The crazy Bernadette Frankenskirt: a dreamy success story!

 This plan started as all bad ideas start: on night shift 

I wanted a skirt from a fancy dress shop but it was >500$ and really...just a linen skirt...and I don't even wear skirts that much.  But the skirt had a kind of magical shape and really cool hidden pockets.  The dreamy exciting thing about this skirt was a huge front pleat that pleated forward over itself (one side over the other) in a way that when you kick your knee forward, the pleats open, but when you stand upright, they hide.  The pockets are brought around towards the front and hide just under the fold of the pleat.  I thought if I could find a skirt with front pleats, I could probably recreate it.  

I deleted most of the photos of this skirt (I had MANY) and am left with the following: 

 

I thus went on the hunt for a skirt with front pleats.  I reviewed a few options but the Bernadette stood out.  

As you do on night shift, I bought it immediately and sent it to the printer so it would be ready in the morning.  

The feature I needed: big front pleats that I could shift around.  The challenges were many: 

-Bernadette has a back zip, my dream skirt has back elastic and a flat front

-my pattern has pockets hidden under the fancy front pleat. 

So the big question is: how much fabric do I add to the back skirt to change it from a zip to an elastic waist thing?  Subsidiary questions: how far around does the elastic back come/how wide is the front flat panel? And how wide are my pleats?  How far over each other do they cross? 

To create version 1 I used a piece of pale sage green linen which was my only unallocated bit of stash suitable for a skirt.  I measured my hips and made the skirt back wide enough to get over them with the elastic fully stretched.  I made a vertical line at the lateral edge of the pleats, and created a seam there. I added pockets into this seam.  I used the Bardon dress pockets as they are the best pockets of all time.  I used the excessive number of photos on my phone of the original skirt to recreate the direction of the pleats since I was pleating them towards the midline and over each other.  

Voila version 1!  It actually looks legitimately like the original!  Wahoo!  Oh but we are NOT there yet.  Some pitfalls: it really just barely gets over my hips.  I think the fabric could only tolerate me putting it on 3 times before it threatened to burst.  There is not enough gathering in the back.  And my pockets are not tucked into the pleats deeply enough, they need to be at the spot where the pleat creates a fold.  It was time to revisit the inspiration.  I went back to the shop with my booty and spent too long in a dressing room with the two skirts and a measuring tape.  This is a fancy dress shop and the attendant was a young man who thought I was too shabby looking so I'm sure he was pretty suspicious of what I was doing in there.

I identified that I actually needed something like 20 cm more across the back, wow!  I also needed to bring the elastic waistband all the way to the front pleats rather than ending it at the side seam.  I measured the front piece to get the right width, which also increased the size of my pleat components and moved the pockets out a bit from the midline. 

Scavenged through my stash which is mostly allocated mentally to other projects, or not bottomweight...I fell upon this amazing kind of textured viscose from Fabric Godmother, it's beautiful and was at risk of being deep stashed as just too pretty to cut.  BUT I knew this skirt would fit and the first was wearable so I KNEW it would be wearable and was willing to take the leap.  

 I leapt!  (leaped?)  

 

I am so happy with the results.  My knitting club reckons my skirt is better than the original.  Possibly true, I think my pockets are slightly further out which feels more normal.  It's definitely amazing enough that I couldn't justify buying the original anyway, and luckily for my resistance, the skirt sold and is gone.  I'm not making another one of these in a hurry but my skirtmaking flurry is nearly at an end after reaching a lifetime high.  As a side note, my green practice version was snapped up by a petite Malaysian work colleague who LOVES it!  

Pattern Emporium Tiered maxiskirt in Liberty

 I first encountered this skirt when I saw my friend Tessa's version.  I've never been very into skirts.  Like, I own the same few and wear them occasionally but they aren't that comfortable and rarely have pockets so why bother?  The few I have are really great and that's sort of it, right?  

Hm.  Well, I realised a big problem was that my legs rub together.  So this summer I decided to solve the problem with long leg boyshorts with lace hems, so I could wear my skirts.  (More on those later).  And it made skirts suddenly seem like a more viable option (especially if they have pockets.)  

This does not have pockets, but that is easily fixed.  And after thinking for quite awhile I decided I was ready to cut into my number 2 longest stashed fabric: a Liberty Tana Lawn in my Favourite Print Ever Made.  In order to do that I had to do a practice version, because I have never shirred and I was not sure how the shirring would go.  

Spoiler alert: the shirring went Very. Poorly.  

Sorry it was very windy when I took these photos, plus midwinter so rather cold. 

I cut a size 10 and used some very fancy Liberty silk twill that has been sitting around - this is for my friend R and I knew she would love the colours and would not care too much about the shirring.  What is discovered is that although in one spot I read to NOT pull tension when you wind the shirring elastic onto the bobbin, actually you DO need to pull a moderate amount of tension.  All the shirring does not really suck together and just looks like weird loops on the inside of the skirt.  Luckily there's a piece of elastic in the waistband as well so this first version is wearable and the silk twill is delightfully swishy.  I was on a time crunch so I forgot to take notes on things I would change the second time around...

So after waiting far too long and not remembering anything I learned from the first version, I made my Liberty Special.  I think I wanted to shorten the middle tier 1" but I didn't do that.  I did add very large pockets. 

 

I obviously practiced shirring in the meantime and got better at it.  I didn't have any issues making this skirt, it's an easy make.  I like my huge pockets and I like the way it drapes.  

 

Wide Strap Maxi Dress revisited: Peppermint x Elbe textiles

 

I made this dress in some lovely lemon fabric a few years ago and my big comment was to use a nice floaty fabric that draped well if I did it again.  That first version suffered because the elastic was too tight.  I put a lot of effort into getting the straps to sit well and the elastic just right but I overdid it and the tight elastic bothered me.  I thought ended up with the straps too short - the bust darts were a ways above my bust.  I think a looser look matches the silhouetter better - he dress rather should loosely skim rather than grabbing around the chest and then it will billow out less over the bum.

So despite my fabric thoughts, at some point I decided to make it again using a beautiful scrap of waxed cotton.  The, you know, least drapey fabric.  I was really cheated when I bought this most beautiful piece - I paid for a meter and I think it's 80 cm x 80 cm.  I needed a dress that would be a full length canvas for it.  The Tessuti Claudia dress (which I literally have printed out but have never sewn) would have been a great choice...but I have some weird aversion to making it. Every time I look at the pattern I think oooh!  I would love that!  So I am not sure why it never makes the cut. 

I needed a fabric for the back.  Some thought here, went for a dark navy linen, but something about it was not quite right - it was really quite heavy.  After awhile I went shopping again and this time got a linen/viscose, a bit lighter weight, and matching the deepest navy parts of the design.  

Sewing the dress is very fun, it's one of those patterns that come together with satisfying neat angles.  Yet again I put a lot of time into getting the elastic at the back to be just right and the straps just right.  I have very sloping shoulders which are not symmetrical, so these wide straps need to be separately angled and sewn in.  

I think the dress is so pretty and the pockets of course are amazing.  I wore it to a wine festival and got lots of compliments, but I noticed right away that the right side strap is way too loose- I haven't quite got the angle right.  This is fixable, and probably expected considering my shoulders.  It is annoying enough that I'll put the time into fixing it.  Unlike last time I think I left the entire length of the straps inside the lining so I could adjust as needed, but I also didn't need to cut much off to make them fit - suggesting they are about 2" longer this time.  

Overall a relative success (I have NOT done the fix yet) but a bit tricky to get a perfect fit as I really need the straps just right or I get very annoyed.  I'm looking at these photos and suddenly realised I should cross the straps across the back.  Not at all bra friendly but it would solve my problems!