Who doesn’t love a ruffle?!

I’m so excited about this skirt! I had this Amy Butler fabric that hadn’t yet been made into a tablecloth or napkins, and I thought it would make a nice skirt. I was imagining an A-line skirt, but wanted it to be somewhat more interesting than just a straight skirt. I decided to try a ruffle on the bottom. As you may already know, I am new to sewing, and consequently don’t know the correct way to execute these techniques. No problem, I’ll just fake it! I made the ruffle by sewing together three long strips of the same fabric used for the skirt. It was about 2 1/2 wide, and I just guessed at the length. I wasn’t able to create the ruffle using the machine because I couldn’t find a long enough stitch, so instead I did it by hand. I folded the material in half lengthwise and then used a long running stitch.

Once I had it ruffled up the way I wanted, I pinned it to the front of the dress and then sewed that to the bottom of the skirt. Once again, my machine didn’t seem too happy to have to sew through so many layers of fabric, so I was back to hand turning it and pushing the fabric through (a tedious process, but luckily worth it in the end!). I wanted to be able to see the edge of the ruffle, so I purposely sewed it to the front of the skirt.

I also opted for an elastic waistband in this one – I admit that it would appear more finished and professional if I had used a zipper, but I’m all for comfort. Does it mean I have given up? No indeed. Giving up is elastic waisted sweatpants… when I start sewing those, then you can give me a hard time!

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My version of the Amy Butler Barcelona Skirt

I thought I’d give it another go, this time with a skirt. I have to call it ‘my version of the Amy Butler skirt’, since I made it without the pattern. (I was feeling kind of cheap, and decided against buying the pattern.) I had seen a couple pictures of a few of these skirts finished, and decided I’d just cut some pieces and see how it worked out. I used Amy Butler fabric for this skirt – Okra Eyelashes. I never liked the look of this pattern online, but I found it in a local fabric store and decided it was much better in person. Plus, I thought that the random pattern would be good so I could avoid having to line up the pattern for the different layers of the skirt.

Amy Butler Barcelona skirt

The middle picture above shows one of the layers – I should have sewn closer to the cut edge so it wouldn’t fray as much. It will be interesting to see how it ends up after a washing. Overall, I’m happy with this skirt, and would probably consider making it again with a different fabric. It completely slipped my mind to line this one, which I’d probably want to do on the next. I did have a chance to wear it yesterday, and even though it turns out it’s still too big, I didn’t see anyone turning and pointing, so that’s a good sign!

I’m working on a ruffled A-line skirt now in Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower in mustard, and I hope to have pictures to post tomorrow!


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I made a dress!

I impressed myself and actually managed to create a garment! As I was afraid of though, everything worked out and it even fits me, which is great… the unfortunate part is that I really haven’t warmed up any to that fabric I used. Morgan noted that it is flesh colored, and says that from a distance, it could look like I’m not wearing anything… so not the look I was going for!

Handmade dress

As you’ll see though, I think I did manage to create this dress along the lines of the shirt I showed in the last post. The pleats/ruffles that I made are certainly not as even, but somehow still work. I decided not to hem each ruffle layer and instead just stitched along the bottom and let it fray, a la the Amy Butler Barcelona skirt.

Top of dressRuffles a la Amy Butler Barcelona skirt

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