My goal was a long, full skirt that I could wear as a fancy everyday skirt if I felt like it, but I also needed it to be part of my steampunk owl catcher costume, to be worn over a fluffy, feather-trimmed petticoat that I'd already made. After reading a million tutorials and patterns online, and looking at a zillion photos of skirts, I couldn't find one precisely like I had in mind. What I actually wanted was an Edwardian type walking dress that gathered at the back to imitate a small bustle without actually requiring one. That's not exactly how it came out, but I do like it.
I started with my waist measurement. It's 32" precisely, and I know because that's the waist measurement of the corset I plan to wear with my costume. As it happens, the waist turned out a bit big, but I may fix that by adding a couple of darts. I wanted a flat front (which would be flatter if my front was flatter, but you know) so I measured a nice distance across my front and decided to make the big front gore 12" across. I added an inch for ease.
Then I did some math and made some drawings, with notes. Here's a picture of what I came up with. Not all those notes were necessary--for instance, because I added a ruffle I didn't need to worry about bringing up the corners of the gores to keep them from turning out pointy when sewn.
Hopefully that's reasonably readable, for anyone who wants to try this at home. In the interest of easier math (basically I rounded up a lot), I left myself a TON of ease in the measurements, which is probably why the waist is too big.
I didn't make the ruffle as ruffly as I could have because I didn't want it to be too frilly. I like the way it turned out, as you'll see below, and of course the skirt goes over a seriously ruffled petticoat.
The first thing I did, naturally, was cut out the cloth. I didn't try to match the pattern, and it worked out just fine. I used a heavy (and expensive!) cotton, and I must say that the more I worked with it the better I liked it. It's always good to fall in love with your fabric while making a garment. Sometimes I grow to hate a fabric, when it's too late. I measured very carefully to minimize needing to fudge and trim later.
I hemmed the ruffle piece first thing, because no way am I going to do that after it's ruffled. Then I sewed the two narrow gores to the front panel. It really is remarkable how easy it is to sew when you've got a sewing machine, even the $20 toy one I use. Those long seams I used to dread when I sewed by hand just whiz by. I then sewed the four back gores together as a separate piece. Zoom, whiz, all done! Sewing machines are awesome. Then I sewed the back piece to the front, but only along one seam. I left the remaining seam, the one that would enclose the whole thing and make it into a skirt, for later.
Incidentally, my notes say "stitch gores R sides OUT with French seams or be lazy and stitch with R sides tog." Which do you think I actually did? Do you really think I made French seams? Really?
Next was the ruffle. I've made two intensely ruffled petticoats in the last few months, so I'm an old hand at ruffling. Because my sewing machine doesn't have a basting stitch (or any stitch except lockstitch, and it only goes forward, not back), I had to do this by hand. But the sewing had gone so well with the other parts yesterday that I got started first thing this morning on the ruffle. It took me a while to put the basting in, but then I spread it all out on the living room floor, ruffled it carefully, pinned it in place, and took it to the garage to sew.
If you know a bit about sewing ruffles, or just sewing in general, and if you're more caffeinated than I was this morning (I skipped breakfast in my eagerness to get started), you'll see from the picture above what happened. Yes, I was pinning wrong sides together, not right sides together. And I didn't notice until after I'd sewn the entire seam.
This picture's not really clear because of the lighting, but hopefully it'll give you a bit of idea of the monumental tragedy that was this seam. The raw edges were on the outside. I was going to have to rip it out and start all over, including re-basting the seam since I'd cut the basting thread.
But then I remembered those French seams I'd decided not to bother with. I had no idea if it was even possible to sew a French seam with a ruffle. Basically, a French seam is a way to fold the cloth down and sew it in place to completely encase the raw edges of the fabric. They don't show at all and it looks nice and neat. So I tried it.
And it worked. So if you ever do something boneheaded like sew a ruffle on wrong-side-out, know that you can fix it. And since I'd allowed an awful lot of ease for seaming--it's easier to shorten a garment you're making than make it longer--I didn't have to worry about making the skirt too short. Incidentally, putting a French seam in above a ruffle might be an easy way to take up a ruffled skirt that's too long.
Above: another bad picture, but hopefully you can see the repaired seam on the outside even if the French seam on the wrong side of the cloth doesn't really show. Incidentally, after making the French seam I went ahead and ran another seam along as a topstitch to tack down the French seam, since I'd made it pretty wide.
Once the ruffle was attached, I sewed up the last remaining seam, being extremely careful that everything matched up. All the careful measuring of pieces I'd done while cutting the fabric paid off, incidentally. It looked good when I was done.
That just left the waistband. I'd already decided to make the front waistband flat and the back gathered with elastic. All I did for the front was fold the top over, then over again to make a nice neat hem. I tried the skirt on with the petticoat first, of course, so I would know how much I needed to hem. I also measured out a length of 3/4" elastic for the back. After I seamed the front waistband, I folded the back down and sewed it in a similar fashion but left openings on either side to thread the elastic through. I had to shorten the elastic some and the skirt is still a bit loose, as I mentioned before, but it ruffled the fabric up nicely. I hand-sewed the edges of the elastic in place and closed the openings.
And voila, it's done! Here's a photo of the skirt hanging up--not great lighting, but it gives you an idea of how the construction looks.
And here it is on me over the feather-trimmed petticoat. The feather trim peeks out from under the skirt, which is what I intended.
And here's a rear view, not very clear and I was having to contort my body to take the picture, but it gives you an idea of how it's just a bit gathered at the back.
If I make this pattern again, I'll try making a regular waistband with a side button closure, probably, and I'll probably pleat the back panels to make them fuller and more gathered. But for now, I'm happy with this skirt.
Incidentally, I have grown to loathe the shirt I'm wearing in the above pictures, so my next project is to make a blouse to go with my costume. Something tells me that's not going to be as easy as a skirt
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