I purposely didn't sign up for a class to make a gathered waist skirt because I had hoped (desperately hoped!) that I would be employed by the date of the class. I'm still not employed and the class is full but after reading the description of the skirt - two large rectangles and a waistband - I thought it would be a fun project to try on my own.
Fortunately, I found a really really helpful tutorial. The tutorial probably would have been a bit more helpful had I actually paid attention to the sizing of the skirt. You see, the tutorial's author, Gertie, said that she was "a ready-to-wear size 8". I am not at all a ready-to-wear size 8 in skirts, especially in a skirt that is supposed to sit on your waist, and not your hips. As a result, I made the waistband way too big and had to go back and take out about 6" of fabric from my gathers before inserting the zipper. Lesson learned: do not be afraid of my own measurements!
Despite the waistband mis-measurement and a disastrous buttonhole experience, I am super pleased with how this skirt came out!
Things I liked about this skirt:
- I wasn't sure about the style at first but now I love it. It's sort of 50s inspired and not something I would usually wear. I am branching out!
- If you measure correctly, this is a really easy skirt to make.
- The patterns on the side seams match up nearly perfectly!
- The tutorial suggested hand sewing the inside of the waistband. Ugh. I hate hand sewing. I machine sewed the waistband and managed to perfectly sew through both sides of the waistband. *pats self on back*.
- This was only my second time using an invisible zipper and it's so so easy. My machine doesn't have a specific invisible zipper foot so I used my regular zipper foot and you can't tell the difference.
- At first I wasn't sure about the length - I've always viewed mid-calf skirts to be slightly dowdy and unflattering - but mid-calf balances out the fullness of the skirt nicely. If I had fewer gathers in the waist, I would probably go a little shorter.
Things I didn't like about this skirt:
- If I make this skirt again, I will only use as many gathers as needed for a size 4, not a size 8. It's a lot of skirt for a smaller frame. Fortunately, I'm tall enough to balance it out.
- Though I took the waistband in, it could still stand to be taken in another inch.
- The. Damn. Button. Hole. Seriously! I spent several hours trying to figure out how to use the buttonhole feature on my machine and I still ended up making it too small. My seam ripper got a little too carried away so I had to try to sew the rip closed. Fortunately, when the waistband is buttoned, you can't quite tell what kind of mess is lurking underneath.
This looks great! I recently made a gathered skirt with Gertie's tutorial and found it very helpful. I also refused to hand-stitch the waistband. :)
ReplyDeleteI machine my waistbands from the from in the line between gathers and the bottom of the band. Not as hard as it sounds and it's invisible. No honest give it a go.
ReplyDeleteI use the "stitch in the ditch method for attaching quilt bindings. I kind of like how the waistband of this skirt came out but, armed with a little patience, I might try it your way on my next version of this skirt. :-)
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