Talk About Tuesday – Another Skull Skirt

Tags

circle skirt, fabric, lady ozma, pirate, sewing, skirt, skull, tinkerbell, tutorial

You know what makes your unexpected trip to the fabric store awesome?

Awesome discount fabric!

That’s right. Finding really awesome fabric and noticing it’s on mega clearance.

My only regret? I didn’t buy the red version of this as well.

What you can’t see: It’s glittery! Skulls + Glitter = HECK YEAH!  I bought it all.

The fabric is a super stretchy almost spandex. I could make a wonderfully funky leotard, but what would I do with that? Some of you know and may laugh now.  There is only one thing to do with this – circle skirt! Sure, I already made one skull circle skirt, but you can’t have enough!

I thought about making this for the wedding I attended the next day, but just didn’t have time to complete it. (The bride asked me to wear the other skull skirt, but this was way classier in my opinion!)  I tried, but I just didn’t finish it.

What did I do?

After everyone went to bed, I queued up a Christmas movie and set to work. I didn’t want a yoke this time, I wanted it to be a straight up circle skirt. A little r=c/2pi using my waist as the circumference, some yardstick and tissue paper work, and boom! Pattern was done.

Laying the pattern out on the fabric!

I made another quarter circle pattern but this time I used the fold of the fabric so I cut two half circles. The fabric is sort of directional, but I didn’t have quite enough to do this into four quarters to go with the direction.  The good news is this fabric is only “sort of” directional and so when it lay, it looks OK.

Nephi - the amazing chihuahua helper!

I joke a lot about my chihuahua acting like a cat. Well here’s the proof. Just like a cat, he feels the need to investigate all fabric.

“I’m just here for moral support, Mommy! I am Nephi, and I approve of this fabric!”

Did you read my New Year’s Resolutions list? Maybe you saw the one about sewing with more ridiculous fabric? Well this skirt definitely counts. It is not the most sturdy of fabric for heavy duty use so I went extra careful. For the seams of the skirt I did a double stitch and I sewed the zipper in with a triple stitch, hoping to make it extra secure.

Securing the zipper!

I, again, chose an invisible zipper. I don’t care what the fashion is this year with all these industrial sized exposed zippers. Ozma is not a fan. I will agree that there is a time and a place for such a thing, but this was not it. No, that’s not an invisible zipper foot, but it is what I used. Interestingly, I think this might be the best zipper I’ve ever done.

The finished skull skirt!

I added a bias tape trim around the hem and the waistband for multiple reasons. First, I really wanted this to have the finished look the bias tape gives. Second, the fabric needs a little extra support and this offers it. Third, with how stretchy this fabric is a rolled hem would turn out nightmarish. When working with a super stretch fabric on the already stretchy bias you need to use four times as many pins in order to make sure things don’t stretch unevenly.

The final reason? Flair!

I love the spinning flair!

The fabric drapes beautifully without the weight of the bias tape, however it hangs better with the additional weight. While circle skirts tend to flare nicely, you really need a good weight to get the best flair. Depending on what you make, sometimes weights are added into the hem of skirts! This fabric is light enough that I knew the bias tape would add a nice weight allowing for me to get this lovely spin effect!

I think this skirt suits me!

I think this skirt suits me, what about you? I love it!

Now, a contest of sorts!  Want to affect my blog? Want to help me create something new?  I’m gathering ideas for what to make with the 4 yards I got of this lovely Tinkerbell cotton:

What should I make with 4 yards of this?

It would make a lovely circle skirt, but do I want to make another one? Something else? Circle skirt with an accent? Four yards is a lot, but with a serious directional print like this – that is not exactly the case. What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments. The best idea wins! I don’t have anything to offer but fame and glory…at least not until I see what scraps are left over.

I’m in the middle of making another two skirts that should prove interesting. Stay tuned!

–Lady O