Wednesday, November 11, 2009

project: victorian wallpaper skirt

my latest project was the revamping of a skirt that i found at a stoop sale a few weeks ago. the fabric was so beautiful, like the wallpaper that would be hung in a very fancy house. unfortunately, this was how the skirt fit...like a big, long, frumpy sack.



to change the fit, i needed to add some darts. i wanted the front of the skirt to remain flat with no darts, and the zipper was in one of the side seams, so all of the fitting had to be done in 2 huge darts in the back. since i was going for the easy-fix on this one, i didn't mind that the side seams no longer are at my sides.

next, i chopped off about 5 inches from the bottom and baby-hemmed the lining and the skirt all at once. yes, not the best, but it was really quick and doesn't look bad.



with the extra fabric i chopped off, i made an extra long tie-belt backed with the extra lining from the skirt. i would have preferred if the belt was wider, but i wouldn't have much of a skirt left.

and here's how it turned out...



overall, i'm pretty happy with the new skirt. but, i have to admit that i did almost all of these alterations late last night half-awake and there's still a bunch of little things left to do (including a gaping hole in my tie-belt! oh no!). but that was no reason to not wear this new skirt today.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That skirt looks amazing! You are a wonder with the stitches, miss.

Tracy said...

VERY smart makeover--very impressive how simple shaping can make a huge change! LOVE the "wallpaper" fabric and that tie at the waist. Super! :o)

. said...

The material's beautiful and the sash is perfect!

meghanaf said...

Wow this is so lovely - completely different skirt!