Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Bubble bubble...

...toil and trouble, yada yada yada.

I started setting up an Etsy shop recently (hence the toiling and troubling). One of the things I've considered selling is bubble skirts. Since I don't have a reliable way to serge fabric edges, making a skirt where all the edges are enclosed seems quite appealing. I also wanted to try out just using elastic as a waistband, the way a lot of factory made skirts do now a days. I probably won't do an elastic waist like this for sale - it's not very neat on the inside.

When I started making this I was going to make a dress, but, eh... I tried it on as a skirt and it seemed more versatile so I stopped there.




The skirt looks kind of silly on the inside. The lining is much smaller than the outside layer to create the bubble poof, which coincidentally keeps the skirt from flying up when it's windy. Overall this is super easy to wear because of that, and because the fabric I used has a wrinkled texture. No accidental panty shots and no ironing? Score!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Finally, a reason to finish and wear my disco jumpsuit.

I went to a roller disco themed party the other day. There wasn't really disco music, but that was the theme at least. I learned roller skating is way harder than it looks, but oh well, at least it gave me a reason to finish this jumpsuit that I had started working on a couple years ago. Really, all it needed was hemming... and it just sat in a drawer for years, unfinished, until now, ladies and gentlemen!

I suggest listening to some disco song while reading this post. Here is one to get you started.


Okay, here is my outfit in all its blue polyester glory! (alright, it's pretty plain, shh.)


The fabric is just blue, but the texture is oh so 70s. It's just like some of the vintage clothes I have. The discount fabric store in my area had a bunch of this stuff in lots of colors, and it's super comfortable!



I did use a pattern, but didn't want to do a zipper, so I put shirring in the back, as I usually do. I also added the two skinnier straps in back to keep it up a little better. The pattern was Simplicity 2401. I don't remember if I had any complaints about this pattern - It's been a while, but I think it was pretty straightforward.