The Yard Sale Wrap Skirt
The yard sale wrap skirt is the cover project for Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. This is a great beginner to advanced beginner project - easy and pretty fast, too.
I started with 3 yards of an Amy Butler print. Heather shows you cutting the skirt out with the fabric folded. Unfortunately, the L/XL size would not fit on the 42" wide fabric once it was folded in half (21"), but I imagine the S/M might. Regardless, I was able to flip the pattern piece around because I had a somewhat non-directional print to get 2 pieces out of the width. If my fabric had an obvious right side up, then it would have taken me tons of fabric - maybe 7 yards or something crazy like that. Keep that in mind. After I cut the six panels that the pattern calls for, it was apparent to me that I was going to need a seventh. I knew that Amisha had added another panel to hers, so I wasn't that surprised that I need an extra one too. She made a S/M and I made a L/XL. Suffice it to say, you should plan for that extra panel by buying extra fabric. I didn't have enough left on my 3 yard piece, so I cut into a 1 yard cut of the same print for the seventh panel and the waistband pieces. I used 4 yards total, but you might be able to get away with less if you plan better than I did.
The sewing was fast. The panels are joined using French seams. Don't let that deter you! I had never sewn French seams before and Heather's directions were very easy to follow. Plus, they look so nice! After the panels were sewn together and the sides hemmed, I added the waistband. I found the left waistband piece to be wider than the center waistband piece. I solved that easily enough - I just cut it so they fit together. The waistband was sewn and top stitched in about a half an hour. When it came time to hem, I didn't feel like messing with a hand sewn rolled hem. Instead, I just pressed 1/4" to the wrong side, folded it back and pressed again. Easy enough.
The skirt sits up pretty high on my waist. I think if I were to make it again, I'd try to adjust it to sit lower - either add another panel, or maybe take some length off the top. Of course, if I did that, I would have to add length to the waistband so it would wrap around and tie properly. I also think I would look at the skirt length a bit more. I wore the skirt out the other day and still found it to be super comfortable. Heather wrote a great article about hemlines here. Read it - you won't be sorry. I now know why the jean skirt I bought last fall never makes me feel good. It's too short.
All right - next up I am going to talk about those p.j. shorts, the all-weekend dress and the trapeze dress/blouse. All in one post because I am so ready to move on. Later, people.