Stash Wars

I would so love to have a new skirt for spring, but as I am a size 24 with an ample belly and almost no hip curve, commercial clothes never really fit me. Unfortunately, the same holds true for commercial sewing patterns, for exactly the same reasons. So I decided to take a different approach: Instead of buying a pattern and then altering it until hardly anything is left of the original, I am going to make my own pattern. Actually, what I really thought was: “I am simply going to make my own pattern.” Famous last words…

Yesterday I spent the afternoon following the instructions for creating a skirt block in The Costume Technician’s Handbook.

First I made a draft

then a paper pattern

and a mock-up

only to find that I completely misjudged the positioning of the side seams, which are almost an inch further back than they should be. The upside: Apart from the side seam issue the skirt block fits nicely, so the next version should be fine.