Thursday, July 02, 2009

Ooooh, procrastination

No, I wasn't using this project as a procrastination method. Although -- hang on, I made this so long ago and never posted about it, it'd quite possible I was using it to procrastinate my ... pre-finals work ... quite possibly. I can't remember these piddling details. I also can't quite remember when, exactly, I finished this.

But anyways. My shortcomings are not of interest here, are they? No, no, Jessica, let us see the gazillionth skirt you've pulled together.


Weird angle, I know. I was getting tired of that one corner where I always pose. I'm sure you were, too. Just because I had to go haul my chair into my closet, and then fish around for enough books to get the camera to a proper height, doesn't mean that this wasn't worthwhile. Girl, you really need to get a tripod already. I know, I know.

So. ANYWAYS. Remember this? [Oh goodness, why do I blog about these 'sneak peeks'? They only reinforce how long it takes me to finish stuff.] I ordered this fabric when I was still living in San Francisco, fully wanting to make a summery skirt with box pleats, one over each hip, which is exactly what I wound up with. But somewhere along the line I thought it would be a good idea to insert rickrack into the seam between the yoke and the skirt panel.

I'm going to have to admit that it doesn't lie 100% flat in all places, but overall I'm really pleased with how that bit of detailing turned out. So much so that I had to go and add even more rickrack to the bottom hem. I never know when to stop, do I?


This skirt uses a yoke pattern I self-drafted awhile ago and put into most my skirts [or else use as a facing into the ones with no yoke]. The skirt panel comes in 2 pieces, front and back, and is a trapezoid, with the bottom 3 inches wider than the top on each side, for a total of 6 additional inches. I usually do this on my pleated skirts to avoid the "tulip" look and achieve more of an A-line instead, because A-lines work with my body type and tulips do not. The hips are large enough as is, thank you very much. The box pleats are 1.5" deep, so I had to add in 6 inches for each box pleat as well. In other words, my usual skirt panel would be roughly 35" on the top edge to match my yoke; here I cut a trapezoid by:

35" (baseline) + 2*6" (per box pleat) = 47" <~ top edge of trapezoid
35" (baseline) + 2*6" (per box pleat) + 6" (additional width to make the skirt more A-line) = 53" <~ bottom edge of trapezoid

I have to say, I really, really like this skirt. It twirls fabulously [sorry, no twirling photo -- goodness, if we waited for that, I might have graduated already before getting around to posting this skirt], and has a really nice swoosh when I move about.

Now if only it would stop raining long enough for me to wear it.

3 comments:

Zonnah said...

It is very cute and I love the rickrack.

Stephanie N. said...

That is so cute. I really should bring rick-rack back into my trimming habits. I mean, it's just so darned cute!

Antoinette said...

Great fabric! I love that you self-drafted this entire pattern. Can't figure out, though, why you can't wear this cute skirt when it's raining? I prefer wearing skirts and dresses except when the day's activities require otherwise. But I don't think I've ever skipped wearing them for rain. :)