Sew What Skirts: Wraparound

Hey! I sewed something! And...I immediately wore it! Here's the wraparound skirt from the (really cool) book, Sew What Skirts. I used a fabulous Jennifer Paganelli fabric.


This is really a great little book. No pattern is included, instead you use your measurements to draft the perfect-fitting skirt pattern--a-line, straight, and gathered to start...then there are lots of adaptations, like this wraparound version. The instructions are very easy to understand and the drafting was easy too. Both skirts I've made using my draft of the a-line skirt pattern have fit perfectly!

For this cute little wraparound number, you do a buttonhole in one of the sideseams to thread your "tie" through. (A word about the ties in a sec.) Note that I cut through my buttonhole when I was cutting it. Drat it. (I wore it anyway. I'll have to go back and fray check it tonight!)


For this skirt, the sides of the warp and the hem is just a simple turn up & stitch.


And the waistband is part of the ties. The instructions tell you to cut (I ripped of course, because I like to!!) two 3" pieces, selvedge to selvedge. That sounds like plenty. But...for a hippy girl like me, that didn't leave me enough left over to tie! Whoops. I didn't even notice until I already had the waistband/tie section attached. Here's the waistband topstitched to the skirt front & back/side pieces (I topstitched rather than stitch in the ditch as the book instructs. I have better luck with this method.)


And here's how I fixed the too-short ties (they have to be long enough to do front, back, plus 12", plus enough to "tie" while wrapped around you. ) I ripped one more selvedge to selvedge pice and sewed it up in a tube. Cut in half. Then I turned under one end, and "tucked" the too-short tie into the end of one of the tubes. Then I just top stitched. Repeat for the other side. Here's a bit blurry picture of one:


Now, it's not pretty nor perfect...but as far as ties go, they're "tied" all the time. And wrapped around you, so who's going to notice? Plus, they saved my skirt! See...here's me wearing it today to go out to lunch and a movie with my "girls"!



ps...We saw the Proposal. Super cute, I highly recommend it!