Monday, March 14, 2011

Ahhhhh Skirt!

I have to admit I have fallen sadly behind on my participation in Me Made March. Something had to give and that is what fell off the radar. Ce La Vie!  Life gets in the way sometimes and we just have to make the best of it that we can.

I have all sorts of commitments that I am working on but I decided that today I needed to squeeze in working on a project for ME! Well for one reason I have an event coming up on Saturday and until I finished this skirt I had nothing to wear!


Here is what the skirt looks like BEFORE I add the crinoline slip that I make to go with it!

A few weeks ago Talbot's featured their Champs-Elysees skirt on their cover. I think the biggest mistake they ever made was featuring this skirt with a crinoline under it. Below the picture in small print it said crinoline not available! What? Are they crazy? It looked AMAZING and they weren't even selling it. Well I tell you I have been thinking about that skirt with the crinoline ever since.


I even went to good old Talbot's and tried on the skirt ready to fork over the slightly staggering $89.00 that they wanted for it sans crinoline. Well in a twist of fate it did not fit right at all. The 10 was too tight and too long the 12 was too loose and even longer. The petite hit my hips all funny. All of this is weird beacuse I am usually a text book RTW 14.

I decided that I would find a pattern and make myself a skirt WITH the crinoline. Now the questions, "can I pull off the crinoline look" and "am I too old for this"? Well those are yet to be answered. I went with the pattern for Simplicity 2413 which is a Project Runway pattern. It is one of those patterns that you can choose all sort of options and "make it your own". So I did I choose skirt B without a bottom band and the belt from skirt A.

It was a fairly simple skirt to construct. However this is my first ever attempt at an invisible zipper and of course I chose to insert it in with a pocket. So it is not an an entirely invisible zipper but it is in and functional and wearable.

When I finished the skirt I realized it is VERY see-through. Well I was hoping for a crinoline any way so I took the super cheap and easy route on making a crinoline slip. I started with a boys XL white t-shirt that I had left over from another project. First I cut the top of the shirt off at the sleeves.


I am using the body of the t-shirt as the main portion of my slip. The skirt is made of cheap taffeta and I really just want the slip to keep it from being so see-through. But the fact that the t-shirt is all nice and soft is a bonus because this skirt is very stiff and itchy without it. Next I used lingerie elastic to create a waistband for my slip.

 
 I did not finish the cut edge of the t-shirt. I just sewed it to the elastic as is. It will not fray and this is not something I am going to wear much. I just zig-zag stitched the elastic on to the waist of the slip.


The nice thing about starting with a t-shirt is that I used the finished hem of the t-shirt as the hem of the slip.


Next I added the "crinoline" to the slip. I decided I just wanted to the crinoline part at the bottom of the slip because I wanted it to peek out of the skirt and look cool. But I do not need any extra poof anywhere! I have enough poof of my own. So I gathered up my sparkly champagne tool using a piece of cord and a wide zig-zag stitch.


You pull the cord and is gathers right up. Then I pinned the gathered tool to my new slip and simply stitched it on. Here is what the finished crinoline slip looks like alone.



Then I put the slip on under the skirt and viola! Now we have the full skirt with peek-a-boo crinoline that I have been wanting for weeks.


The really funny thing about this skirt is that this fabric was supposed to just be "practice" fabric. It was $3.00 a yard and I just wanted to test out taffeta. But I feel in love with it as I was working on it. 
I even added touches like lace hem tape on the inside to make sure it was pretty on the inside too. Which I almost never bother to do. But somehow simple serger thread did not do this skirt justice.


I also top-stitched the belt. I am hoping that it will help the bow keep its shape when I wear it. I have grand plans to make a white button up shirt to go with the skirt for Saturday. And since it is already cut there is a hope it will get sewn in time. But I have some other options of tops I think if the shirt is not ready. And I know I have the perfect shoes! We will have to see if the whole outfit comes together and how it looks before I officially decide if I am going to make more like this skirt. But so far I sort of Love it!

Peace Out - C


4 comments:

  1. That is such an adorable skirt! :]

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  2. Thanks! It was pretty fun to wear.

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  3. What a fun skirt! Love the little tulle accent on the slip.

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  4. Skirt looks great and the auction looked a lot of fun too, hope you've found room for all those things! :)

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