[completed] summer skirts

first garment ever made by me

A few days ago, I found a pin on my mother's pinterest of great skirt tutorials. I decided to try one out - a (seemingly) easy gathered skirt. My attempt at a skirt failed miserably. I sewed and ripped out stitches and resewed and ended up with a confused pile of fabric. 

Undeterred, I googled "easy skirt tutorial", and found this tutorial on the Etsy blog. I decided to try it out, but instead of buying more fabric, I riffled through my stash, and found a one yard remnant in a pretty floral pattern. I followed the directions to a T, and found the instructions far simpler (and easier) to understand than the first pattern I tried.

I ended up with the skirt you see above - a simple gathered skirt with an elastic waist. Very casual and fun. 

Today, I bought a few more fabrics to try out some variations on the pattern. And I ended up with...

A lined brown polka dot skirt with pockets. It took me about an hour and a half to complete, from cutting to photographing. I adjusted the pattern to make the skirt slightly shorter (a change I did not like), and to add a lining and pockets. (I used the instructions from the first pattern for the pockets. The pattern does not include a template, so my freehand pockets are too shallow). I figured out how to add the lining on my own through trial and error.

it's lined!

In the end, I used just under a yard of the brown polka dot fabric and the brown lining fabric. I used knit elastic instead of woven elastic, which did made my life more difficult. But I managed!

The instructions say to stitch the hem just the once, but I did two lines of stitching 1/4 inch apart to make it look a little more "handmade, not homemade", as you can see below.

stitching

I will be posting a tutorial on how to make a lined, pocketed gathered skirt just like this one in a few days. For now, I am off to wear my new skirts (not both at once, of course) and enjoy the summer heat!

skirt! a little above the knee!

awesome tshirt and skirt

[wip] tshirt memory quilt part deux

scrappy scraps

Yesterday, I trimmed all the T-shirts for the memory quilt I am making for my cousin, and also cut all the sashing fabrics. I stuck with the colors I was told he prefers: grey, red, and blue, but I also added black and white because the pattern I am following calls for five different fabrics. Because the T-shirts all have lettering and designs of their own, I decided to stick with solid fabrics for the accent fabrics. (Also, because it is hard to find boy-appropriate printed fabrics! The industry really needs to recognize the fabric needs of the male population.)

It was so nerve-wracking to cut into those t-shirts (what if I made a mistake? It's not like I can just run out and buy more!), but I was careful and luckily it all went well. The pattern calls for more sashing fabric than I actually needed, so I might add a border to the quilt. We'll see when I'm done assembling the quilt top. I've already started piecing the quilt together, but no photos just yet. My cousin obviously knows I am making this quilt for him, but I am hoping for the final product to be something of a surprise!

[wip] tshirt quilt

pile o' tshirts

 Today, I decided I needed to take a break from my wip super secret present quilt, and start another quilt on my to-do list: a T-shirt memory quilt for my cousin. I've actually had the T-shirts sitting around for awhile now, but couldn't decide on a design for the quilt (or find the courage to cut into these precious shirts). Today, I achieved both - I settled on a design, and I cut up the shirts!

The design I am going to use is in the Fall 2012 issue of Quilts & More, my favorite quilting magazine. I always buy this magazine for the multiple quilting patterns included, and this issue just happened to have a pattern for a fun, different T-shirt quilt. I bought it yesterday, and have been wrestling with the design ever since. It's not exactly the size I wanted, but the nature of the design makes it very difficult to adjust to a bigger size. It's an extra-long twin size, and I've decided that is acceptable.

So, after selecting the 21 shirts I wanted to use, I sliced into the shirts!

all cut and ready to be interfaced

 Now I need to interface all the shirt pieces, trim them to the appropriate sizes, and start sewing!

not my usual pretty pile of scraps