Made by a Fabricista: Skorts and Stripes

It's that time of year when I start itching to pull out all my boots, but it's still too hot for that yet. I don't know about you, but I always struggle a little to make transitional pieces that'll carry me through to a weather change.

Thankfully I found just what I needed in the three fabrics I chose: this avocado chambray linen, peach rib knit (out of stock, but here's more rib knits) and stretch salmon striped cotton (also out of stock, but here's a similar brushed stretch twill).

Skort hack!

I love the comfort of shorts, but I don't really like the look on me. I much prefer a nice breezy skirt in the summer, but if you want to say ride a bike in breezy Colorado air, it doesn't work so much.

That's where skorts are awesome. Skirt in front, shorts in back!

I didn't have a skort pattern on hand, so started with a basic shorts pattern from Ottobre 2-2017-5. It's a simple shorts pattern with elastic on the back waistband. You gotta love elastic in the back for that comfort factor when it's hot out! I did move the zipper from center front to the side so the skort would be uninterrupted.

To add the skort portion, trace off the front as a full pattern piece, flipping the piece over at center front. Make sure the side seam extends a couple inches past the original shorts hem. On one side, add an angle that dips down and curves up to a couple inches above the shorts hem. Cut 2 of these.

To make the skort, hem the bottom of each of the skort pieces. You don't have to, but I added mitered hems because a mitered hem makes everything look classier (here's 3 ways to miter a corner)! Layer the skort pieces on top of each other, then anchor them to the shorts' fronts. From there you sew the shorts as you would normally, though know that you'll have to do something with the zipper. In the end, I definitely winged it with the side seam, just topstitching the skort side seam in place and sewing the side seams together with the shorts below the zipper.

Stripey drapey

Once upon a time I made Burdastyle 2-2013-109. Living up to my husband's “you're obsessed with asymmetry,” this is anything but a basic tee. I love the drapey bit that wraps around to the front and the tank look on the other side. It's such a fun top to wear and it goes with EVERYTHING!

I have learned that you really do need to drape the shoulder piece. As it's drafted, there ends up being a huge gap in the back neck. To fix it, make the top minus the shoulder piece, pin it in place as you try it on (or use a dress form), then finish it up.

This peach rayon/cotton rib knit is ultra soft and it was perfect for the drapey shoulder. My only regret is that I didn't buy more to make it into the dress version of this pattern!

Simple skirt with sassy ribbon

I've had this awesome ribbon in my stash for a couple years and had no idea what to do with it. Originally I bought it for a tunic neckline before I remembered that a boxy tunic is not a great look for me.

Then I stumbled across Burdastyle 7-2016-116. It's a simple A-line skirt with side panels that wrap around and attach to front and back panels. This couldn't be faster to sew. In fact, I banged out the main seams in about 15 minutes. Fitting took a little more time, but then it came to the waistband.

The pattern calls for striped petersham ribbon to be sewn on the outside of the waist. I really love petersham as a waist facing. It's super stable, and it looks lovely on the inside of a skirt. I had a nice pale butter petersham that would look nice with this salmon stripe. I even thought about sewing a strip of the lovely selvage down the center of the petersham to mimic a striped ribbon.

And then I remembered my awesome ribbon. The colors and the mirrors are really special. It almost looks like a belt to me.

To sew it on, I pressed 5/8” of the raw edge of the skirt towards the right side. Then I sewed on the ribbon just overlapping the top edge. Because of the mirrors, a zipper foot is the best choice. It took a little more effort to align the top edges at the invisible zipper. First I had to remove a mirror from each side, then wrap the ribbon around to the back. Some careful stitching, unstitching, restitching happened before I got the edges to line up perfectly. I finished it off with a large hook and eye.

I'm really loving all three of these pieces. That I can add them into the mix with the rest of my wardrobe like this RTW tee is even better. Hopefully I'll be able to layer them up for another month when the cool wind starts blowing!

Have a wonderful rest of your August!

~Elizabeth from Elizabeth Made This

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