A Successful Silk Skirt Project.

I did it. I made a silk skirt.

It's a bit short.. but I'm still going to wear it.

A while ago I bought this for a bit of nothing at a thrift store.

So ugly as is..

A fugly and overly 80s silk dress.

So I traced a skirt of mine.
Made a sort of pattern.
And....

Made one extra to give more ease to the skirt.

And then there was a lot of very careful stitching.

Greek Key FTW.

Sewing this kind of silk requires you to shorten stitch length and keep a sharp needle in the machine. I also used a smaller point needle. As I didn't want to do something like French seams I did a short stitch for the straight one.. and greek key for the zig zag.

Why Greek Key? No reason. I just liked the look..

And this is what I got:

I have fat little legs and I do not care!!

It feels like I'm wearing nothing.

To make your own you'll need either an over-sized silk dress from the 80s or at least a yard's worth of fabric. De-construct and prewash the matériel. Hang dry.

Your waist measurements. Your hip measurements. (My skirt fits well on my 55' hips and 43' waist.) Use the measurements below to draft your pattern.. but be sure to add at least 1/4 inch for the sewing seams. I was using silk so I had 1/2 inch seam allowances.

Half inch wide elastic for the rear waistband. I just put elastic in the back at the sides.

A zipper (if you have much bigger hips then waist like I do.)

Either a button or a closure for the waistband.

 

 Basically you make as many panels as you need to squeak around the waist, plus an extra one. Sew together, wide ends with wide ends, thin ends with thin ends. (If you are sticking in a zipper leave a space for it at the side.) You are making a trumpet skirt after all. Waistband the same length as the top. (or waist plus two..which is what I think I did.)

Sew on the waist band. Attach elastic. fold over and sew it up, raw edges into the insides of course. Insert zipper. Place button above it. Hem and wear.

(I would like to thank the peoples at the LSG for all the tips and help they gave me!)