Thursday 29 December 2011

Full circle skirt with a twist

And the twist is: it isn't a full circle skirt, it's a Meringue from the Colette Sewing Handbook. But it is a full circle, because the first thing I made this year was for a http://www.sewweekly.com/ challenge. And it was a skirt. So I start and end my year with a skirt.



This skirt is my end of year celebration piece for sewweekly. OK, so it was going to be my "free for all" piece for last week's challenge. I didn't finish it. (Special note for my sweet friend Judy I am trying to do a one hip thrust out look especially for you. See, I look arthritic not alluring!)

This is what happens when we try to take photos, by the way - a pitch invasion:


The skirt took ages to make. Ages. And ages. In theory it should have taken one evening or so but I seem to have a special skill in making stuff take a long time. I did do some extras:

The rouleau pocket was completed a couple of weeks ago and was inspired by this tutorial on the Colette Patterns website.

Then I was persuaded by the ever optimistic Kate (my weekly sewing teacher at the Design Studio) that I should do something called "bagging it out" to the skirt. This makes the inside look lovely and was a great suggestion if I hadn't manage to make a right hash of it and have to unpick it before getting it right the second time. Still, here's the inside of my skirt:



I also fitted my first ever invisible zip (ironically my first ever zip went into that first skirt) which was a revelation.


I topstitched the scalloped edgeand there it was: my back to the beginning skirt. I had such fun this year. Hope you did too xxx


11 comments:

  1. Charlotte, this in such a fun skirt and details make it... Loved the contrast fabrics and the pocket. And the tilt posed looked good so looking foward for all the poses for next year. Happy new year my friend. Xx

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  2. I love, love, love your skirt Charlotte, inside and out, adorable!t

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  3. Sorry I seemed to have added an extra letter to the end of my comment, goes to show how excited I am with your skirt and photos, love!

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  4. This skirt is beautiful and looks fantastic on you. I love,love the fabric on the inside[The inside looks as neat and pretty as the outside.great job]. I love the scalloped bottom and the pocket is just tooo pretty..Perfect skirt all way around!!!
    Now on to the hip thrust pose.........I LOVE it... I can see you have REALLY been practicing that hip thrust pose.hahahahhahhaha.[This made my night!!!lol]
    Mia looks adorable , in the picture...
    Happy Sewing 2012... Cant wait to see what sw 2012 will hold..

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  5. oh Charlotte, your skirt is great! I love it on you, the pocket and linning details are perfect, and wow invisable zip is great! It looks really taylored and proffessional, a great end to 2011 and sets a high level of standars for 2012!!
    Have a fun new year. x x x

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  6. Thank you so much for all your kind comments, I took extra time to get this skirt right and it was worth it. You are all so generous and lovely, how great was it finding you guys in 2012? Lucky me x

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  7. Such a perfect skirt!!! I love how everyone has photo bombed your pictures :) Love your lining fabric and the rouleau pocket!!! YAY! Happy New Year's my dear...I hope we get to meet up again in 2012!!

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  8. Gorgeous skirt! Yay! I've loved seeing what you've been making this year, and hearing about your new sewing experiences.

    Love that lining - simply stunning! :-)

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  9. Don't buy a second copy of the book to cut up the patterns! You can get tracing paper on a roll really cheaply and then you can use it for all your other patterns too and for when you want to do some self drafting. I got 15 or 20m of tracing paper for about £12. It's thicker than the pattern paper so it doesn't tear as easily. Well worth it.

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