rounded cake belly is a little visible 😦 the material has bulges either side of my belly, it just needs a bit removing. If I’d kept the darts, I could have lengthened them, but because I moved them there’s really no alteration.

It’ll work fine with a longer jumper or T-shirt over it, but tucked in, I’m just not comfortable with the bagginess around my belly.

Bad belly

New things I did:
1. Made a skirt
2. Made a pattern from my skirt block
3. Hemmed something by hand
4. Learned I need to increase the front dart length on my block!