Terrain Skirt = Finished!

As I said when my layer cake came in the mail, I've been lusting after Kate Spain's new line, Terrain, since I first saw it. The bright colors (and the purples, of course) scream "FALL!" - which is my favorite season. And since I'm going back to campus in t minus 3 weeks, a skirt is what I wanted to make...

I had never made a skirt before, so I searched allllllllll over the web for patchwork skirt tutorials. I used two posts over on indietutes (here and here), which were infinitely helpful. The blogger, Vegbee, and the commenters weren't kidding when they warned that it's a process... hahaha. Ha. But so worth it. Five days of work - and I didn't even use patchwork for the whole thing!

(This was before I sewed the whole thing together - I ended up taking off the last two rows because I liked the shorter length. But GOODNESS does it stretch far across the living room - and you can see some of my other WIPs on the couch, I just realized this... classy, I know).

Plus, this skirt allows me to TWIIIIIIIIRLLLLLLL as much as I want! :D

I sewed long basting stitches (by machine) to the first three layers but the thread kept breaking, so I gave up and just randomly folded over/pinned the rest of the layers. To be fair, I didn't have the recommended elastic thread, but gathering always makes me want to cry, so I did half and half.

I bought a layer cake because I honestly wasn't sure how much I would need - almost everything I found online was about making a skirt for kids (and at the time, I considered doing it completely in patchwork without solids). You could definitely make a knee-length skirt with three charm packs, and have a little left over - well, I guess that depends on how tall you are. I'm tall, 5'10", if that helps at all. Since I ALSO originally thought I would make it ankle-length, I bought a layer cake, which was cheaper than buying four charm packs. Scraps would also make a great patchwork skirt!!

Now, for most of the prints, I have two charm squares left to use (because I originally cut them all). But that's ok - I'll definitely be using them (with my Go Cutter, I hope!). This line is still one of my favorites right now.

I know the colors are a lot, but I'm going to wear this thing loudly and proudly on campus. Watch out, college, here comes the senior!

If you decide to make a patchwork skirt, don't forget to finish the inside seams - or else this thing could fall apart pretty easily in the wash. I don't have a serger, so I used a wide zig zag stitch. Also, the elastic band was really easy to make - I had never done that before. Though, the amount of thread I cut off from the inside of the skirt was insane :) You can also make a skirt liner - I may do that at a later date.

It was nice to do something other than quilts and mug rugs (but now I miss them, so going back to regularly scheduled mile-long list of projects that need to be finished)! I'm so happy though!

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