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 