Mind The Gap

With a new serger to figure out, what better way to learn than to grab some clearance fabric and start messing around?  There’s no better way, if you ask me.

This dress came from an old pattern of my mom’s, with several modifications made on account of a) missing instruction papers and b) pattern alteration mistakes on my part and c) stretchier-than-the-pattern-intended fabric.  Even so, I like it quite a bit.  It’s comfy, and not too bad on the eyes either.

I’m really pleased with this little outfit:

The skirt is a simple wrap skirt, made from around 2 yards of soft cotton that was left over from another project where I grossly overestimated.  The waistband and tie are moire left over from a corset and bustle set I did a few months ago.

This kind of wrap skirt is really easy, I think I might make one every time I have some bits of fabric to get rid of.

• Cut a waistband that’s about 1.5 times your waist measurement
• Hem the short edges of the skirt
• Pleat or gather the skirt fabric onto right side of the waistband
• Attach the ties to the waistband (remember to make one long enough to reach around the back and over to the side to tie with the other one!)
• Close up the waistband on the inside of the skirt (so that all the raw edges are encased inside the waistband)
• Hem the bottom
• Add a wide buttonhole for the tie to go through

The shirt was really easy too.  It was a dingy, slightly stained cream-colored top from Goodwill.  A package of teal Rit dye did the trick there, and it matches the little flower stems on the skirt almost perfectly.