DIY Spanish Style Skirt

July 19, 2020 · 2 Comments

So last time I showed how to draft a skirt pattern from your own measurements, in preparation to make a Spanish style skirt from the dress Nicole made on The Great British Sewing Bee. The post is here if you missed it.

If you don’t want to make your own pattern, you might have a pattern already that you can use.

To make a Spanish style skirt, we’ll need to make some modifications to the pattern we drafted, and the same modifications will apply to a commercial pattern. If you prefer to use a pattern you have already, just make sure that it’s for a straightish skirt.

We’ll need to adjust the length and the shape of the front hem and there are a couple more pattern pieces we need to make, then we can start sewing.

Modifying the Pattern

One of the things that makes a Spanish style skirt what it is are the ruffles. This skirt has 2 ruffles, each one made from a circle and joined onto the skirt with an extra section.

Because the ruffles are going to add to the length of the skirt, we’ll need to make the skirt shorter.

Each ruffle will be about 10 cm. There are going to be 2 of them and they will overlap by about 3 cm. They’ll be joined by an extra piece of fabric.

So you’ll need to make the skirt 17 cm shorter (unless you really want it to be longer, in which case leave it!).

The easiest way to do this is to cut 17 cm off the bottom edge of both pieces.

The other thing you’ll need to do is change the shape of the hemline at the front.

Find centre front on the pattern piece and measure up 14 cm from the bottom. Using a French curve (or another curved edge like a dinner plate if you don’t have one), draw a curved line from the centre downwards to the edge of the skirt pattern. It will look less weird if the line is straight for a little way, then curves to meet the bottom of the side.

Additional Pattern Pieces

There are 3 additional pattern pieces we need to make for the Spanish style skirt: facings (because I forgot when I was drafting the skirt!), the ruffles and the pieces to join the ruffles to the rest of the skirt.

To make the facings, take one of your pattern pieces. Pin the dart.

Take a new piece of pattern paper and trace from the waist line down to about 5 cm. Do this with your other pattern piece too. Make sure you label them!

To make the ruffles, we’re going to use a circle. As far as I remember, Nicole said that each of her ruffles were 2 circles joined together. I’m not going to do that here! 1 circle for each ruffle should be plenty. The pattern piece will be a quarter of a circle.

Cut a piece of pattern paper 60 cm square. From 1 corner, measure 60 cm across from one side of the paper to the other.

Now measure down 46 cm from the same corner. Measure across the paper in the same way. This will give you a chunk of a quarter circle 14 cm wide.

The third extra piece is the section that will go between the ruffles. Obviously we don’t want to loose the shape of the hem here.

For the back, draw a rectangle the same width as the skirt and 14 cm high.

For the front, trace the shape of the hem. Measure 14 cm down, then draw the hemline again.

Sewing the Skirt

We’re going to assemble the skirt first, then the ruffles, then join the ruffles to the skirt.

When assembling the skirt, my advice is to leave trimming the seams until you’ve checked that it fits! Even if you are using a pattern drafted from your own measurements, it’s best to be on the safe side.

Pin, then sew the darts on the front section and both the back pieces. Press the darts away from the centre.

Sew the centre back seam. You’ll need to put a zip in, and if you have a preferred way to do this then by all means do that! My way involves sewing the seam completely, then dealing with the zip afterwards. Trim the seam and press it open.

Sew in the zip. The way I do this works best with invisible zips, although I have done this with ordinary zips too. Pin the zip face down over the seam on the wrong side. Tack it in place, checking that the teeth of the zip are aligned with the seam. Sew the zip to the skirt. Now unpick the seam to expose the teeth. More detailed instructions can be found here.

Sew the side seams. Try the skirt on and check that the skirt fits. If it’s all ok, trim the seams and the darts and press.

If you haven’t cut out your facings, do that now. The front one can be cut on the fold, and the back ones need to be cut out on folded fabric so that you have 2.

Use some fusible interfacing to prevent them from fraying. Join the facings at the side seams.

With the wrong sides together, sew the facings to the waist of the skirt.

Understitch the facings.

Find where the darts are on the skirt and cut the facings in the same place. You might also like to hand stitch them to the side seams and the dart seams, just into the seam allowance to stop them from popping up and being annoying!

Making the Ruffles

Nicole used 2 circles for each ruffle on her Spanish dress. I decided to use one circle because I wasn’t sure whether I had enough fabric and 4 circles would require a lot of hemming!

Cut 8 quarter circles. I used odds and ends of things that I had in my fabric hoard. If you’re doing this too, you’ll need to piece them together to make the quarter circles.

To do this, take your pattern piece and pin bits of fabric to it until the pattern piece is covered. Make sure that the pieces of fabric overlap.

Turn the pattern piece over and cut away the extra fabric.

Turn it back over and trim down the overlapping areas, leaving enough for a seam.

Sew the quarter circles together so that you have 2 complete circles.

Hem the bottom edge of each circle with bias binding, or you might prefer to use a rolled hem foot if you have one. I used bias binding. If you need instructions for doing this, there’s a tutorial here.

To gather the ruffles, sew 2 rows of stitches along the top edge of each circles. Make sure that the lines of stitches don’t cross each other!

Gather the ruffles by pulling the stitches from one end. Usually when gathering you would knot the threads at one end and pull from the other. As you’ll have quite a lot of fabric to gather, you might like to get halfway along from one end, then gather the other half from the other end.

Keep going until the ruffles are the same size as the bottom of the skirt.

Assembling the Skirt

Take the extra skirt pieces that you drafted from the bottom of the skirt and sew them together at the side seams.

Take one of the ruffles. Pin, then sew it to the bottom edge.

Take the other ruffle and saandwich it between the bottom of the skirt and the top of the extra piece. Pin it, then sew.

Trim off all the stray threads and your Spanish style skirt is ready to wear!

Winter Circle Skirt Tutorial

November 24, 2018 · 4 Comments

Winter Circle Skirt Tutorial

After successfully managing to lose some weight, I’ve ended up with a wardrobe full of clothes that don’t fit, and the perfect excuse to make some new clothes for myself!

Over the summer I made several new things, and by the end of August, I could manage a week of pretty vintage style dresses and skirts.

Unfortunately, the end of summer meant putting the pretty things away and going back into things that were decidedly baggy and, in some cases, actually falling off.

So I’m now in the process of making some winter outfits for myself. I now have a lovely blue dress with appliqued flowers on it, and a couple of weeks ago I made myself a winter circle skirt.

I love circle skirts and the last one I made was from a duvet cover! This one I’ve made from some lovely wool plaid as cotton duvet covers aren’t warm enough for winter!

Circle skirts are fab, and here’s why:

They’re easy to make. Although there is a zip which I know might give some of you the heebie jeebies, there is an easy way to put them in. If you’re still terrified, you could use a button or ties instead.

They are quick to make. Once you’ve made one or two, you’ll be able to knock one out in an evening easily. You could even make several at once as there’s nothing especially complicated about them and apart from the waistband, the bits are all the same.

Fitting is easy. As long as it fits around your middle and it’s the length you want, you don’t need to worry! And if it turns out to be too long or too short, that’s easy to fix. Either cut a bit off or add an extra bit of fabric, a frill or some broderie anglaise.

They look lovely on most people, regardless of body shape. There’s no gathering, so no extra bulk around areas you might not want to draw attention to.

They’re lovely and swirly to wear, and if you’re in a foofy kind of mood, you could wear a petticoat or add some circles of net underneath.

They’re the kind of thing that will work equally well whatever fabric you use. Personally I’d avoid stripes and big prints, but I can imagine them working if you match the patterns. I’ve made them in cotton prints, jersey, plain fabric, duvet covers, taffeta, chiffon, tulle and now wool plaid.

You can wear pretty much anything with them! A t shirt, cardigan, blouse, jumper, or a vest will all go.

So given that I love circle skirts and that I knew I could make one in the limited time I had, a winter circle skirt was an obvious choice!

How to Make a Winter Circle Skirt

You Will Need:

Warm fabric for the skirt, like a wool blend. Depending on your measurements and on the width of the fabric, you might need a couple of metres, or it might be 3 or 4. So check your measurements first!

Fabric for the lining

A 20 cm zip

Bias binding

1. Take Your Measurements

First of all you’ll need to measure your waist and decide how long you want the skirt to be.

When measuring yourself, let the tape measure rest gently where the skirt will sit. Don’t be tempted to pull it too tight! We’d all like those numbers to be a bit smaller, but being able to breathe is more important!

Jot down your waist measurement, then add 10 cm for seam allowance and ease. If you are planning on cutting 2 half circles instead of 4 quarter circles, you’ll only need to add 6 cm.

When it comes to length, 62 cm is a good length for most people. A skirt of this length will come to just below your knee if you are of average height. If you are either very tall or very small, or if you want a skirt that is longer or shorter, you’ll need to measure yourself.

The easiest way to do this is to dangle the tape measure upside down. When the the end is where you’d want the hem to be, make a note of the number at your waist.

2. Working Out the Squares

You’re going to be cutting the skirt pieces out from squares, so the next job is to work out how big the squares need to be.

You already have some of the information because you’ll have worked out how long you want the skirt to be in the previous step. What you need to work out now is the distance from your waist to what will be the centre of the circle.

The easiest way to do this is to take your waist measurement plus the extra cm for seams and ease, and divide it by 3. Then divide the answer by 2.

Add this to your desired skirt length and this will tell you how big the square will need to be.

3. Cutting Out

The Skirt

Now you can cut the bits out! If you prefer, you can make a pattern piece which might make things a bit quicker if you decide to make another winter circle skirt. I don’t usually bother, partly because I know I’ll forget where I put it!

Cut 4 squares of fabric with each side being the same length as your desired skirt length plus waist divided by 3 divided by 2.

If you are fairly slim, you might be able to cut out half a circle by folding the fabric in half widthways.

The thing to remember is that for your winter circle skirt to hang properly, the grain needs to be running up and down the centre front and back.

Choose which corner will be the top of your skirt. Using pins and a tape measure, start at one side and mark off your desired skirt length plus waist divided by 3 divided by 2. Measure across the skirt to the other side, keeping one end of the tape measure at the top corner.

Go back to the top corner and one side, and this time mark off your waist measurement divided by 3 divided by 2.

Now cut out where you have pinned. You should have what looks like a quarter of a doughnut.

You’ll need 4 of these!

With cotton fabric, it’s possible to cut out all 4 quarter circles together, but if you’ve chosen something thicker for your winter circle skirt, it’s probably safer to cut them out 2 at a time.

The Lining

Cut the lining out in the same way. Just make your overall length 10 cm shorter.

Cutting Out the Waistband

Cut a piece of fabric the same length as your waist plus a bit extra, and 10 cm wide. You might have to cut 2 pieces and join them.

4. Sewing the Skirt Pieces

If you’ve ended up with 4 quarters, sew the front and back sections. If you cut 2 half circles, you can skip this step!

Take 2 of the quarters and pin them, right sides together, along one of the straight edges. These straight edges should have the grain running up and down.

Sew, then trim the seam. Press it open.

Repeat with the other 2 pieces.

5. Sewing the Side Seams

If you have some safety pins handy, you might like to use those instead of pins. This is a tip from Julie of Sum of Their Stories and it definitely beats jabbing yourself with a pin!

Pin one of the side seams near the waist. Put the skirt round you and pin the other side. You might need to adjust the pins a bit so that the seams on each side are the same.

On one side, mark where you have pinned with a pencil or tailors’ chalk, then unpin it. Take the skirt off and repin the side seams. Sew both seams. Trim and press the seams open.

6. Making the Lining

If your lining sections are in quarters, sew them together to get a front piece and a back piece.

Pin the front and back sections together, using the skirt as a guide for the side seams. Sew the seams, trim and press.

7. Installing the Zip

Sewing the zip to your winter circle skirt is much easier if you sew the lining to the skirt first!

Make sure that the side seams are matched up, then sew the lining to the skirt a cm (1/4 inch) or so from the waist. You can do this either by hand or on the sewing machine.

I decided to sew the zip on top of the lining because it’s easiest. If you’d like a neater finish, you could sandwich the zip between the lining and the skirt instead.

Using the zip as a guide, unpick some of the side seam of the lining.

Pin the lining to the skirt at the bottom of the bit you unpicked. Check that the unpicked bit of side seam of the lining is matched up with the side seam of the skirt.

Now pin the zip over the unpicked lining seam and the skirt seam. Tack the zip in place, checking that the teeth of the zip are over the seam.

Sew the zip. This is easiest with a zip foot, but you can still do this if you don’t have one.

Now unpick the part of the skirt seam that’s covering the teeth of the zip.

When sewing the zip, it’s easiest to start some way down from the zip pull. When you’ve unpicked the seam, move the zip pull down into the bit you’ve sewn already, then sew the top of the zip.

8. Making the Waistband

If you need to join the pieces of your waistband, do that now.

Fold the waistband in half lengthways and press. Your finger will probably do! If not then use the iron.

Open it out, then fold the long raw edges into the centre. Fold it in half lengthways again and press, with your finger or with the iron.

Unfold the waistband. Pin one of the long edges to the waist of the skirt on the wrong side. The waistband needs to be face down, so that once you have sewn it to the wrong side, you can fold it over the raw edges using the creases you pressed into the waistband earlier.

Sew the waistband to the skirt, keeping close to the folded edge. Leave a couple of cm either side of the zip.

Now fold the waistband over to waist of the skirt. Tuck the raw edge of the waistband underneath so that all the messy bits are enclosed.

Topstitch around the waistband.

When you get to the zip, tuck the ends in and sew.

9. Finish the Hems

The easiest way to finish the hem on your winter circle skirt is with bias binding.

As it’s going to take quite a lot, it’s best to leave it on the roll. Starting somewhere inconspicuous (A side seam is a good place), pin one end of the bias binding to the skirt on the right side, so that the right sides are together.

Sew the bias binding to the skirt, keeping close to the folded edge.

When you get back to where you started, overlap the ends of the bias binding by a cm or two and sew over them.

Fold the bias binding over so that it’s all on the underneath of the skirt. Press it, then sew the bias binding to the wrong side of the skirt, keeping close to the other folded edge.

Finish the hem on the lining in the same way.

Trim away any stray threads, run the iron over it and your winter circle skirt is ready to wear!

Halter Neck Dress Without a Pattern: Drafting the Pattern

September 3, 2018 · 2 Comments

Halter Neck Dress Without a Pattern: Drafting the Pattern

Having a wardrobe full of clothes that are too big has been the perfect excuse to make new things for myself!

When the weather’s warm enough, I love my vintage style dresses. It’s not easy to find these in the shops, so the obvious answer is to make my own.

I successfully turned my cherry blossom dress into a sundress, and having seen a halter neck dress on Pinterest that I rather liked, I decided to have a go at making one, using the cherry blossom dress as a starting point.

To help with designing the dress, I used the printables from my newest ebook, Designing and Making a Dress From Scratch. You can find out more about the ebook here.

The printables helped me to collect ideas, design the dress and work out how I was going to make it, step by step.

I wrote a post about designing a halter neck dress using the ebook’s printables which you can read here.

Now that I’ve worked it all out, the next step is to make the pattern pieces!

If you haven’t drafted pattern pieces before, it might seem daunting, but it’s perfectly possible, especially if you’ve made clothes for yourself before from patterns.

Making things from patterns will have given you an idea of how the pieces ought to look.

Even if you haven’t don’t worry, because in the rest of the post I’m going to show you how to draft the pieces for a halter neck dress.

Drafting Pattern Pieces For a Halter Neck Dress

You Will Need

Tape measure
Pencil
Big bits of paper (pattern paper is ideal. This is an affiliate link).
Long ruler
Scissors
Pins
A French curve is useful, but you could use a plate instead.

Taking Measurements

For detailed instructions about taking measurements, you might like to read this post here.

Basically, don’t measure yourself over a bulky jumper, try to make sure that the tape measure is straight and don’t pull it too tight!

You will need to measure:
Across your collar bone
From one shoulder to the other
Chest under your armpits
Bust
Waist, where the tape measure rests comfortably.
From the top of your shoulder to your waist
From the top of your shoulder to under your armpit.
The top of your shoulder to where you took your bust measurement.
The top of your shoulder to where you want the top of the dress to be.
Your waist to just below your knee.

Drafting the Bodice

I’ve used the same strategy here as I did for the vintage style sundress. I started off by making a pattern piece in the same way that I did for the Cherry Blossom Dress Sewalong, then adapted it by changing the neckline and removing the shoulders.

Unlike the Cherry Blossom dress and the vintage style sundress, this has buttons down the front. So the bodice front is in 2 sections with button bands and no zip.

This will affect the order in which the dress has to be sewn together, but we’ll come to that later!

Drafting the Bodice Front

Start off with a large piece of pattern paper.

It will need to be about 10 cm (4 inches) longer and wider than your longest and widest measurements.

Draw a vertical line the same length as the distance from the top of your shoulder near your neck to your waist. This will be the centre line of the bodice. When you cut out your fabric, it will be this line that goes on the fold.

On this line, mark off the distance from your shoulder to your armpit and from your shoulder to bust.

At the top of the vertical line, draw another line at right angles to it the same length as half the distance across your collarbone.You only need half the measurement because you’re drawing half of the bodice front.

A couple of cm (about an inch) below and using the measurement across your shoulders divided by 2, draw another line below the first horizontal line.

For the next horizontal line, find where you marked your shoulder to armpit measurement. Draw a horizontal line the same length as your chest measurement divided by 4.

Now find where you marked your shoulder to bust measurement. Draw another horizontal line the same length as your bust measurement divided by 4.

From the bottom end of the first vertical line, draw a horizontal line the same length as a quarter of your waist measurement, plus 2 cm (3/4 inch). The extra cm are to make allowances for the waist darts. We’ll come onto those in a minute!

Now join the lines up! To get the curve of the armhole, you might like to use a French curve. If you don’t have a French curve, you can use a plate instead.

To draw the neckline, measure down about 15 cm (6 inches) from the top of the centre line. Using a French curve, join from here to the far end of the collarbone line.

To position the side darts, find the bust line and mark a couple of cm (3/4 inch) either side. Join these marks to a point about 8 cm (3 inches) along the bust line.

You will need to check this on yourself or on your dress form to determine whether the darts are in the right place, so pin the darts on your pattern piece and hold it onto yourself. If they’re not right, adjust them.

You might need to make them wider or narrower, shorter or longer, or adjust the position a little bit.

To add darts at the bottom of the bodice, find the halfway point on the piece you have made. I found that for this dress, they needed to be a bit longer than on my other dresses, They will need to be about 12 cm (5 inches) long and 2 cm (3/4 inch) wide in total, so 1 cm (3/8 inch) either side of the line. Check it on yourself to get them in the correct place.

Now add a 2 cm (3/4 inch) seam allowance to the bottom, the side and the centre.

Adapting Your Bodice Pattern Piece For the Halter Neck Dress

You can either use this pattern piece and adapt it for the vintage style sundress, or if you prefer, draw round it and put the original to one side.

Find the horizontal line you drew for your chest measurement. Between your chest measurement and your waist, the pattern piece will need to have a straight edge. This is because this is where you’ll be joining the front to the back and if it’s curved you’ll end up with weird bumps.

On the centre line, mark where you would like the top centre of the bodice to be, plus a couple of cm (3/4 inch) for the seam allowance. The best way to do this is to hold the pattern piece against yourself or your dress form and draw it on.

Draw a line from where you marked your chest measurement at the side to where you marked the top of the bodice on the other side. From the chest side, it will need to be curved, then slope gently downwards.

You could use a French curve for this, or a plate if you don’t have one.

Don’t forget to add the darts and a seam allowance if you’re making a copy!

Cut it out.

Drafting the Bodice Back

Draw round the adapted bodice front onto another piece of pattern paper.

Find point where you drew the chest line. Draw a straight, horizontal line across the pattern piece.

Cut it out.

Working Out the Skirt Measurements

The skirt of the halter neck dress is made up of 4 quarter circles with the middle cut out, like a doughnut.

To work out the size of square you need, you will need the length of the skirt, plus the distance from the edge of the doughnut hole to centre.

To do this, you will need pi. If maths isn’t your thing, don’t panic!

Pi is the relationship between the distance around the edge of a circle and the distance across it, passing through the centre. The distance around the edge is roughly 3 times the distance round the middle. We only need to know from the edge to the centre, not right the way across, but this is easy to work out as we can just halve it.

It’s easiest to do this on a calculator. There’s probably one on your phone, or if you Google calculator, it will bring one up.

To calculate the dimensions of the skirt and how much fabric you need, take your waist measurement and add 10 cm (4 inches) for seams and ease.

Divide it by pi, then divide this answer by 2. Jot this down somewhere as you will need it in a minute.

Now add this number to your desired skirt length.

This new number tells you how long the sides of the squares of fabric need to be.

For the lining, you can use the same measurements. Just make the skirt 10 cm (4 inches) shorter.

Now you’re ready to cut out the bodice and skirt pieces of your halter neck dress!

As this is a different style of dress to the ones I usually make, I made a toile for the bodice. I was glad I did, because I discovered that I needed to adjust the side seams and make the darts a bit longer. I’d recommend making a toile if you have time and some spare fabric.

The next post will take you through sewing the halter neck dress together.

Vintage Style Sundress Without a Pattern

June 23, 2018 · 2 Comments

Vintage Style Sundress Without a Pattern

Here’s a tutorial for my new favourite dress!

The idea for this vintage style sundress had been cooking away for a while, and after the sewalong was a good time to make it as I had the bodice pattern piece I’d made to hand.

Like my other dresses, the skirt is a circle and the bodice is made from 2 pieces. There’s a zip at the side and the shoulder straps are each made from one piece.

If you took part in the sewalong you’ll be able to use your pattern pieces and modify them a bit.

This vintage style sundress is lined. If you don’t usually make things with linings, there’s no need to panic! It just means making a second version of the dress out of lining fabric.