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Broadcast Skirt

Somehow within my busy week, I still found time for another Manic Pop original sample garment. I spent all day Thursday working on patterns and then sewing this skirt which is really just a practice of me making side seam inside pockets (complete success.) It's good to work on your skills from time to time. To clarify: Patterns took about an hour to make, cutting/sewing took about 4-5.


I wanted to take photos outside, but Chicago weather is NOT cooperating yet again! It's only about 60F out there and rainy. (About 16C for you Celsius peeps.) :)
 
Facing and all!

I did run into a few minor problems with this skirt - obviously, because I didn't make a muslin and I didn't take certain things into consideration. I think this skirt makes me look slightly wider than I actually am, mostly because I didn't take the time to play with the shape of the skirt pattern, I just used my regular ol' skirt block. That's my own dumb fault.

Another thing! I noticed after I took the photos of the skirt already made that I put the colors in the wrong order I had them originally set up as seen in a photo on my Instagram account. The teal would have made so much more sense on both sides. Ah well.


This skirt is very loosely based off of inspiration from a test pattern on a television, hence the name "Broadcast Skirt".  I don't know why a test pattern popped into my head, but it did. A fun, simple skirt.

Another minor problem I ran into is the circular-ness of my front design, which is essentially stitched on not unlike an applique, first sewing the strips together then sewing the rounded edges. I tried clipping the curves on the underside seam allowance, yet the curve is still a little pointy. I pressed a ton, re-stitched a ton but this is the best curve I could get on all of that. There must be an easier way I'm unaware of as I definitely don't know everything. I don't think people will be scrutinizing it that bad if I wear this skirt out of the house. If they are? Fuck'em. I made it.

 


I also made a seam binding for the inside of the skirt, using leftover ribbon I had from the Mod Acid Dress.Dummy me also used a regular zipper for the center back in this skirt. Why? Because that's what happens to be in my stash. Someone recently asked why not just use invisible zippers? They are totally right! On this skirt, I had to resort to hand-stitching the zipper because the brown fabric was stretchier than I realized and couldn't get a non-wobbly zipper flap. Ugh!

So a simple skirt turned out to be way more involved than it should have been, but I learned a bit to take into new projects!


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Comments

  1. CatherineMay 27, 2013 at 3:50 PM

    Great skirt! I love the name and I immediately though that you'd named if after the test pattern! As you mentioned you had a problem with the roundness of your stripes, perhaps you can stitch a line of basting around the circle edge and then pull the thread until it all gathered up and made a nice round shape? Kind of like on a patch pocket? I'm not sure it if that would work? This is the best example I could find (there's a better example the the sewing book I use. I could scan and send it?) http://www.getcreativeshow.com/crafting_sewing_conference_center/craft_sewing_seminars/patchpockets.htm

    I hope that technique works!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Manic PopMay 27, 2013 at 8:44 PM

      Yeah, great idea! Sounds like it would work. I had the thought that a basting stitch might help it out somehow, but didn't know in which way. Thanks again for the tips!

      Delete
  2. MarieBayAreaMay 27, 2013 at 11:19 PM

    Really cute skirt. Pairing it with the red hoodie makes you look like a mod Little Red Riding Hood. Just saw your post on Sew Retro and thought yours would be another fabulous blog to follow for retro fashion inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  3. allie J.May 28, 2013 at 7:18 AM

    Casey at Elegant Musings has a trick for making patch pockets that I think will work for your front appliques: http://blog.caseybrowndesigns.com/2010/04/the-secret-to-perfect-patch-pockets/
    nice seam pockets!

    ReplyDelete
  4. sew rachel!May 28, 2013 at 7:12 PM

    Fun skirt, I love your style! I've recently discovered your blog and I love it, so I've nominated you for a Liebster Award. I've just learned about it myself, so I've got info and some questions on my blog sewrachel.blogspot.com Looking forward to seeing new makes from you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Manic PopJune 4, 2013 at 7:20 PM

      Hi and thanks! Made by Meg actually nominated me for one a while back which I did. It's on here somewhere. But thanks again for reading!

      Delete

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