Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Skirt ahoy!

Sew (little pun), you know that I love to sew clothes for Romily and Tristan. Yes. Have I made anything for me recently? No. Why? Well I don't much like my shape these days. Too many excuses (some legit, some not) have seen me avoiding all forms of exercise and enjoying maybe a few too many muffins. Well, now that Carl is doing night duty with Tristan and I'm getting a bit more sleep, the time has come. I've been heading out early mornings with Tristan, who thinks sun-up is getting-up time. Anyway, back to sewing. I need some summer skirts that fit around my 'bit too round' body. But I don't want to make skirts that won't fit once I get rid of my spare tyre and love handles (love those euphemisms, don't you?). I was browsing in my local fabric shop the other day and came across this grouse book (click on book for Book Depository link).
No patterns! Gasp! Eek! I know! You measure your waist, your hips and the length of fall and voila! You can make your markings straight onto the fabric, or, if you're me, onto a roll of cheap sew-in interfacing (which will 'stick' to the fabric while you're cutting it with no pins required - another bonus for time-pressed crafty mamas), which you can reuse.
The book is fab, because it's all about options, baby. You can have a drawstring, elasticised, zippered, snapped or wrap-around waist. You can make straight, A-line, half-circle or full. You can layer, you can embellish; the options are endless!

After I'd grabbed the book I spotted some Saffron Craig dressmaking weight cotton and snapped it up. Now I just need to decide which style (I'm thinking a wrap dress with side ties) and get cutting.I also spotted this fantastic tutorial on making a skirt from a tablecloth. Genius!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't sew clothes - I'm terrible at it, but that book could almost tempt me!

Helen said...

Don't forget to model the skirt(s), get Romily or Carl to photograph you and post to your blog. We would all love to see them. You clever girl, you!

Rebekah said...

This book is waiting for me on hold at the library. I hope it will help me get a little more comfortable with sewing clothes. I keep putting off making clothes in the hopes of losing weight, but I can always readjust things afterwards, right?

Lesley Wood said...

Beautiful Quilts! I love quilting too, but haven't done so in awhile. Very inspirational, thanks!