high-waist skirt

I was doing my usual internet-window shopping on Monday evening, when I found this gorgeous high-waist skirt at Mary Magdalene, for about 10 times what I could afford (I hate being broke -__-).

I started googling for a pattern for something similar. As luck would have it, I found a free pattern on burdastyle (registeration required) that looked almost the same, and that I could print at home ... sort of. I imported it into photoshop first and tweaked the prints a bit, since it could fit on 9 pages instead of the usual 20.

Luckily my mom had a couple of metres of deep red curtaining fabric lying around unused. So I printed out the pattern and cut out the fabric at a 26.5in waist (67cm).

Tuesday morning I began sewing it all together. Unfortunately, the pattern calls for 1.25cm seams, which is a bit awkward, so I just did all the seams at the usual 1.5cm. Bad idea. I then had to unpick half the seams, and resew them at 1cms, leaving the back seam at 1.5cm for the zip, and the two front side seams 1.5cm for boning. I turned over a 2cm seam at the waist, sewed in about 9cm of boning at the two front sides, put a 25cm zip in the back, and did a 2cm hem. I sewed in four loops on at either side back seam, and then used an old hair ribbon to lace up the back.

I've adjusted the patten since then, slowing the waist angle (it tends to bulge at the top), and rounding the hem. Unforunately, the original pattern has a straight hem, which creates and oddly angular effect when you sew the eight panels together. I haven't tried the new pattern yet, but I'm hoping to do so soon. Just need to find a nice chocolate brown stretch satin first.

The skirt is a lot darker in sunlight, and not quite this shiny. It's quite comfortable on, though it looks much nicer if you wear a wide petticoat underneath.

If you would like my adjusted version of the pattern (set to a 29in - 73cm - waist), please leave a comment with your email address, and I'll send it to you.