Made by a Fabricista: Peachskin duo for summer

Once upon a time I had a beautiful drapey skirt. It was out of poly chiffon, it was peach and it floated on the wind. It was the stuff of magic, but as things sometimes happen to be, it wore itself out.

Man I miss this skirt!

I blame the summer ground, my sandaled feet and also some extra style lines in the skirt that put stress on the seams of that not so sturdy chiffon. Since that sad day when my skirt bit the dust, I've wanted to replace it, and maybe future proof the next one.

Past skirt, meet version 2.0 in peachskin.

Peachskin skirt: modified Burda Easy Fall/Winter 2014, 3D

I originally meant to make 2 versions of this skirt from the Fall/Winter 2014 Burda Easy. For it, I chose this tiger orange peachskin print and this fern green geometric peachskin print. But when the fabrics came in the mail, I decided to branch out.

The green would be for my skirt and the orange print for something more dramatic and outside of my comfort zone. What can I say? The drape of this peachskin is dreamy and to limit it to one type of garment was too safe! I'm pairing both the skirt and its culottes sister with this sleeveless raglan with a scarf neck that I recently made a tutorial for.

A pencil + a squircle

So much floaty!

The pattern on this skirt (#3D below) is really a pencil skirt on top with a giant square on the bottom. The square that makes up the big drapey bottom sews into the top part of the skirt with a circle that cuts off in a curved edge all the way around the body.

image from Fehr Trade

I call it a squircle skirt, and boy howdy is it a fun sew. Because of that bottom curved edge, the handkerchief hem edges hang at all kinds of interesting angles.

But as I said those extra seams are no good for delicate fabrics as I learned on my peach version.

To fix it, I combined the pattern pieces on the front and the back. On the front, it's now a plain front, and the back which used to have princess seams I replaced with 2 simple darts.

Because this print does all the speaking, I think the plainer design works. And, if it means I get to wear this skirt as long as I did my peach version, I'm a happy lady!

It passes the swish test!

Winslow Culottes

I collect vintage scarves. Whenever I see a pretty silk or a fine polyester scarf in a fun print in a thrift or antique store, I'm like a moth to the flame. What impressed me about the peachskin is that it feels very much like my favorite scarves. The hand is quite luxurious against your skin. The more and more I sew, the more I find polyesters that don't have that 70s feel. If there's good polyester and bad polyester, this is the REALLY good stuff!

For the tiger orange print, I decided to give the Helen's Closet Winslow Culottes a try. The legs are super wide, so this large scale print has a lot of room to breathe.

I see why this pattern has been really popular. This is such a great beginner pattern! With the wide legs, there's very little fitting to do. And isn't fitting what terrifies most of us about sewing pants?!

As long as you pick a nice drapey fabric like this, I'm convinced you're going to have a good sew. Just a few seams and an invisible zipper in back and you're golden.

Who knew peachskin was awesome for travel?!

One thing I didn't expect from this fabric was it's packability. My husband and I wandered around the Botanic Gardens, sometimes succeeding in finding out of the way spots to take pictures. I literally jammed the skirt into my camera bag and later the pants to keep our walking the crowded garden easy.

Both garments came right out of the bag free of wrinkles. They also packed down really well. The culottes alone folded into a neat compact square. That's pretty impressive given how much fabric is in these pants! If you wanted to make some statement garments for your summer travel, I would definitely recommend it.