Dazzle Skirt

During the last sale at The Fabric Store, I bought 2 panels of this amazing black and white zig zag cotton on a bit of a whim. I wanted to make a skirt, and my first thought was the Sew Over It Tulip Skirt which had just been released, but as I laid out the pattern pieces I started to have misgivings. I was worried that the deep pleats on the front of the skirt which give it its lovely shape would look a bit strage with the zig zags, I didn’t want it to look like a WW1 era warship!

Dazzle camoflage paint is amazing, by the way!

So I cast that plan aside, and grabbed Vogue 1247 off my shelf. I love all the versions of this pattern that I’ve seen online, but assumed I wouldn’t be able to get a copy as it is out of print. So when I saw the pattern online one day I grabbed it! I knew it would be a bit harder to make up than the Tulip Skirt, as I would have a bunch more pattern matching to do, but I figured it would be good practice. It was also quite late at night when I was making all of these decisions, and I possibly wasn’t thinking too clearly, but I went ahead and cut it out anyway! It wasn’t until the next morning that I realised just how hard it was going to be to get all those zig zags lining up across the 2 pieces of the front and at the 4 panels which make up the back…

  
 

But I managed, eventually! Its not perfect, but its good enough. I did have to manipulate the front yoke slightly to get the zig zags aligned, which has made the fit across the front a bit funny, but I decided that in this instance fit could be sacrificed slightly for pattern matching! 

Pockets! Not hugely functional pockets, if I put my phone in one it pulls the front down on one side, but I’m sure I’ll probably end up with my train ticket or lipbalm in there. I have to say, I’m really happy with the pattern placement on this skirt. I like the gradation of few to many zig zags from waistband to hem, I think its really effective.

  
Slightly annoyed that I didn’t realise the skirt had twisted to my left when I was taking these pictures, but not enought to go and get changed and take some more, sorry! I had trouble getting the zig zags to line up perfectly at the top of the zip, and after about 4 attempts I decided it was fine… I used a button from my stash to close the waistband instead of a bar and hook as instructed, because I didn’t have one and I thought this button was cute.

   
 
I didn’t bind all of the seams as the instructions suggest either, because I was pretty sure that the skirt was going to be a disaster by the time I got to that point! I thought it could be a muslin, it wasn’t until I tried it on for the first time that I decided that I actually liked it enough to finish it off properly. I hemmed it with some bias tape and hand stitched it up. Its a short skirt, but we’re heading into tights weather (and I’m ok with showing a bit of leg) so thats ok.  

  
I have plans to make another version of this skirt in some navy needle cord that I bought last winter and never ended up using. I think I’ll add a couple of inches to the hem for the cooler weather, and I might look at underlining it with something slipery to stop it climbing my tights. I’ll need to look for some stretch satin or similar.

  
I wonder if finishing this skirt has broken my sewing drought? I’ve cut out a couple of projects this week, and for the first time in ages I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in. Or maybe its the change of seasons? This week has been about 10 degrees cooler every day than the week before it, which has been quite an abrupt change! Welcome to Autumn…

Advertisement