My Altered (Bed) Skirt

After

On Wednesday this week I decided to register for The Creative Connection event that's being held here in a week's time. I've hemmed and hawed about it since March. I wanted to go but couldn't really see the expense after my jaunt to CHA in July. But God made a way on Tuesday so my husband said to go ahead. I registered for two days and am taking a class by the Crafty Chica about setting up an online classroom. That sounds cool. I'm also registered for Tracy Bautista's Making a Living as an Artist class. Those were the two classes that really hooked me. Because they were on two seperate days I (oh,no) had to register for two days which left me with two afternoon slots open for classes.(hee. hee). SO I get to justify another one of Kaari Meng's amazing classes and a class by Princess Lazertron. It really would have been too hard to go and not take ANY of the amazing handmade classes. So it worked out well in that respect.

Before

I'm excited (whoo-hoo),  but then I started to think about what to wear. Now I have some really nice clothes from when I attended last year, and I have my super cute doily dress but a girl wants something new when she goes to one of these things. So I got creative and spying a big ol' fitted sheet that I'd just torn into strips to dye I got an idea. It was right then that my husband called and asked what I was doing. "I'm wrapping a torn bedskirt around my waist to see if I can make a skirt from it" seemed a little risky to share.So I tried to get off with a "trying to figure out what to wear next week to the conference." But I think I must have sounded a little evasive as he immediately asked a follow up question.

So I told him. After a moment of silence he said we could probably afford to get me something new from an actual store- I didn't have to make a skirt from an old bed sheet. But by now the idea had taken root and I had images of skirts by gibbous fashions and Ruth Rae's poetry pinafores dancing around my head- inspiration had struck. So obsessively I sewed last night and this morning till it's almost finished. It's all hand stitched and uses only fabrics that I had on hand, most had been given me. I dyed them all using the blue one step dye by tulip diluted with water in a plastic container. So take a look and see what you think- thanks :).
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My Altered (Bed) Skirt

Tools and Materials
Scissors
Needle
Embroidery floss or thread
Part of the side of an old fitted bed sheet (enough to wrap around your waist), dyed
Variety of other fabrics (tarlatans, old curtains, muslin canvas, tulles or organzas layer well),  dyed
Ink and ink pads (optional)
Handful of old buttons



Step One: Before stitching the ends of the skirt strip together I added an additional strip of the sheet fabric to the bottom of my skirt base to lengthen it a bit. To do this I just straight stitched it through the overlapping fabrics. Then, overlap the two side edges about 1 1/2" and then stitch a double line of straight stitches down the length of the skirt. The skirt is already gathered at the top bc we're using the gathered side of the strip as our waistband.

Step Two: Free cut out the scallops and fringe for the bottom of the skirt of canvas. Stitch below the seam that joins your two lengths of fabric.
Step Three: Cut strips of a contrasting fabric and straight stitch on either side of center seam to form panels. Add tall thin strips of tarlatan on either side of these panels.
Step Four: You can leave your skirt as is, but I wanted it to look a little more artsy so I added two pockets assymetrically placed on either side of the center seam.
Step Five: Add buttons to the center seam and then add trims and buttons to the rest of the skirt as desired.
Step Six: At any time you may decide to add some stamped images or text. I used a roller stamp with a cursive font wherever I wanted a little more detail.