Y’all, I don’t know how many times is too many to make the same damn pattern over and over again… but here’s Hollyburn #5. Hahaha.
I am pretty sure I don’t have anything else to say about the making of this pattern, considering I’ve sewn (and posted about) it soo many times. This particular rendition with the wide navy stripes has actually been in the plans since my very first Hollyburn skirt. Ever since I made my solid denim version, I’ve been on the hunt for a good striped fabric to make my dream striped flared skirt. Actually, I think I’ve been on the hunt for that fabric since way before this pattern was a little twinkle in Tasia’s eye. It’s been a couple of years, at least. And yet I’ve never been able to find what I’ve been looking for – medium weight cotton fabric with 1″ wide navy and white stripes – despite all odds being that that should be a common enough fabric. I’ve found similar stuff – but the stripes were too narrow, the wrong color, or the fabric was the wrong weight.
So let me tell you about where I found THIS fabric. Back when I still lived in the ‘burbs in West Nashville (ok, it wasn’t the suburbs because we were like 5 miles from the city, however, it’s more ‘burby than where I am now in the woods of Kingston Springs, so there’s that!), I went to a yard sale at the neighbor’s house 2 doors down. That whole experience was an adventure in itself – the woman living there was in her 90s and had lived in that house since she was 6. SIX!! Oh man, and she had the BEST neighborhood gossip. She also had this amazing little garden paradise of a backyard – all overgrown in the most beautiful way, and totally private and lush and green and dammit I was so jealous of that garden. AND she told me a bunch of ghost stories. Most awesome lady ever. Anyway, the yard sale was kind of like going to the flea market – lots of odds & ends and antiques and random stuff, all collected and resold for extra cash. I sniffed out the bag of fabric hidden in the shadows of the carport (I am telling you, I have a nose for this sort of thing) and found my dream fabric lurking at the bottom. Not just my dream fabric – but somewhere around 15 yards of it. Which I bought the whole lot of for $1. Apparently, this fabric lived a previous life as a kind of faux curtain/drape, arranged just so by some famous interior designer.
This is a really nice home decor weight cotton fabric. Unwashed, it has a little bit of a sheen to it and quite a bit of body. I tore off about 4 yards and washed it – just to see what would happen – which made is lose the sheen and gave it much more drape. It was really easy to sew and press. AND I still have over 10 yards of this stuff! Striped dresses in my future, yeah? I’m just ashamed that it’s taken me a year to get to sewing it. Too much ahead in the queue, I guess.
Check out how well those stripes line up at the pockets! Yeah buddy! In an effort to make this post at least somewhat useful, here is how I did that:
After cutting out the front skirt pieces, I laid them on top of the pocket/pocket facing piece (for this pattern, it’s all-in-one. If you’re using a pattern that has 2 separate pieces, choose accordingly) and traced along the pocket edge. Then I used a ruler to draw the pocket lines as they continue from the skirt front to the pocket facing, so that the lines were unbroken.
Here’s what my pattern piece looked like. Not shown but SUPER helpful – it’s a good idea to mark the colors of the lines as well, so you don’t end up with inverted stripes 🙂
Then just lay the pattern piece on your fabric and arrange it until the lines of the print match up with the lines you drew on the pattern piece 🙂 Easy!
I also made sure to pin each stripe before I sewed my pieces together, which made for very accurate stripe-matching.
I guess that’s it! Easily the cheapest garment I’ve ever made 🙂 Now tell me – what’s the sewing-related yard sale haul you’ve ever been lucky enough to experience? I think this $1 mass of fabric might go right up there with the $1 DVF Vogue Designer Original pattern (that happened to be in my size, no less) score.
LLADYBIRD 
Currently making a shirt dress out of some fabric I bought from a house clearance for £2! Not quite as cheap as yours but still a bargain.
Hell yeah, that’s still quite a bargain! Yay for cheaply-source fabrics 😀
We’d just moved into a house with a walk-out basement. My friend’s husband was doing construction work in High Point, NC during a spring furniture market. After market, the sidewalks of High Point are waist-deep in discarded drapery and upholstery fabrics, waiting pick up by the trash collectors. Friend’s husband hates to see waste. He brought three pick-up truck loads — bed and extended cab — full of fabric samples to my house. We shlepped them into the basement. Other sewing friends took stuff. I made curtains and bedspreads and lots of clothing; and costumes for at least three children’s Christmas pageants at church. Re-covered many a chair seat. Donated about 50 pounds of tiny square pieces to a daycare for crafting. I am still sewing out of that stash, and will for years to come. He brought it to me in 2005.
Wow, that is amazing! Sounds like the kind of curb-collecting most of us only dream of 🙂
Stunning!!! I want me a hollyburn now!
You should make you one! Favorite skirt pattern ever, hands-down!
Your Hollyburn is gorgeous, it makes me want to buy the pattern and make one for myself!
I don’t know if it’s because I simply don’t have a nose for it, or if it’s less usual to have yard sales in Europe (or France in my case) than it is in the US, but I’ve never found fabric at such a low price yet.
I think those of us in the US just have waaaay too much stuff that we like to constantly dump off, so yard sales are a regular thing here. In some ways, it’s nice (getting used things for cheap, woohoo!), but in other ways, it’s incredibly depressing to see all that unwanted stuff. I’ve always known that the US has a lot of, well, everything – but going to Europe last year and actually seeing the differences was quite an eye-opener for me.
That might be the best looking striped skirt I’ve seen in a long time. You’re right, the width of those stripes are just perfect and I like the wave effect from the skirt shape. Now I need to go on a hunt for this type of fabric!
I finally bought the Hollyburn pattern a couple months ago after seeing you and Sunni rave about it constantly. Funny thing is, I haven’t even made it as just a skirt. I’ve attached it to several different dress patterns and it’s worked out so well. I should just make a skirt one of these days.
Good luck with your fabric hunt! Hopefully it won’t take you years to find some (and knowing my luck – it’ll probably be REALLY easy to find in like a month. That’s the way thing seem to work around here haha).
You should definitely make a Hollyburn skirt, but I don’t blame you for using it as part of a dress. It’s just a good pattern! And now you’ve got me thinking about what bodice I can attach it to… hmmm…
A friend knew I liked vintage sheets and took a freebie bag with a few sheets on top. Underneath was a treasure trove of great fabric. I am still sewing my way through it…..
Oh, that is awesome!! Love getting surprises like that 😀
I would’ve loved that woman! I scored about three yards of a yummy cotton gauze at a sale a few weeks ago that is said to be from India! It’s so cool, I know I will have a hard time deciding what frock will deserve its wonderful texture and pattern. I love your skirt. Honestly, your sewing is perfection! I’ve got to up my game….
Ahh, that sounds awesome! I will tell you what – when it comes to awesome fabric like that, I don’t even feel the tiniest bit guilty taking my sweet time to figure out what to do with it. I have fabric that’s waited in my stash for 3+ years before I finally figured out it’s pattern match. No shame in that! The good fabric is worth waiting for 🙂
Great skirt – love the stripes. And the tip on matching for the pocket facing? Genius. Hate to admit I never would’ve have thought of that.
Recently went to some barn sales over the fourth (Illinois farm country – they have barn sales instead of garage sales). I found one that had a table full of fabric – all sorts. I was told the woman there did sewing/alterations at some point. Everything was $2 a piece – no matter how big. I had to restrict myself to 10 pieces – but got some great eyelet, challis, corduroy, etc. I already make an Anna dress out of one of the pieces – and there’s still enough for another project. Love finding sewing bargains!
Yay I’m glad you found it useful! 🙂
Man, I LOVE finding garage sales that come from someone who used to sew. It makes me feel ok about being hoardy, I mean, I’m keeping it out of the landfill… right? 🙂 But now I wanna find me a barn sale! That just sounds cooler than a garage sale haha 🙂
My husband and I had just moved to a new neighborhood and a person a street over was having a yard sale. She was an older lady getting out of the custom curtain making business; I walked away with 30 yrds of brown and blue silk taffeta for$10. I loved that my lining cost for my new curtains more than the fabric. Wish I had bought some other stuff from her. I also found a 10yd roll of muslin at an estate sale for $1.
Whoa, I can’t believe you got silk taffeta that cheap! You much have the fanciest (and also cheapest) curtains ever now 🙂 haha!
I scored my Bernina 730 record at a church garage sale for $5. She sews like a dream. 😍
Holy shit! You might win this round, wow!
Cute skirt, loved the pocket tip.
Thank you! 🙂
I LOVE a good estate sale find. (But I kind of hate reading about them, only because it always makes me want to go out and find a sale RIGHTTHISMINUTE and I’m supposed to be on a stash diet.) I absolutely love your skirt, though!
My best find…maybe a $10 Singer that’s still going strong (though I should probably get it serviced). There was also the time when I got a bunch of fabric, zippers, and quilt batting for $3. Or some more fabric and around 15 unopened 1960s Vogue patterns for $3. That must be my magic number!
Oh, I totally understand. I can’t even read estate sale/thrift blogs anymore because I get way too antsy about finding my own scores and I definitely don’t need to be piling more shit in my house haha. It’s so hard when everything’s so cheap, though!
Great skirt and snap! I picked up a DVF Vouge 1548 in my size for 99c 🙂
That is awesome!
Adorable skirt, especially like the little chevron at CB, very flattering. Funny how some projects just percolate, but at some point everything’s in place and it just comes together.
True! Sometimes it’s good to let it sit and stew before diving in 🙂
Sounds like a fascinating woman! And what a find!! Clearly, it was meant to be, since that is one babe of a skirt!
Gemma
http://www.fadedwindmills.com
I agree that it was totally meant to be! Finally, the striped skirt of my dreams, woohoo 😀 haha
When a pattern works…why not make many many versions! This one is awesome! What an amazing deal you found! Love when that happens!
Me too! Not to mention the good feeling of saving something from a landfill (and, you know… just moving it into the landfill that is my sewing room hahah :)).
Awww, what a great story about your yard saling neighbor!!
Yeah, she was an awesome lady! 😀
I went to an estate sale a couple of years ago in Titirangi (beautiful leafy suburb in Auckland). The lady was a collector of clothes and fabrics so she’d hoarded stuff since the 50s and hadn’t used most of it. There was a queue out the (long) drive and took us an hour just to get in the house. We were only allowed 5 minutes once inside, and you’d think it would’ve been ransacked already but there were still piles and piles of fabric, vintage clothes, shoes and bags left to look through. I walked out with around 20m of vintage cotton shirting (plaid and gingham) and various lengths of 4 or 5 different sorts of polka dot fabric, all for maybe $30, which is a bargain here in NZ 🙂
Holy shit, that sounds amazing! I’m so impressed that you were able to find all sorts of good stuff, even with only 5 minutes to look! And I’m all about vintage polka dot fabric, so color me jealous 🙂
I found 3 bundles of 2m length silk, one mustard, one patterned green and mustard, and one coral red, the whole lot for $10 in an opshop (thrift shop or charity shop to non Aussie’s). Since then in the same shop I’ve bought fine wool suiting in mustard, then beige, and navy blue. I don’t know who is donating fabric to them but I’m loving it! Like you I’ve taken my time deciding what to use it for, maybe wool suiting for a pencil skirt or blazer, and once I’ve mastered French seams the silk will be used for many blouses. Love your skirt!
Oh man, I used to have a thrift store like that! I could only go in when I had $$ to burn because it was GUARANTEED that I’d find some fabulous fabric every single time I went in there. I miss that! (and whoever was donating said fabric ha!). Thrifted wool suiting is the best, lucky!
I bought my first car at a garage sale for $65. It was in 1967 and the was a 1958 Buick station wagon in the back was a Singer a Fly weight sewing machine the lady tossed it in as she didn’t like sewing and had no need for it. I still have it and get envious looks when I take it to classes.
Everything about this comment is amazing. I haven’t even seen this machine and I’m envious 🙂