Handmade Christmas Party Skirt

HAPPY DECEMBER EVERYONE! Aka the best month ever!

This year I decided to take on the challenge of making my Christmas party outfit. This was partly driven by my new found love of sewing and partly by the fact I moved to London at the beginning of the year and it is SO EXPENSIVE! I couldn’t really justify buying a new dress when I have so many just sitting in my wardrobe but somehow making an outfit was perfectly acceptable. After all, then I’m using my time and money on learning a new skill so it is basically education, right?

I started off thinking I’d refashion a summer dress I have into a winter appropriate one but then I saw the most amazing fabric in the world on The Fabric Godmother’s Instagram and got all the heart eyes. I mean… would you look at it!

I bought a metre of this and decided to whip it up into a simple midi skirt. I just cut it in half lengthways and sewed it up both sides to make a tube.

Next, I hemmed it. I folded the hem over twice so it would look neat but the fabric was too slippery to stay so I folded it once, stitched it in place, then repeated that step. As the skirt is pleated and I used a small, straight stitch it has a wavy edge to it which I absolutely love. It makes it so swishy!

Finally, I made a channel at the waist for the elastic, leaving a small gap at one end. I pinned a safety pin to one end of the elastic and used this to push the elastic through the channel. Once it was through I trimmed it to size, sewed it together and stitched up the hole.

One thing I loved about this fabric is it is actually not as tricky to sew as I thought it would be. Even though it is slippery, the pleats are a really good visual guide to check if you are going off piste. When I was hemming I made sure the pleats were lined up so I wouldn’t end up with a wonky hem.

There you have it. The simplest skirt ever which is perfect for the party season. All the items I used are from Fabric Godmother and with postage it came to around £13. Even Scrooge wouldn’t say Bah humbug to that!