A Boho Skirt

I wore my pinstripe denim skirt to work a couple of weeks ago and I decided that I needed a Boho Gathered Skirt. 'Cause like Marcy says, the more fabric at the bottom of a skirt the better. Okay I'm paraphrasing but the gist is that I wanted a swishy skirt with a lot of fabric at the bottom of it, too.

I knew that I had Simplicity 4605 in my pattern stash because I'd paired it with a piece of black 'n white seersucker last summer. So I pulled the combination back out figuring it would make a great skirt. Then as I pulled pattern piece after pattern piece out of the envelope, I realized why I hadn't made the skirt last summer...there were too many dayum pattern pieces to make a simple boho skirt!

So I ditched that pattern but kept my fabric and tried to figure out what I wanted.  This is what I came up with...

Notice that remote in my hand -

that means I took all of my own pictures for this post!

Supplies ~

• 3 yards of a black/white plaid/print seersucker purchased from Fabric Mart last summer
• 1" non-roll elastic
• Waxed dental floss for gathering the tiers 

Now before I get into the construction of the skirt, can I say that I made a couple of these at 17 in the 70s and I remembered why I only made one or two...all that dayum gathering!  Seriously...too...much...gathering!

Cutting and Construction ~
My first challenge was how to get the skirt I saw in my head. I knew I didn't want a bunch of tiers - they wouldn't work with my fabric. I also wasn't sure if I wanted a maxi length or a midi length. I decided to let the fabric and the tiers work for me.

Finally I decided to use my TNT flare skirt pattern to get the skirt I was seeing in my mind.  The pattern I used to make this skirt. I cut the fabric for the skirt so that it ended at my knee. 

1. Then I measured to the floor and divided that number in half to get 2 panels. 2. It worked out that each panel measured 10" wide. 
3. Because I knew the bottom 2 tiers should be wider than the skirt bottom, I cut 3 panels for the first tier and 4 for the second.

Now came the hard part - gathering those two tiers so that they would fit the skirt. Honestly, this was the longest part of making the skirt. After discussing with Gaylen, the best ways to gather the skirt, I went with the dental floss method.  But not before checking to make sure that I didn't have a gathering foot for my serger - no - but I'm going to rectify that with a quickness!

Applying the dental floss with a zigzag stitch (3 width/3 length setting) was easier than I thought it would be. I did have to sew slowly and try to be precise but it wasn't difficult. Would definitely recommend this method if your sewing machine or serger doesn't have a gathering foot.  One tip though - I pulled the floss a little every couple of inches to make sure that I wasn't catching it in the stitching.

Adding the dental floss was the easy part, now pulling the floss to gather the skirt was another story. It took several days to do each tier (because I did them after work each evening) and apply it to the skirt. Halfway through I thought that I'd made a mess of the skirt but I preserved and I love my new skirt. Seriously...love...my...new...skirt!

A few pictures ~

Worn with a cardigan ~

Conclusion ~
When I first wrote this post, I was determined that I would not make another one. These were the reasons why - one because it was just too much gathering and pulling for a simple skirt. Two because it's such a distinctive skirt, that I just don't need another one.  And three, it's finally summer here and I have so many things that I want to sew that I'm not sure I want to make another one.

Wearing it to the Vlisco Exhibit

However, I've worn this skirt twice since making it and it's so fun and easy to wear! I've gotten several compliments on it and while it's a dressier look for my office, I felt like I fit in. So I may make another one, now that I know what it takes to get it done! *LOL*

I'm ending with as twirly a shot as I could get taking my own pictures!

  

...as always more later!