A New Skirt!

dragonfly skirt

I made a new skirt over the weekend, surprisingly. There were about fifty gazillion other things I should have been doing (and I came down to the office this morning to find that a deadline which I thought was next Tuesday, was, in fact, this PAST SATURDAY, oops), but when the sewing machine calls, one must listen.

This is some Liberty twill I bought from my old friend Julie at Little Shop of Treasures, on eBay.co.uk. It's called "Enchanted Garden," and here's a closeup:

dragonfly skirt

And yes, it has all my favorite (bright, cheerful) colors.

And I used orange rickrack to edge the pockets:

dragonfly skirt

And an invisible zipper (which I am only lately a convert to):

dragonfly skirt

And of course a bright blue facing for the waistband:

dragonfly skirt

And for the pocket, too:

dragonfly skirt

I used New Look 6410, which I modified to add front scoop pockets. Doing that wasn't hard — I think it worked on the first try, which was nice. I've probably made this skirt two or three times, although never with fabric that I love as much as I love this fabric.

The whole skirt probably took about two and a half hours to make, with about twenty minutes of that time spent looking for a pattern piece that had fallen behind a piece of furniture. (I had the pattern pinned to a corkboard instead of put neatly away, for some reason — probably laziness.) The invisible zipper went in very cooperatively. Once you resign yourself to the necessity of basting (and, in my case, of digging out the screwdriver to change the presser foot shank), invisible zippers aren't really any more trouble than visible ones, and they look so much nicer!

I plan on wearing this skirt with brightly-colored polo shirts with differently-brightly-colored tees under them, and my orange Jack Purcells. At which time it will be really, truly summer.

0 thoughts on “A New Skirt!

  1. I am truly digging this fabric. I am a bright colour person as well and I have a lime green 3/4 sleeve zip-up cardigan that would complete the ensemble.Now if you would kindly hand over the skirt…..

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  2. All right, which one of you miscreants told me about the J Crew Liberty-print flats? … because I just bought a pair on eBay. .. and this would bring the # of Liberty-print pairs of shoes I have to TWO.

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  3. Jen, you could always try using something like this to help you hem. I came across it the other day while looking for infomercial awesomeness that you know just exists out there and I was certain seeing them would come in handy.

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  4. I just love the fabric and the skirt. It’s so quirky cute. I’d love to wear something like that. In fact, the tunic I am wearing to work today has a similar pattern.

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  5. That ric-rac is brilliant. I thought I had plans this evening but I think I have to go home and sew. Thank you for the inspiration!

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