Miracle Skirt Basics - Pattern #1

The finished skirt striaght and ruched up with drawstrings showing a bit of a red calico pettycoat.

I made this item for Cindy's character for the play, "Into The Woods" . It turned out super so I thought I'd give a mini-tute on how to make one for yourself. The drawstrings are sewn into channels that cover every seam in this gored skirt giving you lots of options.

It can be bustled for an 1890s look, pulled up on just the sides and worn with hip pillows for a paniered look of the 1700s, scallop it all the way around for a Civil War ball skirt, or draw it up on just one side for a wench or lady pirate look. The length is up to you.

This one is just about ankle length, but shorter versions make up just as well as overskirts for Renaissance gowns or dance.

Depending on your fabric choices, you could also use this for a belly dance piece if built in a sheer chiffon worn with or without dance pants and a choli.

1. This example is for a 38" long skirt. Panels are 42" long with hem allowance and a bit over 3" for the waist elastic casing.

First, you need to put together your gored skirt. I do this my old tried and true method with minimum to no waste. Yay Green Sewing! Measure from your waist to the desired hem length of your finished skirt and add 5/8" for seam allowances top and bottom, plus enough for fold over casings in waist if you're going to have an elastic waist in a self casing. Three inches at the top is a good number for an elastic waist with self casing. It gives you a 5/8" seam and a roomy casing which can be stabilized by sewing close to the fold at the top before you insert your elastic.

Fold your goods lengthwise to this measurement, folding it accordion style until you have the number of panels you want. Four double folds or panels as the fabric is cut off the bolt will give you a super hem sweep. Add a few more panels for a ridiculously full skirt or less for a more tame version.

Here's where that math you learned in school comes in. Measure your waist and add six inches for wearing ease for a skirt with a fitted waistband. For a fuller waisted skirt either gathered into a waistband or with a fold over casing with elastic, take your waist plus the six inches wearing ease and double it.

Whichever figure you end up with will be divided by the number of panels or gores you'll have doubled. This will be the size of the smallest end of the folds in my cutting diagram in the next step.

Example: Say your waist is thirty inches. With wearing ease, that measurement will be 36". You've made four folds or panels in your 45" fabric. That will give you 8 layers of fabric because each panel is doubled as it comes off the bolt folded in half down the center of the cloth.

2. This diagram shows how your panels will stack up and where your cutting lines should be.

So you double your folds for the two layers of cloth for each fold, which would be 8 waist ends and 8 hem ends on each crosswise edge and divide your waist measurement by 8. (30" waist plus 6" ease or 36: / 16 layers of cloth or 8 panels = 2.25"). Add 1/2" to this measurement and round it to the next closest number. In the case of a 30" waist, that will be 3". This allows for a gore seam to be sewn.

3. Diagram 3 shows folded panels ready to cut.

If you're going to finish the waist edge with a self casing, your turning over and sewing will be easier if you cut down straight for the first 3 plus about 3/8" before you angle down to the bottom. Be sure you cut both waist and hem edges your 3 3/8" on both sides and then cut a straight line from the bottoms of these points.

To get a straight edge and take the guessing out of the side seam cutting lines, I make one more fold and use it to guide me when I cut the gores as above.

Sew your panels together from the bottom to top. Press straight grain seams with selvedge edges together open and serge or finish the edges on a bias angle and press towards the selvedge seams. Now you sew 5/8" bias casing along each seam turning hem edges under.

4. Gores sewn, seams finished and pressed, casings sewn in. Center casing before drawstrings pulled through.

5. Bottoms of the casing channels with drawstrings pulled through and knotted at hem edge.

6. Picture of drawstrings at waist edge opening pinned, and ready to be sewn.

Use a safety pin to thread narrow drawstrings or braid through your casings leaving a 6" tail. Pin the other ends at waist end and secure with straight stitching. Cotton or string with a tooth will work better than silky cords or ribbons which have a tendency to slip.

Now your ready to play! Try on your skirt and start pulling some strings!

7. Skirt hem pulled up just a bit for a peek at an underskirt or pettycoat.

(**This is the start of what I hope will be a regular series of patterns for simple garments that are the basic building blocks of what I do. I've come full circle after 45 years of building with lint. I've learned that the simplist cuts and most economic lines are the best - just as our ancestors did because of the scarcity and value of cloth.

If there's a particular item you'd like me to address, let me know.)

Tiara Under the Dog Star. Seriously

Tiara BC (Before Combs)

Tiara Finished. I think.

I've been dog sitting Martha and Jim Marshall's three dogs and two cats. Got some Sirius beading and sewing done under their watchful eye. Pieced together two of the four skirts I have for the play. Even cut out a big surprise for Cindy and a petticoat for Sky.

I was tempted to add more - some droplets above the tiara - but it's saying no, so I've stopped for the moment and will watch it to see if it barks. Did some fill in between the swirls to tighten up the design. Bought a ton more crystals and beads since I ran out, and the two tiara combs to hold it in place. Cindy will kill me when she sees how much I spent in OTHER beads, but I'm trying to spoil her and stock up while I'm able to see the eye of the needle.

I decided to shape it slightly like a Russian diadem pushing the center of the beaded net inward and bending the beaded caps at the top outward. Looking at the finished picture of it, I see some spaces that call for a few more beads, which I will add after I finish with the day's sewing.

I'm pleased with it. It conforms very to the shape of the sketch I did on the edge of a newspaper and is light and airy enough to be sure that Sky is comfortable without having to have a stage hand prop her head up as she does her lines.

A continuation of the casual style tute:

Leave the last 2 or so inches of your frame without fill wires. Position your combs (can be purchased or made with elongated bent wire loops wrapped at the top and secured to a length of bar metal or several head pins wrapped together).

You'll use 26 gauge wire to wrap the combs securing the bar between your base frame. Bend your ends in at the finish and tuck inside the wrapping. You can also string crystals or beads on the wrapping gauge to position on the front side of your tiara as I've done.

Shape your tiara with gentle pressure and you're finished! Wor-lah!

I showed the finished product to Reno, Abby, Boomer and cats Balentine and Blueberry Marshall as I enjoyed my work and a well earned glass of Marty's house merlot. They were interested in it with what I assumed was real interest, but then they reminded me that it was dinnertime. Sigh.

A nice thing about being a dog is that you don't have to load up several bags when you leave to go somewhere and need to take your work with you. It's all there. Built in.

Bind Your Own Books!

I think this is an avenue to explore for artists. What if you could make your own books - say bound copies of your artwork to hand to a prospective client or gallery? What about selling hand-made one of a kind books in limited editions? Or how about making your grandchildren their own coloring books with pictures they've drawn, photos of themselves or fun vacations using black and white copies with a bit of Photo Shopping to manipulate out large blocks of pattern so they can add their own?

Can't find the author of this video or his site, DIY Bookbinding. If I find his name, I'd like to credit him and direct traffic to his site. In the meantime, use the link above.

Let me know what you make with this technique. I'll feature you and your project.

Tessie's Costume From Gypsy: Hunting and Gathering

So. I'm retired. But I do take on the occasional project for one of my own. My own this time is friend Cynthia Miller-Ray. She's playing Tessie for all she's worth in a community production of 'Gypsy'. Would I make her costume? Absolutely. Said Southern style as I've said before....'Has a cat got an arse?"

So. What does a costumer go through when you take on a project?

1. Step 1: Concept and Design. Here you study your character and discuss it with the director, stage manager, property and scene people and your actor. Who are they? What do they do in the production? Does their role have any special requirements like acrobatics, dancing, rigorous fighting? What colors or lighting effects do you have in your background? Should they stand out as a principal player or recede into the background as an extra? Think Meg Ryan in the red dress in a city street full of gray pinstripes and sensible shoe clad business women. You come up with sketches or mock ups and hash them over with your director, production staff and actors. Cindy approves my rough sketch. We've decided to stick with Tessie's 'Gotta Have A Gimmick' butterfly concept with wings, a body suit, headpiece with antennae and appliques in the fig leaf places.


2. When the costume has been approved, you begin hunting down the basic ingredients of what you'll need to build the costume. In Cindy's case, I won't have to go through a huge amount of revisions, matching fabrics and colors with backdrops and pleasing the other production staff members. She trusts me and we've worked together for years so I know her style, what colors are good with her Titian coloring, turquoise eyes, and Amazon tall frame. We don't have to please any directors or scenery people in this case - one of the lovely things about working community theater rather than equity productions. They're mainly just tickled to have someone doing the chore for them.


3. I hunt on eBay, the Internet, Etsy, through my own stash of fabric, for some baubles and trim. I make sure Cindy stands out in the crowd so I like to lavish on the glitz whenever I can. When we gather all our materials together we've got: About 2 pounds of various beads, rhinestones with rim sets, holographic textile glitter, stud sets and crystal in teal, purples and violets, and AB golds - thank you eBay sellers. We have an airbrush and propellant from Dick Blick so I can paint the wings and the skirts of her costume with butterfly markings along with basic paints to mix colors with and metallics in copper, gold and silver to highlight the markings. Two wooden dowels from the local crafts department are to channel into the upper edges of the wings so that she can 'fly' them. We got 12 yards of silk gauze for wings and skirts from Dharma Trading Company. And there's gorgeous oriental brocade in a purple with woven silk butterflies for a kimono from Joanne's fabrics. Her body suit is of a nude stretch net which will blend with her skin tone once it's all together.

Next we'll get on with construction. Stay tuned. Oh. And part three of the how-to tute is coming after I get up enough nerve to tackle the camera and construction again in a few days!

(Note: The pic above shows from left to right, top to bottom, sort of: Purple kimono brocade with embroidered butterflies, sketchbook, just above that the white silk gauze, to the immediate right of the silk, the basic airbrush colors plus opaque white and black, to the right of the basic airbrush colors is the beige power net. Just below the silk fabric, basic paints and power net are the two dowels for her wings, the bead assortment in the clear bead box, and Czech crystal heat set rhinestones and the boxes of rim set crystals. In the box on the upper right is the single action airbrush and components, CFS free propellant, metallic colors, and heavy grip textile glue.)

Part Two Small Quilted Wallhanging Tutorial

I have a small fold at the top of my piece with a fabric header above it for visual interest. You don't have to use bias as I have. A different texture fabric than your main embellished layer would add a tactile element to your finished work. If you don't want to add a header, skip steps through and baste around the edges of the four layers.

5. Below, you can see I've folded down the beaded top and pinned a piece of 1 1/4" wide bias tape right side down towards the interfacing and batting.

6. The bias is dropped from the top edge about 5/8" to 1". Use a running stitch through all layers backstitching every few stitches to anchor your work.

The red dashes below shows stitch placement.

7. The bias is dropped so that when you fold it back and pin it, the top edge of the bias or fabric is even with the top of your batting, interfacing and backing. Baste the bias at the top together through the batting and backing.




8. When you turn the edge of your cuff back, you'll stitch through the bias just above the bottom fold for a clean edge and no inner layers showing.


9. The picture below shows the stitches hidden under the fold.

Part One Small Quilted Wallhanging Tutorial

This is a tutorial on how to make a small quilted and embellished wallhanging like those in my New Orleans Blues Fetish series listed on Etsy.com. These small pieces are wonderful to brighten up a narrow wall space or hung in clusters.





1. Start your piece with a 4 1/2" X 6 1/2" top. I recommend using a sturdy fabric that can stand up to the weight of your embellishment and hold its shape after quilting. Your top can be pieced, embellished with beads or gemstones or collaged with fabric scraps, lace and ribbon. The first picture above shows the beaded piece ready to be quilted.


2. After your top is ready, cut a fabric backing, batting and interfacing the same size as your top as in picture 2 just below.



3. You'll stack your work with a layer of sew-in interfacing, batting and backing under it. The interfacing under the embellished layer doesn't show up well in the third picture. It's the edge of white just under the beaded top. Don't worry if your layers aren't exactly the same. You'll trim off the extra after they're all basted together.



4. Once together, pin the different layers together starting with the center and working towards the edges smoothing your layers as you pin.