Reversible 7-Gore Skirt

Hey! It's Shams of Communing with Fabric with another garment made from a beautiful Britex fabric!

For this project, my assignment was to choose a fabric from the Knits category. I quickly settled on this beautiful double-sided ponte made from cotton, polyester, and lycra.

Reversible Black and Cardinal Red Cotton Blend Knit Fabric Click the image to see this fabric on the Britex site. It's also available in sky blue (Note that some of the photos show this fabric as a bright red, but it's actually a heathered red in real life)

This fabric is wonderful! It has more drape than some of its stiffer ponte cousins. It feels like a rayon and I was surprised to learn that it contains cotton, but no rayon. It is beefy, so it hangs nicely, but it's also a bit "sproingy". It presses beautifully. I threw it into the washer and dryer before cutting and it looked just the same afterwards. I didn't measure to determine the amount of shrinkage, but I suspect that it shrank a bit.

I wanted to feature both sides of the fabric and I seriously dithered about how to use it. I was torn between a top and a skirt and I knew exactly how I wanted to make each but, in the end, the skirt won out. I drafted a 7-gore skirt. Why 7 gores? I find the asymmetry of an uneven number of gores aesthetically pleasing.

In order to use both sides of the fabric, I drafted the pattern with 1" seam allowances and a 1" hem. The only exception was the waist seam, which has a 1/2" seam allowance.

I sewed the 1" seams with the black side facing the black side. I decided to funk it up by constructing it in a car wash style so I sewed each gore 15" down from the waist, and left the rest of the seam unsewn.

I turned each seam allowance and hem segment to the red side and folded it under, turning the 1" seam allowance into a 1/2" trim. I secured each seam allowance, individually, to the red side by hand. You could do this by machine, but I like the effect of hand sewing—I have more control.

As part of this process, I mitered all 14 corners at the hemline. Mitering is important to minimize the bulk that would result if you merely turned up the trim on each edge.

An advantage of such a clean finish is that the skirt is fully reversible! The red side features black trim, and the black side is solid black.

It might be summer elsewhere, but when I took these pics this morning it was 50°F, windy, foggy, wet, drippy, and misty. In short, it was COLD and more like winter weather than summer weather!

I didn't include a pic of the waistband, and I never tuck a top, but I attached a casing for elastic using the black side of the fabric. Because of the car wash effect, both sides flash the reverse color as I move.

This skirt is a lot of fun to wear!

After taking some pics, I ran to the grocery store with DD2. I often seem to debut my new clothes at the grocery store! My goofball (a.k.a. DD2) took a break from Pokemon Go to take some pics, including the following selfie, as I stood in line to pay:

Thanks to Britex for providing the fabric! I like it so much that I may buy more to make the top that's still in my head.

Please join me on Patti's Visible Monday!