Sew Much Fabric, Sew Little Time

A week worth of Skirts -- Skirts 1 and 2

2010-01-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time dressed up, and I like the comfort and mix-and-match flexibility of skirts and sweaters as apposed to dresses, at least for day-to-day wear. So I'm exploring skirts right now, trying to make an example of each of my favorite basic shapes to end up with a unique winter wardrobe that includes a different skirt for every day of the week.

Starting with the most basic designs, here are two elastic-waisted wook/polyester blend pieces. The first one is an extra-long column skirt. It doesn't get much easier than this. I measured from my waist to my ankles, added four inches for the seams, and cut my fabric into a rectangle. I pinned down a seam, and sewed it most of the way down, leaving a calf-high walking slit at the back. Add the elastic waist and bottom hem, and voila! It's almost as warm as walking around wearing a blanket.

This six-panel flouncy-bottomed skirt is made from the same pattern as one of my summer skirts. I got so many compliments on that one, I thought I'd make a wool and poly blend version to keep me super-warm along with my fake-fur lined brown boots. The fabric is incredibly thick, and I like the way the subtle striping in the pattern create "v"s where the skirt starts to flare out.

Four Quilts

2009-10-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

You may notice some familiar fabric bits in these quilts left over from the skirts in the previous post. Waste not, want not, right?

Two baby showers have fallen into my life recently (one of my friends having a girl and another a boy). I gave both of them quilts, and now that the showers are over, I can post the quilts without ruining the surprise. The design requires 25 (4 1/2 inch) squares in a main color and 12 (4 1/2 inch) squares in each of two brighter accent colors.

I liked the way the simple design "popped" when I added an unexpected textured fabric, and they were so much fun to make that I did two more, which I put up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Three Skirts

2009-10-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

I made these three skirts a few months ago, but the fabric did come from the mega-pile, so I still want to talk about them.

This first skirt is a simple a-line, made from two knee-length pieces that look roughly like cones with the top sawed off. I highly recommend an a-line skirt as a first sewing project. The most challenging part of the whole design was to get the vertical stripe laid out straight, and it would have been even easier had I just used a solid-color fabric. The beautiful sueded material just makes me happy.

The second skirt I made from an Indian-inspired piece of cloth that was wonderfully shiny. It had a color splash that repeated at the top and bottom, which I wanted to preserve, so I cut off one of the color strips, sewed the rest of the fabric together to form a large, folded-over rectangle, then pleated the top until it came in far enough to fit my waist. Then I ran a piece of elastic through the top color strip and re-attached it to the skirt.

For the third skirt, I modified a pattern I had for a six-panel flounce bottom design. I love the way this fabric shines, and I wanted it to "swirl" when I walk. I think I've gotten more complements on this skirt than almost any other garment I've owned!

The Generosity of Strangers

2009-06-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

. . . . Or at least friends of friends.

One of my friends has a friend who was cleaning out her storage building about six months ago, and the hubby and I swung by to pick up the "leftovers" for a garage sale I was having. I wound up with a truck full of furniture -- and a car full of cloth. While there were some really nice fabrics with generous yardage, let's just say, not all of the pieces were my taste. However, I hate to waste, so I kept it all . . .

Then, a number of my friends gave me a bunch of clothes for the sale, most of which went out of style in the 80s. But a lot of the pieces were made out of really nice cloth. It would be so easy to cut them up to repurpose them . . .

Then, for an unrelated project, I answered an ad on Craigslist offering free scraps from an upholstrey shop. Tons of pieces, most of them small. But they could work just find for quilting or applique . . .

And, of course there are the always the odds and ends left over from other projects, and the yards of fabric I just have to have when I go down to the cloth district, then never get around to doing anything with.

I've set myself the challenge of finding something attractive to do with all of these leftovers and castoffs. Yet, I'm like most people in that I am very busy. So I'm going to focus on things that can be made in an evening or in a weekend.

I'll provide insturctions for what I've created, but feel free to tell me what you would have done with the same pieces of cloth.

There really is so much fabric . . . so little time. I'm glad you've decided to check in on my quest. I hope I inspire you a little to create something of your own.