- Fiskars Craft

New Year’s Sewing Resolution - April Skirt

New Year’s Sewing Resolution: April Skirt

Designer: Emma Jeffrey

Difficulty rating: Beginner

My new year’s sewing resolution continues this month with a pattern by Sewaholic. I found Tasia’s, (the pattern designer) website , and fell in love with all of her beautiful patterns and decided that her Crescent Skirt would be the perfect item for my April wardrobe addition. Southern California starts to get warmer mid-spring so I thought that a cute flirty skirt would be just the thing to add to my handmade collection.

And as a fun tribute to my home country and host of this summer’s Olympic Games, I used this London printed cotton/linen blend. It is a slightly heavier fabric (which is necessary for negotiating our breezy weather with a little dignity!) and will be a great item to wear whilst supporting Team GB this summer.

I was all set and ready to start cutting into my London print when I remembered that these projects are supposed to be creating some pieces that fit well and have a long closet life. I forced myself to put the print down and dug out some scrap fabric to make a muslin first.

I referenced Tasia’s Crescent Skirt Sewalong , which is full of helpful information on the finer details of how to make the skirt and in particular, the muslin. She suggests stitching along the seam line of all the muslin pieces before sewing it together. That way, when you form the muslin, you are able to see and measure where the seams need to be let in or let out.

When I was happy with the fit of my muslin I was ready to cut out my London print. I applied interfacing to the waistband pieces, but not to the waistband facings as the pattern directs you to do. My fabric is quite thick and I didn’t want to make it bulky with too many layers of interfacing. If I were making this with a thinner fabric, I would put interfacing on all pieces.

Following the pattern directions, I started putting together the front and back of the skirt. Something I really love about this skirt is its super deep pockets and the directions for creating them are very straightforward. The top edge of the pockets are reinforced with a length of twill tape, which is a new (and very useful) technique for me.

After gathering the skirt front and back, I sewed together the waistband pieces. Though the pattern suggests options for different finishes on the seamlines of the waistband, I opted to keep mine plain because I felt my fabric was statement enough!

Next, I pinned the waistband to the skirt with the right sides together, pulling up the gathers on the skirt to fit. After finishing the center back seam and sewing the waistband facings, I put in the zipper.

Zippers often send people into a panic, but the directions in this pattern are very easy to understand and I love that the zipper is enclosed in the facing. First, with the fabric right side up and the zipper facing up, line up the edge of the zipper tape against the center back raw edge of the facing and sew together. Press lightly making sure not to touch the plastic zipper teeth with the iron.

Next, pin the facing to the skirt with the right sides together and sew all the way to the end of the zipper. Before sewing around the top edge of the waistband, you are instructed to fold back the top of the zipper so that you get a clean corner at the top. Tasia goes into more detail on this point here .

Following the pattern directions, my zipper worked out perfectly and this has made me feel much more confident as far as tackling a zipper is concerned. After turning the waistband facing to the inside and stitching in the ditch along the lower edge to secure it, I finished my skirt by hemming with a blind hem. You can read my blind hem tutorial on the Fiskars website for more information.

I’m very happy with my new skirt. Not only does it fit well, it has some lovely details (like the giant pockets and flattering waistband). I especially like the fact that it’s unique. Being able to choose your own fabric and express your own style feels very liberating and though not many people in my neighborhood will be supporting the same team as me this summer, I will wear my new skirt with pride!