Last week I reached that point I start to feel towards the end of every winter,
where I just can’t stand the cold anymore. I’m done with it. I’m ready to curl up and
sleep out the rest of the winter. Wake me up when it’s summer again.
But I can’t do that. So instead that mood channeled itself into a
burst of motivation to make a stripy summer dress that’s been on my list for so long…
and I promptly messed it up and wasted half my fabric. So we’ll have to get back to that
one later. Instead I decided to make something less exciting, but much more immediately useful.
One last heavy wool skirt to cap off my winter wardrobe updates.
This skirt I based off a design I’ve seen floating around Pinterest.
It’s available at a vintage fashion reproduction website, which I’ll link below. But it’s pretty
simple. A flared skirt with a fitted waist, a seam up the center front, a patch pocket on one side,
and a button closure on the other side. This type of button closure, in particular, I love,
and I’ve been wanting to do for a while. The fabric is a recent purchase from Mood.
It’s a double-cloth, which turned out to mean it’s actually two layers of wool held together
with tiny, tiny pad-stitches. This is definitely meant for coats, because dear lord is it thick.
I know I’ve said that about basically every wool I used this winter, but
this stuff does take the cake. Hella thicc. Quite the body. Mm. So that’ll be interesting to work
with. I don’t love how thick it is, but I do love the texture and the hand. It is so soft, some of
the softest wool I’ve ever felt. The color is perfect. It like an oatmeal stripped with cocoa,
a great shade of light brown that will be super versatile with the rest of my wardrobe.
So for the pattern I’m going to use my fitted 3/4 circle skirt with a fitted waist. I drafted
it a couple videos back if you missed that one. But really, any flared skirt pattern would work,
as long as the flare is fitted to your waist. I didn’t even bother to make new patterns for
this project, I just added onto this one and I cut the other pieces from measurements. For the
skirt pattern, it already includes seam allowance at the top edge, and hem allowance at the bottom
edge. But the sides are both on a fold. So, for the skirt back, I’ll leave one side as a foldline,
and I’ll add a 1/2” of seam allowance to the other side. For the skirt front, since the center front
has a seam, I’ll add seam allowance to both sides. Now the pattern isn’t done. I also need to add a
bit to the top of the sides for the button closure. For the front, I’ll just fold a bit
under and use that double thickness to structure the buttonholes. For the back piece, I need that
placket to fit underneath the front side, so that when the two sides are stitched together,
the plackets perfectly overlap each other. I want the button placket to be 1.5” wide,
so I’ll add 1.5” past the seam allowance, then another 1/2” for seam allowance for the placket.
I’ll make the placket 9” long, so that I can space my buttons 2” apart.
On the back, since the placket needs to extend past the seam, I’ll add 1.5”, and then another
1.5, making the center a foldline. Then another 1/2” for the seam allowance.
I did have to cut the skirt about two inches shorter than my 29” pattern length.
That is because my fabric wasn’t quite wide enough to fit the 3/4 circle skirt,
and because it had a nap I didn’t want to rotate the pattern or cut it on a different grain line.
The biggest challenge for me with this project was figuring out the best way to work with this
super thick double-cloth. However, the reason I decided to make the project was because I thought
it might be really interesting to play with the fact that it’s like pre-pad-stitched fabric,
and I could split apart different portions to help with the finishings. So that’s what I decided to
do with the front seam. I pulled the two layers apart by about an inch. Then I placed the skirt
fronts together and folded the outer layers back, pinning them out of the way. I stitched just those
inner layers together, then when I laid it out on the ironing board and opened it up,
I had a bit of a weird flashback to dissections in high school biology. I ironed the seam open,
then folded those extra layers back over the top, folding the raw edges in and lining them up
with the seam. I pinned them, then hand stitched those layers closed, whipping around the folds.
In the end, this is what the seam looked like. It’s pretty much invisible and
identical front and back. Interesting. I decided to make the button closure on the right
side of the skirt, because I’m left-handed and so I use left-side pockets much more frequently.
That means the left side of the front and back pieces can have the extra flaps for the placket
trimmed off. Then I stitched up and finished that side seam just like I did the center front.
After I finished, I decided I really didn’t love the way this seam looked. It was just a lot more
visible than I expected. I hadn’t counted on how much the separated layers would stretch and how
much more loose and flexible they would sit, and how visibly that would stand out against
the body of the unaltered double-cloth. When I looked closer at the fabric, I think I figured
out the reason. On one side the oatmeal stripes run diagonally across the fabric, and on the other
side the diagonal direction is reversed. Both layers have a decent amount of diagonal stretch,
but because they are lined up in reverse, the stretch is cancelled out. So when I separated
them, I let them stretch again, which is why they sort of ripple and bubble around the seam. So in
my game of seeing if I’ve had a brilliant idea or just a dumb one, I think this one was meh at best.
With the last seam, I decided to try something different. This time I sewed the seam in the
usual way, unaltered, though I had to remember to backtack at the placket opening instead of sewing
the whole seam. I decided to tackle the finishings one side at a time, starting with the front.
At the top, I made a little clip at the base of the placket. Now that the seam was stitched,
I split the two layers of fabric, and I trimmed the underside down by half. Maybe more. Then
I pulled the layers apart around the base and side of the placket and trimmed it too.
Around the placket, I folded in that untrimmed edge, then I folded the placket at the center
side. To finish the side seam, I folded the top layer around the shortened one, covering both raw
edges. I felled around the placket and down the seam. And we now have one nice, clean edge, and an
invisible placket to reinforce the button holes. For the back side, I finished the seam the exact
same way. I also trimmed down one layer of the placket, but I folded it to line up with the
center side, leaving an 1.5” extension. Then, when I was felling those seams,
I lined the base of that extended placket up over the base of the underlaying placket,
and I stitched them securely together. And here’s what the finished placket looks like.
I do love plackets like this. They are pretty easy to calculate and sew, but I would usually
finish them differently—and much more simply. The double-cloth definitely complicated things.
For the waistband, I want it for be 1.75” wide. Usually I go more 1.25 or 1.5, but I wanted this
waistband to be a bit wider than usual to make it more proportional with the oversized buttons.
So take 1.75 and double it, 3.5”, then add seam allowance to both sides, giving us 4.5”.
For the length, I want the finished waist to be 28.5”. I need to add 1.5, to underlap the button,
and I need to add another inch for seam allowance. So I’ll cut a waistband that is 4.5x31”.
Then I pinned the waistband to the skirt, and man, this is probably the number one
reason why I love flared skirts like this. They look plenty flattering on,
but it’s just such a relief to not have to pleat and gather things every once in a while.
I sewed the waistband to the skirt. Then on the skirt seam allowance, I split the two layers,
then trimmed down the inside layer. I also split and trimmed the waistband allowance,
and then I pulled apart the layers on the other three waistband sides and trimmed it down by about
a half an inch. I used that edge as a foldline for ironing down the allowance, then I turned the
waistband in and covered up all of the raw edges, hand stitching along the waist and the two ends.
I tried a few different options for the hem. I didn’t want to waste any allowance, since I’d
already had to sacrifice two inches of length to fit my pattern across the fabric. I thought maybe
I could use some lace as a facing, but I realized that was probably just going to make it even
bulkier than it already was. That was the other issue. I didn’t want to double-fold it like I
usually would for a hem because it was so *thick* already. In the end, I decided that the fabric is
sturdy enough, and it’s not like I’ll ever be washing it, and it’s not like I’m going to win
any awards for construction on this one anyways, so… I just folded it up once and felled it down.
Then, yes, if you noticed the chicken, this is Amadala. She’s ordinarily not this chill,
but she was having a bad day. There was a hawk that morning. It happens every once in a while,
but the rooster always fights them off, and we don’t have huge hawks in town. But they were
all freaked out and when I went out to check on them I saw Amadala laying down along the fence.
I went up to her and picked her up and she was all frozen. I thought maybe she was injured, but no, I
think she was just scared. So she let me carry her around for a while, which she usually doesn’t do.
Then whenever I went out there the rest of the day she was acting off. She was following me around
and not even bothering to bully the younger birds, so I brought her inside while I was hemming,
and she just chilled out and napped on my lap. She was back to normal the next day, so all’s well.
I want the pocket to fit my phone. That’s really the main requirement.
So I laid out my phone and measured two inches on all four sides.
Then I did need to add a bit more to the top for the hem, so I measured another inch out.
I could just fold these edges to the inside, but I had one more idea to try. I peeled away and
trimmed down a half inch from all four sides. Then, instead of using that inner ridge as the
foldline, I instead folded the edge in to meet it, and when I ironed it it laid perfectly smooth
because both sides had exactly two layers. Then I ironed it in by another fold and felled it down.
This was honestly the best looking, best feeling, least bulky finishing I tried.
I would have probably used a method like this for the whole skirt if I were to do it again…
but I’m not going to do it again. Then I turned in the bottom edge,
then the top, though I folded the top down by an inch. I felled these, and the pocked is perfectly
finished and ready to be sewn onto the skirt. I placed it over the left side seam, and the
stitch I used to set it was probably not the best. It’s basically just small whip stitches. I’m sure
there was a nicer-looking, stronger stitch I could have used, but I didn’t think of one. But yeah,
with the pocket attached, all that’s left is the main event, the primary attraction: the buttons.
I have a few newer tools to show you today. This one came from amazon. You can use it to evenly
space buttons or eyelets or pleats, or anything you want, without having to measure anything.
I haven’t used it *that* much yet, but mainly because I keep forgetting I have it and just
doing the math anyways. The only real downside of it is that it only goes up to 8 markers, but it’s
still handy. I used it to measure out placements for my four buttons. It ended up being about 2”,
which is what I had planned for when cutting the placket. I sewed the buttons on, then I used the
buttons to mark placements for the button holes on the front side. I made 3 vertical button holes
down the placket, centered over each button. Then I did a horizontal hole at the waistband.
Remember to set this hole back a bit, so that the end of it hits the button center. Otherwise your
waistband won’t end up fitting how you planned. It’ll be too loose and gaping. That’s a mistake
I made with these trousers. Don’t do that. I sewed the button holes by machine. Yeah yeah,
don’t @ me. There are things I find pleasant and relaxing to hand sew, and for some reason
buttonholes are not on that list. And then, to open the button holes, I used this little Clover
tool, another recent purchase. It’s nice and sharp and it works great, but I do have problems with
the stitching thread getting nicked every once in a while. This happened when I used a seam-ripper
to open the holes too, so I don’t know maybe it’s a me problem. But to help with that, I’ve started
tracing over my buttonholes with fray check. I use fray check on the backside of the fabric,
and you should be careful, because sometimes it bleeds through, and on some fabrics it will
leave a mark. I also fray-checked the little clump of stitches at the back of the buttons,
doubly securing them. This might be a good trick to keep in mind if you are prone to loosing
buttons. You could even do that with store-bought clothes. Like, the type of clothes you sometimes
get that the buttons are real loose, and you can totally see yourself loosing one, and you think,
I probably *ought* to just resew these all right now before I even wear it. But you also know
you’re too lazy to do it until you actually lose a button. So… fray check. Not sponsored.
There are things about this skirt that I love, and things that I don’t love. I really love the
3/4 circle skirt. This might be my new go-to skirt pattern. I love the level of fullness it
has. However, it does hang a bit weird, especially at the two sides where the pocket and the button
placket throw it off a bit. This double-cloth was insanely thick. It was fun to play around with,
but I think I’m done for a while. Maybe it’s the impending spring weather talking, but I am
really ready to put away the heavy wools and dig out my linens and cotton stash again.
So, the skirt is fine. It’s exactly what I wanted. A versatile, comfortable daily wear skirt that I
can throw on and be warm next winter whether I’m working from home or out running errands.
But I feel like the overall effect would have just been a little bit better if I’d used a more
medium-weight wool. However, I will recognize that my minor qualms with this project are probably
mostly just due to me being really done with the cold and winter in general, and yeah… I’m sure by
the time I dig it out next fall, I will completely have forgotten about all of my little critiques
and knit-picks and I’ll just be happy to have it. Anyways, thanks for watching. There will not be a
pattern of this skirt on the Patreon, because it was basically a plug-in-your-measurements
type of project, easy to DIY without wasting a bunch of computer paper to print the pattern.
But the next project, my blue striped dress, was another complicated one,
so it will be another patterning adventure. I hope you liked this video. If you’d like
to see more of my work you can subscribe to me here on Youtube and follow my instagram.
And I have a separate YouTube channel if you enjoy writing and worldbuilding. See ya.