The Christie Circle Skirt : Made for twirling!

"I started by placing the fabric tightly against my skin (just because) and then I washed and spun the fabric in the machine using a temperature of 30 degrees. Then I left it to completely air dry.

The sizes are not particularly stated as it would be on a pattern envelope, but it was given in the standard UK, the US, EUR measurement and I picked my standard pattern waist and hip size which is UK 10 for waist and UK 12 for hips. I also added allowances of 1 inch just to ensure that I had wiggle room for adjustments. [*NOTE / UPDATE* Finished body measurements for all the garments in the book can now be found towards the end of the product listing description here].   

I found the pattern piece on one side of the fabric sheet and traced it out by placing a tracing paper over the lined of the skirt pattern in the size I had selected. I chose to sew the full length of the skirt.

When tracing out the pattern, the tail end of the skirt for both front, back and waistband pieces had to be joined together along the broken lines that state cut. What I did was that I traced out the biggest part of the pattern and instead of closing it, I moved the paper over to complete the tail end of the skirt line.

After doing this I cut out all the pieces that had been traced out. This was now ready to be placed on my fabric to cut out once that was done.

I then ironed out the creases on the fabric and folded the 4 yards of fabric in half which meant I had 1.5 inches on both sides. This was to ensure that I could cut out all the skirt pieces at once since the back had 2 pieces and the front pattern was to be cut on a fold. This was done to ensure that the pattern of the fabric is all in the same direction.

I placed the front pattern piece alongside the folded part of the fabric (it had been indicated to cut this on a fold making it a single piece) and placed the back piece (this comes out as 2 separate pieces – L and R side) next to it, this way I was able to cut out the biggest skirt pieces.

The next thing I did was to place the waistband and pocket pattern pieces on the fabric that remained after cutting out the skirt pieces.

I traced the pocket pattern piece from the lines of the ALTHEA A-Line skirt (skirt pattern on the pattern sheet).

I started by sewing a zip allowance of 1.5 inches which joined the left and right side of the back pieces together. I ironed out the zip allowance to create a flat layout for the zip to be placed in the middle.  The zip was pinned down on both sides and sewn in place on the opposite/inner side of the fabric. Once this was done, I turned the back piece over and loosened the sewn-up middle to reveal the sewn-in zip on the right side of the fabric (the instructions for sewing zips can be found on page 114 of the book).

Then I sewed up the pockets to both sides of the front and back pieces of the skirt and joined the sides of the skirt ensuring that I did not completely sew up the skirt opening.

After this, I folded and ironed three out of the four edges of the waistband before attaching the unfolded edge to the waist of the already sewn skirt. Afterwards, I ironed-in the edge of this sewn part and folded the top of the waistband over it. Then I pinned it down to the main skirt and sewed this up which covered up the top end of the zip.

In my case, I hacked the waistband and created a V shape at the back of my waistband and added some buttons for an extra touch.

When it was time to hem the skirt, I carefully ironed the hem in 0.5 inches first and 1-inch second. After doing this, I pinned the entire length of the hem curve to ensure that sewing was easy.

Finally, I hand stitched the buttons and gave the waistband and hem a final proper press.

Tadah!!! We’re finished and we have a skirt. *cue in dance break*

Shop Book: 'Sewing with African Wax Print Fabric' here.

Shop Fabric 'Green Leaves' here.