Thursday, September 12, 2013

Jersey Gored Skirt: Alabama Chanin Pattern

A quick photo for you of the simple skirt I made.  I'm no seamstress mind you, I'm really just a wandering quilter looking for another hand applique outlet.

It's from the Alabama Chanin Gored Skirt pattern in the book called Alabama Studio Style, p101.

When the skirt is dirty, I find myself willing to do laundry just to get to this garment again.  I'm thinking a 2nd one is in my future.

The instructions in the book is to do everything by hand.

I wanted to follow the instructions, but you know...I've never been one to follow the rules.

The important part of sewing jersey on a machine is to get yourself a jersey-friendly ball-tip needle for your machine.  I did that for less that $4 on Amazon.

It worked well, and I used pins when putting the seams together.

The top layer of the garment is black and the bottom layer is a dark charcoal.  I didn't actually have 4 yards of any fabric, so that is why I ended up with 2 colors.  It didn't matter much since it was an experiment anyhow and I was really just making it to see if it would fit.

After it was finished, I put an elastic waistband in using fold over elastic I got from the Alabama Chanin web site.  I also used the felled seam technique, hand sewing to have the excess seam fabric lay flat.  I was not sure if this was a good idea initially but I LOVE the look and will be doing this on all my jersey seams from now on.

I'm thinking of making a more complex project soon.  Something similar to the skirt made by Bowersette of the From These Hands blog, perhaps. 

Until I get more than 5 minutes to rub together, it looks like I'll be washing (and re-washing!) this skirt.

3 comments:

Jamii said...

This piece of clothing has become so popular (and rightly so!) that it is now known affectionately as "skirt" around the house...

I think I need to buy you some more fabric to make another my dear!

Jane W. said...

Lovely! I so enjoy your AC posts--keep 'em coming!

I've made two "test" corsets out of recycled tees from Goodwill and am ready to get started on the real deal.

As a former appliquer my stitches are pretty small, but I'm still nervous about how they'd hold up over the long term. I was thinking of doing exactly what you did--machine stitching for construction, and flat-felling/embellishing by hand.

pamela said...

That tears it. I've been wanting to make an Alabama Chanin inspired skirt. Now I've got my stash of gently used tees in a heap on the studio floor, and my AC books in my lap as I type.