Friday 4 May 2012

Mexican maxi skirt

I'm actually in the middle of sewing something right now, a pretty dress, but just managed to punch a hole through the casing for the elastic and I am now very annoyed with myself. I haven't figure out if it's fixable or if I'm going to have to resew the casing ... So I'm giving up on it for now. Hence, a new blog post!

I call this my Mexican skirt because I made it using some pretty ribbon I got in Mexico, and I made it to go with an embroidered top I bought at Chichen Itza. As it turns out, it doesn't go so well with the embroidered top. It needs to be shorter otherwise I end up looking like an peasant from the 1800s. I have more than enough fabric left over so I will make a shorter version of this skirt, probably just above knee length, but for now, it is my Mexican Maxi Skirt!



I love it. Super super comfy! It's basically a tube with an elastic sewn into the top. I sewed the elastic in place in four spots so it wouldn't move and shift as the day went on. I try to make sure that most of the ruffle bits are at the front and back, and less so at the sides where they just add volume I don't need!


I have since sewn a small slit into the side. I could walk, but I couldn't take large steps. It wasn't a big problem, but I'd like to have the option of running in it. Just in case. It's not a big slit, it reaches just below my knee on the one side with a seam. I just haven't taken pictures of it since adding it in.



I did a wide hem on this too. I like the look of wide hems I guess. :)  I think though that a smaller hem with the ribbon on it would look a little off balance. The 3 inch hem is perfect for adding a ribbon. Isn't it a pretty ribbon too?


I hand sewed it on. I didn't want to stitch it by machine because I was using a purple thread and I didn't want to have bits of purple randomly on the green or gold. The purple bit of the ribbon isn't completely straight and following the line it makes with the sewing machine would have been frustrating to say the least. So hand sewing it was!


You can see the difference between my hand sewing and the machine ... the machine is so much neater! I followed the purple bits. Each two purple bits had one purple bit sewn down, if that makes sense. It made it go faster and it was still attached well.


I even made sure that the start and finish of the ribbon was aligned to the seam of the skirt! Talk about pro ... I'm definitely getting better at thinking through a project and each step and it helps in making them turn out the way they should. Big step up from the 'picnic' dress I messed up on and haven't wanted to look back at yet! I'm sure it's fixable ... and eventually I'll get around to it ... but for now, I have 20 other projects I want to work on first.

No comments:

Post a Comment