On my first trip to Japan I made a small pilgrimage to the Nani Iro store. I had my heart set on a wave print for a waterproof coat (maybe with a large skirt attached). But, I came away with 3m of the Five Senses blue print on canvas. I was looking for a slightly different print with more pronounced brush strokes, but I couldn't find it on the day and so I came home with this. The Five Senses print stayed in my stash cupboard for over 2 years while I tried to work out what to do with it. Eventually on the 2019 August Bank Holiday I dragged it out and was determined to make something with it.
My brain was slightly fried at the time and I wasn't up to following a pattern, so the make had to be relatively simple and have relatively simple pattern pieces. I settled on a pleated rectangle midi skirt. The straight hem edge would show off the border print, the rectangular pattern pieces would give me a low waste cutting layout and the repetitive pleating would soothe my tired brain. If you're curious about the length, I am slightly in love with the Japanese fashion for skirts that fall below the knee.
So this skirt is made of the following pieces:
1x Front
2x Back
2x Inseam pockets (2 pieces each)
1x Lining
1x Waistband
I dithered a lot on whether the outer skirt should be 1 piece or 3, but in the end the 3-piece approach won. I knew I wanted pockets and a CB invisible zip and it seemed much easier to insert them into seams compared to the slashing/facing approach. The lining is only one piece, and has a seam at CB to accommodate the zip.
To retain the flow of the print (not quite pattern matching, but similar) I marked the centre of the fabric and used that as the Centre Front. The side/back panels are essentially cut off each end of the fabric. It looks alright. I don't really remember construction but I think I pleated each piece first, then inserted the pockets, then sorted out the seams. All the pleating was done with a fork at the machine (somewhere between 3:1 and 4:1 ratio). I think maybe the pleats would look better if they were a bit bigger/wider, but I only really have a limited selection of forks.
I used the selvedge to hem the lining and bias tape on the outer hem. The seams are French-seamed.
The waistband is pretty poor, but it does the job. I wanted a soft waistband, so there's no interfacing but now it twists a bit. I also wanted to do something clever and insert a partial elastic to allow for some sizing flexibility - but it doesn't look great. I will need to try again on something else. Oh, and my topstitching/stitching in the ditch leaves a lot to be desired here.
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| Side seam (I promise) with nothing in the pocket |
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| Side seam. Proving there is a pocket! |
K
