Sewing tutorial: How to personalize an A-line Skirt

 

Hello there,

Thank you for visiting On the Cutting Floor today.  This post is a Sewing tutorial: How to personalize an A-line Skirt

If this is your first time in our blog, please feel free to check on the PDF sewing patterns page for free sewing patterns and tutorials.  You might also like to visit the REVIEWS section or the SEWING TUTORIALS for a few fun projects.

The post today was contributed by Vicky at VickyMyersCreations.com

So here it is!  Enjoy.

Have fun making yourself an a line skirt. They flatter most figures, adding a sense of a waist to boyfriend figures, emphasising narrow waists and flatters larger hips. A line skirts are so versatile – perfect for any season (with or without tights and boots) and most occasions. Wear them to work or out for a meal.

My cotton skirt is made from a fabric off cut I bought a couple of years ago from a lady who was destashing. I love the colour. To make the skirt I followed On The Cutting Floor’s self draft pattern instructions which you can find here.

The fun part came to the hand and machine embroidery. It is so easy to make the skirt individual, to embroider a design which is important to you. Personally I have many happy memories of time spent along the coast this summer. These memories are symbolised by the image of cow parsley blowing in the breeze, a great inspiration for embroidering the skirt.

Sewing tutorial: How to personalize an A-line Skirt

The stems are machine stitched with the seeds represented by French knots. Have you hand embroidered a garment before? Not sure which stitches to try – this a great link for some hand embroidery stitches to get you started.

To make this A line skirt firstly sew up the skirt except the hem. If you are new to sewing A line skirts check out my blog post on how to sew it up.

Once you have your basic skirt the fun of decorating with embroidery begins.

Create a sampler – draw part of your design and experiment with stitches. Initially I started with two lines of machine stitching for the stems and one French knot. As result of the sampler I switched to four lines of machine stitching and three French knots per stem.

Working a sampler first enables you to double check your tension. It is essential to have the correct tension for your sewing machine otherwise the skirt will not hang correctly.

Sketch out your design with tailors chalk onto the skirt. Machine stitch the stems.

Have you made a French knot before? Wrap the thread three times around the needle, then return the needle through to the wrong side of the fabric ensuring you keep the thread nice and tight. The twists will turn into a knot.

Image hand embroider french knot

To iron a skirt with hand stitching turn the skirt inside out. Place over a towel on your ironing board and press. The towel will add a little give which will prevent the ironing process flattening your beautiful hand stitching.

There you have it a completely unique flattering skirt:)