Bitchin' stitchin'

A selection of wrap skirts listed on Etsy over the last few days.

This one is from an op shopped length of retro green lusciousness. If there'd been a little more of it, I'd have made this for myself but it was just a tad scant.






Blue and green floral, from an op shopped sheet. I'm not sure it's actually vintage, but the motif harks back to the sixties/seventies. Pretty, anyway. I still have quite a bit of this one left to turn into something else. I wonder why the fabric stash never seems to diminish despite all my making? I've bought very little over the past two years but the pile is still humungous.

                                                                         
An op art-ish cotton skirt from a piece I bought on sale, though I can't remember if it was at Spotlight or Darn Cheap, who are exactly what their name says. I love this design.







                                                       

And this purple and white geometric pattern, made from a huge length of polyester I bought on Ebay about an eon ago. I try to use natural fibres, but sometimes a design will suck me in. I do like the geometric patterns. Bold is good.

It's a Wrap

I've gone a bit mad on wrap skirts. These are all made from stash fabric, mostly op shopped - I think the Miss Piggy one was from Ebay. All four are now on offer in my Etsy shop. I just adore the red and yellow floral, it's so in-your-face. I've made myself skirts from both the Miss Piggy and the green op art pieces, too. Miss Piggy features as a showgirl with Kermit appearing in multiples as the chorus boy - gorgeous!

In the spirit of Slow Stitching, I've taken care over the construction with french seams and enclosing all raw edges either within a hem or using bias binding - all the waists and hems are finished with toning bias binding, from my embarrassingly large stash of the stuff. They each fasten with vintage buttons and a press-stud (metal snap). I'm still trying to go the "use what I have" route, and all these garments fit that bill with fabric, thread, buttons, and bias binding on hand. I probably have enough of each of these fabrics to make something else, though perhaps not enough for another skirt - perhaps a tote bag. 

Slow Stitching

I made this skirt on Christmas Day. I haven't made a garment for myself in about a year, despite the lengths of fabric stashed away meant for clothing. I got a bit burned out on the process, I think, making things to sell on Ebay and Etsy, always rushing, not taking pleasure in the actual making but focused on outcome.

I decide to slow down and enjoy the making, with no deadline. It would take as long as it took. I wanted to properly finish all the seams and make it look good inside as well as out - I don't have a serger/overlocker and while zigzag stitching the edges of the pieces works okay, it's not pretty.
It doesn't show when wearing the garment, but I know it's there and it bothers me. This skirt is a simple one, a front, a back, and a pocket in each side seam. I used french seams for the side seams with the pockets, but it bunches a little where the pockets meet the front and back. I may try a Hong Kong finish next time. The waist is elastic, no waistband piece, just the top turned over. I did machine stitch the hem (see aforementioned rush to finish, which was kicking in at that point) but I think I'll hand hem next time.

I am far more pleased with this skirt than I've been with a garment I made in a long time. And I didn't have to frog a single seam :)

The fabric is cotton from Tanzania, one of my long ago Ebay purchases (detail below).


An email friend named this process for me: Slow Stitching. Taking time over details, allowing it to take as much time as necessary, enjoying the process, pausing to breath and look out the window from time to time, putting it aside when I'm tired or had enough, no rushing. Breeeaaaathhhe.

Aaaah.