New skirt, yeah :)I bought this lightweight blotchy grey-green cotton from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, during my girly trip away with my Mum and Cassie last year… and always intended to make just exactly this skirt. The pattern is an old favourite Vogue 7880, a flatteringly longline skirt with beautifully staggered asymmetrical layers, and the option for a feminine handkerchief hemline. It's an interesting as well as lovely design because it looks different from every angle. There was a stiff breeze on the beach when I took these pictures, which is normally a pain for the sort of weirdo who tries to photograph their sewing creations out in the great outdoors... I mean who does that anyway?! but actually turned out to be a good thing I think, because the wind has assisted in showing off the different layers fluttering against each other, how they actually appear when in motion, so to speak. Thanks, wind, for blasting me to bits! Very much appreciated!
The fabric is a very lightweight cotton, a little crinkly, even slightly seersucker-y. It has the shadows of the classic seersucker check appearing in its background, overlaid with cloudy, watercolour like swirls of grey, khaki, sage, olive... all my favourite sludgey colours in other words. The bolt was clutched to my chest pretty early in the shopping expedition, if I recall correctly. Mwahahaha.
This skirt pattern has three views and I’ve made lots of them over the years. This newest version is sorta halfway between views B and C, which have always been my two favourite views. I’m so glad I’ve hung on to the pattern because it is interesting and lovely, and imo there’s just nothing ticking either of those boxes in currently available skirt patterns at the moment. Is it just me or are skirt patterns pretty boring and unimaginative right now? Obviously I have absolutely nothing against basic skirt patterns, since after all I’ve made my own fair share of very plain little skirts!… but we need some of the more pretty and/or out-there ones too, don’t we? And sadly there are just very few interesting, exciting, gorgeous and/or challenging designs around. If there are, then please tell me, where are they?!
This pattern has inner stay pieces, to which you attach the lower skirt pieces. For several of my versions of this skirt I’ve chosen sheer fabrics, because the floaty layers are really crying out to be made in very light fabrics like chiffon; and so I generally lengthen the stay to hit just above knee length, to make it more like a real proper lining. It’s pretty easy to mark the old stitching line on the stay, to which you add the lower skirt pieces as normal, and then you just hem the stay just like you would a lining. The longer length hangs inside the skirt, providing modesty when you have chosen sheer fabrics, or in case you do happen to be wearing the skirt on a very windy day, ahem.
you can just barely make out the line of stitching halfway up the inner stay/lining, where the lower skirt pieces are attached...
It has an invisible zip closure, and I finished the raw edges using the rolled hem stitch on my overlocker.
Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7880, lightweight cotton with polyacetate stay/lining
Shirt; Burda 8497, white cotton, details here
Shoes, bensimon, from seed
btw, if you like playing "spot the dog"she just squeaked into two of the pictures here ;)
