I made a skirt which I drafted myself – yay! I will say at the outset that I like this skirt much better in real life than in these photos.

I had this piece of viscose/spandex in my stash and there was too much to make a regular skirt and not enough to make a dress. It’s drapey and light, so I was a bit limited in what I could make.  I used to have a RTW version of this skirt which I never wore (not once!) and gave away, but it’s been on my mind because I finally worked out that its problem was that it was too big for me I thought I might be able to pull it off if it was shorter than the original. Although it’s still probably a bit long, I am pleased with the execution. I have to apologise for some of the grainy photos, I took them at night.

It can be draped in different ways. First up – wrapped at the front with the tie at the back. The back is plain and straight.

Then I turned it round so the plain part of the skirt and the tie were at the front. I was so unhappy with the quality of my first lot of photos that I did two more photo shoots, to see if I could improve things – the joys of not working :). Don’t look at my caterpillar sides!

the wrap part and the split are now at the back and this is possibly my least favourite version.

The last way of wearing the skirt is with the wrap and the split at the side

either side will do! The other thing to note is that the ties cross over and you get a different look depending on which way you cross them.

This skirt took me quite a long time to draw, but about 40 minutes to make on the overlocker. All the edges are coverstitched. I wore it to Bridgette’s graduation and it was so comfortable. I shall be making more of these if I can find the right material in my stash. I realised afterwards that I bought this fabric to make a Nettie bodysuit. This is the second time I’ve used my Nettie fabric for other things, grrr!

This is what the pattern looks like. It’s basically a rectangle for the skirt and then a long tie piece.

Both sides are the same. The skirt is cut on the fold and there is one seam – easy peasy! You do need quite wide fabric. This fabric is a two-way stretch, so I could cut the skirt on either grain and still have stretch around my body. This is useful because you basically need to double your hip measurement, add ease (I added 8cms) and then add a bit extra to tie the wrap part, which takes quite a lot of fabric and if you don’t have two way stretch you will need wide fabric. The top is the widest part and then it tapers down to the hips and goes straight. The length of the split is optional and I went for what I thought was quite modest – not sure it was quite as modest when I sat down though!

A quick demo of the tying as it might help it make more sense – two long ends stretched out together in whichever direction you want to tie.

A quick wrap around

and then tied in the opposite direction

I called this a faux wrap skirt because only the top wraps, unlike my other wrap skirt where the whole thing wraps, but I feel as though it has a bit of a Grecian feel as well. I think I’ll get a bit of wear out of this, but finding tops to go with it is a bit of a challenge – I might just have to make a few 🙂

Details: self-drafted pattern made from viscose blend. The tops are: Bluegingerdoll Bonnie, Red Leopard Nettie and my tie dyed Bronte refashioned top . Shoes are Neo from Zomp, Claremont and Reikers from Upsala, Sweden.