High-Low News

The high-low skirt is coming along nicely, and definitely busted my entire stash of this particular fabric! I made it a little small for me, so it’s going to be one of the first offerings in my Etsy store next month – yay for busting stash and making progress toward a personal goal!

Two On Deck

I’ve discovered that stash busting sewing is different from other kinds of sewing. Stash busting is all about using up fabric, and less about perfectly made projects – which, of course, is the exact opposite of my normal approach to sewing!

Lucky for me, I have a much more talented crafter friend who told me about her slapdash approach to sewing. So I’m giving it a whirl this month, and seeing how it compares to my usual approach.

This is the beginning of what will be a slightly gathered, slightly flared, high-low hem skirt. I know high-low hems in skirts are a little passé, but I’ve been wanting to try high-low sewing for quite some time. I didn’t really measure anything for this skirt; I basically folded the fabric in half width wise and drafted out some shapes using masking tape.

I drafted pattern pieces for this cardigan, but in hindsight I think I could have used masking tape to block out some shapes on the fabric itself. That being said, I really enjoyed drafting the pattern! I love patternmaking. I mentioned before that I wanted to try Bored and Crafty’s cardigan tutorial – this project is that attempt!

So far, I did not find sketching out shapes on fabric as satisfying as drafting a paper pattern, but it may have been faster. I’m not sure, because it was so frustrating not being able to be sure that everything would line up perfectly after it was cut. That being said, I’m trying to channel my inner Satisfactionist, and make progress on the Stashbusting Sewalong. I think the skirt qualifies for the April ‘vibrant color’ challenge. What do you think?

Circle and Twirl

I absolutely love this skirt! I think it is one of the most darling things I’ve made so far, and I’m looking forward to giving it a good home, courtesy of my new Etsy store, The Be Market! (More on that in a future post.)

Circle skirts are pretty straight forward to make, though their simplicity means that you can get very creative with them. For this skirt, I love the free-floating hem embellishment I made (above), as well as the ribbons I inserted in the side seam (below).

If you’d like to make your own circle skirt, here’s a a great tutorial to get you started!

Wrap This One and Tie It With a Bow

I’m sure you’ll recognize the Hounds scarf I am wearing from a previous post, and you got a sneak preview of this skirt in the video I made for Hounds – so now, here is the skirt in all its glory!

This project was satisfying because I finally did a waistband up to my standards. (Like most sewers, everything must be *perfect* or it Doesn’t Count.) I am already looking for more projects with waistbands, so I can keep hitting sewing home runs!

The other reason this project was satisfying was how pretty the end result is! My store bought wardrobe is fairly drab, and completely lacking in purely pretty pieces. So it’s a great joy to have such a lovely skirt in my collection, and that I made it myself makes it that much sweeter.

I used McCall’s pattern 5430 for this project. I added several inches of width along the center front and center back lines to accommodate my hips. I also combined the pockets from view C with the flounce-front in view A. I followed the pattern instructions pretty closely, and I am quite happy with their clarity and sequencing. I definitely recommend this pattern.

On to more sewing! I wonder what is next …