Khaki Maternity Skirt

I was finally able to make something for myself again last week. A new maternity skirt! This time I used Simplicity 2366, view C, with only one major change.
The skirt went together very easily, (for the most part) and very quickly. The only problem I had with it was my fault really. I used a khaki twill fabric for it, not one of the recommended types, and it was too thick. Not too thick that I wasn't able to make it work, just too thick to allow the flounce points to lay smoothly. I actually resewed each point and was able to get them to lay better, but not still not ideal.
The major change I made to the skirt was to substitute the yoke and drawstring for a knit maternity band. The knit was a little thinner than I would have liked, so I doubled it to make sure that it would be strong enough to hold up the skirt.
This skirt is very comfortable, and I really like that it's nice enough to wear for church, but also causal enough for everyday use. And I do believe it's going to be getting a lot of use in the next 3 months. :-)

Here's one last picture of me with both my babies. ^_^

Church Skirt

Okay, so back in November my mother-in-law bought me two beautiful skirts, and matching camisoles at a thrift shop. I put together the first one rather quickly, but forgot to take any pictures of it. :-( Hence no blog post before now.

I didn't do anything with the second one until just recently, because I did not have a single blouse or sweater that matched it. But with Christmas came a lovely green sweater that matched perfectly. So I decided I'd better get that second skirt made! Just in time too, as I'm no longer able to fit into the few church clothes that were big enough, for a little while, for my growing tummy. :-D

This skirt took a little extra work beforehand to prep before the maternity panel could be added to it. First off, as we have really cold winters here, I wanted it to be as long as possible, but a little thing called a zipper was in the way. So, the first thing I had to do was remove the zipper. Then stitch up difference. Thankfully the skirt was still wide enough at the hip with closing the zipper opening 2 inches higher.
Next up, the skirt had a very high slit that needed to be fixed. Because both zipper and slit were on the same side of the skirt, the selvages were not serged together. That made my job so much easier! All I had to do was take out the stitching enclosing both sides of the slit, then sew the side seams together!
As you can see, there wasn't much space between the bottom of the zipper opening and the top of the slit opening. Interesting thing too, is that with the slit closed up completely I still have plenty of room for movement. Goes to show just how unnecessary the slit was in the first place. ;-)

The camisole I was using was also a bit stretched out, so I had to take the side seams in a couple of times before it was tight enough to hold the skirt up.
All finished!! I really wasn't that big already, I'm only 6 months along! The camera just made me look bigger. I'm very happy with how it came out, and how well it coordinates with the sweater. Thank you Grandma!!

Recycled Maternity Skirt

About a month ago I was visiting a friend a few hours away, and she decided to give me some materials of her's to make some new clothes for myself with. One of the things she likes to do, is take her husband's worn out pairs of pants and turn them into skirts for her daughters. And she thought I might be able to make some use out of a couple pairs as well.

So I picked out two pairs of khaki colored pants, without a clue as to what I would do with them.

After a couple weeks ideas began forming in my mind, and finally I was ready to take action!

The first thing I did was to cut the legs off at the top.

Next I cut out the inside seams and opened them out to see how much flair they'd give me, as I was thinking of making tulip style skirt.

And of course, what sewing project is complete without a cat? ;-)

It turned out that the legs of the lighter pair of pants were actually narrower than the others. So, that helped with my decision on where they would be placed.

Next I started sewing them together! However, four pant legs in a row makes for a very full skirt. As you can see below. Not mention that because these are mens pants I was working with, they were quite stiff. So, I took in a total of 4 inches at the waist. I was still hoping for a tulip shape to the skirt.

Once I had the waist as narrow as I wanted it, it was time to gather it! For the maternity panel I was planning on using the same method I used in this blog post, but knew the fabric was not going to stretch as much as I would need it too. It was actually a bit harder to gather thick fabric like this than I had anticipated, but I think it came out nice.

All done! It's still a lot fuller then I originally wanted, plus the stiffness causes it to stand out more. But all and all, I'm very pleased with it, and especially love that the thickness makes it really warm!



Best of all, I think I may have just come upon a new product for my Etsy shop! I just need to find some more old camisoles! ;-)

Maternity Skirt Alterations

I recently bought a maternity skirt from NewCreation Apparel, and while it's a really cute style, the elastic on the maternity band was too tight. Well, maybe not too tight if the skirt is worn above the belly, but that just feels weird to me. So, what's a girl to do? Fix it to the way she wants of course!

Here's a before picture of the maternity band. Notice the cute pockets just under it. In order to make sure the band is well covered most of the pockets have to be covered too. A bit of a bad design there, huh?

Okay, so the first thing I did was to cut off the elastic band leaving a bit of selvage to it for another project I have in mind, then to serge the skirt part of the band with the serger I'm still borrowing from my MIL.

For the new waistband, I used half inch elastic because I figured it would be more comfortable. Plus, that was all the room I had on the back of the skirt! For inserting the elastic into the casing I got a sudden inspiration to try something I'd never thought of before. I cut the end of the elastic to a point. You wouldn't believe how much easier it was to slide it through that lightweight jersey!! I know, you're probably thinking, "Well, of course! I've been doing that all along." I guess I'm a slow learner. ;-)

I can't believe I forgot to take an after picture of the new waistband! But here's one of me wearing a much more comfortable maternity skirt. :-)

My First Maternity Skirt!

I came across a really neat idea for making maternity skirts last month from reading this article on a blog that I follow. Four and a half months along, and I can only fit into one of my everyday pre-pregnancy skirts, so I decided it's time make my first real maternity skirt. Unfortunately, I only had one skirt that was a candidate. This sweat-skirt that I bought from NewCreation Apparel a few years ago:
The elastic waistband has always been rather tight, and I figured it'd probably be too tight for comfort after the baby is born anyway. The rest of the skirt is very stretching and wonderfully comfortable.

There's a pocket on the back of the skirt that I didn't want to lose, so I couldn't cut it straight across the hips as directions said. So I gave the front a nice rounded down angle instead.

For the maternity band, instead of using an old camisole, I used the shelf bra that had been cut out of a camisole. It is actually the perfect size, and has a wonderful elastic band across the top. :-D

I've also been borrowing my mother-in-law's serger and decided to use that instead of zigzagging it to the skirt. I figured since both fabrics are so stretchy, it would be more stable that way. Unfortunately, the serger stitching didn't want to stretch, so I had to stretch out the fabric as I sewed. That's why it looks so bumpy. But it's perfectly smooth when I wear it! And that's what matters, right. ;-)

I can't believe how comfortable this skirt is to wear now. I can't wait until I can make some more!

Recycled Skirt Redone!

Last April I made my very first recycled skirt. Because I didn't use any kind of directions and pretty much made it up as I went along, I was never very satisfied with it. So I searched around, and finally found this wonderfully detailed set of directions, and as they say, the rest is history!

For a while I was too busy with making other skirts to sell, and life in general to get back to my black gray skirt. But then after I found out that I was pregnant, and started quickly outgrowing my skirts with fitted waists, I realized that I would probably never fit into it again. Or at least, not for a very long time. ;-) Plus, I always need more things in my shop, so it really wasn't that hard of a decision to make.

So I took the whole thing apart and redid it the right way! And this time I gave it 4 panels instead of just the 2. It looks so much better now!


And the back,
I really had to stuff myself in it for these pictures. But I'm really happy with how they came out. My hubby is a good photographer. Here's the Etsy listing for more pictures. I hope you enjoyed reading about this work in progress!

Cargo Skirt

Yesterday I finally finished my new cargo skirt! My orginal plan was to take this pattern, angel it out a little to make it more A-line, then add cargo pockets.

Well, when I got the pattern out I discovered that there was a little problem, inside the envelope there was the directions and the pocket pattern... and that's it. No drawstring or skirt pattern pieces! We're leaving on vacation next week so I didn't really have time to ask my mom to go through her sewing room to look for them and send me, so I thought maybe it was about time I drafted my own pattern! Well, sort of. I measured the largest section of my hips then added 2 inches for the top of the skirt then used a yard stick and pencil to draw all my straight lines.

I still used the pattern instructions for putting it together although not having the pattern pieces I decided to just stick with the cargo pockets and not even attempt the inside pockets. I also wanted to keep the little slits on the bottom of the skirt, though they do begin lower then the original indicated. When planning out how I wanted it to look, I knew I wanted to use heavy duty thread for top-stitching, and that I wanted there to be a row of top-stitching on either side of the side seams. But it wasn't until I started working on it that I realized that if I turned under the entire length of the side seams from the slit on up, I could completely enclose my selvages!!

I forgot to take another close up of the outside after it was sown. But it can be seen in the finished pictures of the skirt.

The draw-sting ended up not working out quite as I had planned. In trying to guesstimate how wide to make it, I guessed too wide. Plus I didn't have enough fabric left over after the second try. Thankfully it's still usable, but inside the casing it's all folded up. :(

Now on to something more fun. The pockets! I wanted to make them look like the majority of cargo pockets seen on store bought clothes. And I wanted them to be big enough to place my hands in. So the first thing I did was measure the length of one of my hands and the width with fingers out stretched. The I added an inch to the width of the pockets plus the selvage extra. When it came to actually putting them together, I still wasn't exactly sure what I wanted. So the first thing I tried was sewing straight down the middle at a half inch.

That didn't work very well. In fact, it looked rather stupid pressed out! So I took it out. But, having two stitching lines 1 inch apart exactly in the middle of the pocket turned out to be just what I needed for my next try! Using that line as a guide I folded under a crease at a quarter of an inch and sewed right down that line!

For the pocket flaps I had another problem. My machine won't stitch heavy duty thread in the bobbin, so I'm limited to only using it for my top thread. But that's not going to work when sewing Velcro. The only way I could figure out to make it work, was to stitch the edges of the Velcro on the inside then, flip it over and use that line for a guide and do the top stitching on the top.


I really like how the finished pocket came out.

For finishing touches I double stitched the hem and bar tacked just above each slit. I'm really pleased with the finished product! I hope this has given you some inspiration to draft your own pattern too! It's really not as hard as you would think. :-)

Recycled Skirt

Last Sunday a friend from my church gave me some scraps of fabric, bunches of spools of ribbon, some old patterns, and three pairs of old blue jeans to use for my purses. However, the pieces I could get from the jeans wouldn't be big enough, plus none of them are my size. I knew there would be something I could use them for, but what? Then I had a revelation! Recycled blue jeans skirts! And with all that ribbon and scraps from my purses I can really decorate them up.

Of course the first thing I needed to do was figure out how to make the skirts. I've had an old pair of black Capri pants that I've been wanting to turn into a skirt for a really long time now, I had even take the center seams out a few months ago. I decided I would practice on them. But as hard as I looked I couldn't find a single thing online for how to put a recycled skirt together! After looking at a few skirts on Etsy, I had a general idea, but I still had to guess on how everything was put together. I'm sure there's a much easier way to do it, but this is how my skirt turned out.

And the back.

So, what do you think?

Broomstick Skirt

I finally finished the skirt for a friend of mine! Here's some pictures of the skirt along with a little tutorial on the method I used to broomstick it. Hope you enjoy.

Here's a before picture of the skirt. Cute, isn't it?


Now, this method is a little different the kinds most people use, but I find it makes the tucks come out way more evenly and it also dries quicker. To start the first thing you need is a 6" diameter 4 1/2' pipe, a rubber band, and an old pair of nylons. To start, the skirt needs to be quite damp, after washing it is the best time to brromstick it. Start by putting the skirt over the pipe and rubber banding the waist so it won't move.



Next cut off one of the legs of the nylons, then gently work it over the top of the pipe and onto the skirt making sure to keep the fabric evenly spaced.



Now this part is the most time consuming. Carefully pull the nylon down a little at a time and pull out the tucks on the skirt to make them even.





Set the pipe and skirt aside for a couple of days and let dry. Once you're sure the skirt is dried out completely, it's time to take it off!



And there you are, broomstick skirt. Let me know what you think!