Unfinished Project #1 : another pleated skirt

I bought this super light weight denim at Vogue fabrics last month with plans to make a second, more casual pleated summer skirt. Since I didn't finish it last month, it became number one on my pile of unfinished projects.

I was able to whip it up last night in a few hours as my husband watched the recaps of the Wimbledon match.

I made couple of changes this time :

A. I cut 3 inches off of the top of the skirt because I knew that I wanted it to sit much lower on the hips than the last one.

B. Because this was going to be much more casual, I omitted the facing and used some yellow double fold bias tape to finish off the top instead.

Conclusion - I love it. It makes me want to go to the farmers market.

In the nick of time, skirt #1

I finished my first skirt during my son's afternoon nap. My late showing isn't due to over whelming laziness, at least this time. I lost the cord to my sewing machine. I tore my house apart at least 3 times, from top to bottom. I even looked in all the weird places, like between towels, and in the camping gear in my garage. All this to no avail. I was sure that the cord would have to be special ordered, take two to three weeks, yada yada yada. So, last Friday I finally gave up and called my local Bernia store and...for only $10 I could come and pick it up right now! They "keep a bunch on stock"! Who knew?

So, Saturday = cutting, marking, pinning, and zippers (my least favorite parts)

and Today =
The only change I made was to open up the top of the pleats a little so that the skirt rides more on my hips and less on my actual waist. That's the great thing about pleats; you need a little more room, just let out a pleat a little, you need a little less space, just take a pleat in a little. Oh, I love the custom fit.

pleated skirt completed

I finally got around to making my pleated skirt. I apologize that it has taken so incredibly long. I not only moved this month, but it is also my busiest month for work. But, yesterday once I finally got started I was amazed at how fast this whipped together. I would say it took me a total of 4 hours.

I did make a couple of changes to the skirt. First of all I realized once I started that this was going to be a very high waisted skirt - so instead of fighting it I decided to go for the 1950's high waisted thing that is very popular right now. I added even more height to the waist by trading out the facing for a waist band and then adding a button to close it off at the top.

Overall I am pretty happy with the outcome. It is much more loud than most things that I wear, which is good for me. It came together very easily and fit perfect. I might have one more of these up my sleeve in a more subdued version.

Shirt Skirt

Christine sent me a link to this awesome skirt made out of a dress shirt. It's kinda like a combination of last months pattern and this month's. If you are like me you probably still have another dress shirt that you didn't get around to making a dress with. If that is the case maybe you should make a skirt for yourself.

THE VOTES ARE IN : B4686

By only three votes on the last day the flared skirt B won our poll for the pattern to make next month. Pleated skirts are everywhere so I am really excited to get started.

Remember Butterick patterns are on sale through tomorrow at Joanne Fabrics for $1.99 so go get this months pattern right away.

p.s. If your skirt didn't win then go get the other pattern as well. In my opinion you can never have enough breezy summer skirts.