Pig Skirt

I’ve just completed my first attempt at a rectangle skirt.

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For my first attempt at a rectangle skirt, I returned to Angela Clayton’s YouTube channel and watched her rectangle skirt tutorial. It looked like it would give me the same silhouette as a circle skirt does but without the complicated hemming involved.

Angela recommended the rectangle to be 3-4 times my waist measurement. I chose 4 times as I like a fuller skirt which took the measurement I needed to – 304cm. With the fabric I wanted to use, this would have meant the pattern was going the wrong way so I split this measurement up. The width of my fabric was 108cm so I needed 3 panels to get me to the 304cm I needed (plus a little extra for seam allowance and good luck).

I did the same for my lining fabric but this was a little wider at 113cm. I was lazy and didn’t want to cut the fabric (and wanted to use the selvage so I didn’t have to finish the seams) so I attempted to take this out in the seam allowance.

Instead of gathering the fabric at the waistband I used the “fork pleat” tutorial from Bella Mae’s Designs to take out the extra width. I didn’t measure the placement however, and just did it by eye. I don’t think this takes away from the look of the skirt at all, which means I’m one step closer to not being such a perfectionist in everything.

Final Thoughts

Things to improve

Although it was easier to hem a rectangle, things didn’t go exactly to plan. I mentioned that my lining fabric was wider than the fashion fabric, and although I tried to take the extra width out in the seam allowance, I clearly can’t maths properly which led to some problems at the hem.

This might have happened anyway, I tried bag hemming and perhaps this issue happens with that technique. Or maybe the material was stretchier?

I’m not sure if it would have helped, but if I stopped being so lazy and basted the fabric together, maybe this would have turned out a bit better.

Things I don’t like

With all the pleats, it’s really hard to find the pockets!

There’s just something not quite right with the silhouette for my liking. Perhaps I’m just looking for issues, but it doesn’t seem to be as flattering as a circle skirt.

Things I like

The inside of the skirt is pretty neat and tidy. The pockets are bound with bias-binding, none of the pleats were sewn to the waistband in a weird way, and the zip has gone in fine too.

The pigs are super cute – and I have enough fabric left to make a matching bag if I want to (this was what I bought the fabric for originally).

Next Project

I’ll be making a chequered dress out of some curtains that a work colleague gave to me for practice.

It’s a pattern I’ve not used, so I’ll need to make a mock-up first – especially as the bodice is quite fitted and uses princess seams which I’ve not worked with before.