Do you ever wonder where the inspiration behind a sewing pattern comes from? Ideas can literally come from anywhere and everywhere. I mean, who hasn’t followed someone around a supermarket to get a better look at an interesting pocket or seam? Old films from the 50’s and 60’s are a constant source of joy for details and silhouettes. All of the little ideas just get tucked away subconsciously until it’s time for them to come into the daylight. You see, to be creative you have to put something in for something to come out. You have to take notice of the small stuff, the unusual colour combinations in the most random place, a shape, a silhouette of a shadow. Don’t just look at clothes, just look. Once you start looking at things with the eyes of a Maker, everything becomes a potential.
And then, of course, you find a fabric. Designs for me are often a response to a fabric…what does that cloth need to become? How will it drape? And this stripe was just begging to be made into a chevron. I made this skirt way back in 2014, when only the idea of Maven existed (the fabric was from John Lewis, but sadly no longer available). The skirt eventually developed into our Barcelona dress pattern. The Barcelona pattern was only released this year but she actually became a dress pattern in 2015 and gained her name when I did the classic make a last minute dress for a trip to Barcelona. I like to give the patterns time to develop naturally. We personally wearer trial everything so we know it works in the real world. I want garments in my wardrobe that are flexible and solve problems, not create them, not just for today but for years.
But above all for me, this quote by William Morris has resonated within my design work from the moment I first heard it. It made sense of my natural desire to make for purpose and practicality. I believe a garment has to meet the criteria of longevity and to function well within a wardrobe and within a lifestyle if we are to put the effort and time into making something. If we are going to use resources, we need to make consciously with a view to loving each garment for a lifetime. Here at Maven, that really is at the core of what we believe.
So Autumn is truly here in the UK as I write this…all the leaves are brown(ish) and the sky is, in fact, grey…it could be a completely different story by the time I publish the post…the weather being somewhat unpredictable these days! And corduroy seems to be the fabric of the season. Useful because I was making this skirt anyway. Bloody irritating because a good solid basic staple of a fabric will be deemed ‘so last season‘ by some idiot ‘expert’ in the near future. Be a rebel…join my club of ignoring the idiots and consciously making what you please, to wear for long as humanly possible. So, this skirt is a hack of our Barcelona dress pattern. The idea is to just leave the bodice off and add a waistband and voila 2 styles from 1 pattern! Not that complicated as hacks go and many of you will not need to follow the instructions to do this, but here they are anyway and with a few tips for sewing cord too. Of course, you can make this in any suitable skirt fabric.
SEWING CORDUROY
NAP – Corduroy has a NAP, no it’s not tired, but has a pile like velvet. If you brush your hand up and down you can feel one direction feels smooth and one is rough. The smooth is the direction of the nap. I like to cut with smooth up and rough down as the fabric looks darker when it’s worn and I can also remember writing that in massive letters in marker pen in the front of my diary when I got my first proper job after college. Not everyone is going to agree with me here, many prefer to have the smooth running down the body, especially on a skirt as it does feel nicer when you smooth your skirt down during wear. It will appear lighter and I think it’s a bit shiny but it’s also supposed to wear better in the seat area. Whichever you choose, BE CONSISTENT and have all the hems of your pattern pieces facing in one direction.
CUTTING – Cut in one layer and one direction. Because of the wales (the raised ridges) be careful about keeping everything on grain or they can look as though they are running off skew. The wales can vary in size, the wider the wale the smaller the number, with needlecord being about 16 on the scale (16 ridges per inch). I’ve used cord with a very typical sized wale (I’m guessing around size 11) and didn’t worry at all about trying to match the wales while stitching. For a really wide chunky wale, I would have matched. For waistbands and other straight edges, you can always cut a straight line first following a wale and you will have a straight edge to line up your pattern piece with.
PRESSING – Pre-wash and then gentle pressing on the reverse only or you’ll flatten the pile and make it go shiny. Use a spare bit of cord fabric as a pressing cloth so the pile of your garment is always face to face with another piece of cord. And PRESS the cloth rather than iron – lift in an up and down motion rather then dragging back and forth! Gently press seam allowances (SA) open, avoid pressing the edges of the SA so as not to create an impression on the garment. If you do, lift the SA up and steam gently underneath and the impression mark may press away. *In industry we used a needle board for pressing, which has hundreds of tiny needles poking up to support the pile of the fabric. I haven’t found it necessary to get one for domestic use, but useful to know if you are planning to sew a lot of this type of fabric.
POCKET BAGS – Cut them in something else – cord is too bulky! I used a leftover cotton print, and they look OK but I’m tempted to take them out and have big patch pockets for the full-on ’70’s effect!
SEWING – The seams can get quite thick, so press seam allowance open and grade the SA whenever necessary – definitely the enclosed SA of the waistband. Take extra care with seams, they can creep or crawl during stitching, feeding through the machine at slightly different rates to each other. I used lots of pins, took my time. You could tack them or use a walking foot if you find it an issue.
FUSING – The general advice is to use a sew-in interfacing so as not to crush the pile while pressing it onto the waistband. I didn’t do that – for the waistband, I used slotted waistband iron-on fusing because that is all I had that was suitable.* The SA on the fuse wasn’t the same width as my pattern piece (1cm versus 1.5cm) so I just centralised it and carried on. I did use a spare piece of cord as a pressing cloth. I used very lightweight iron-on interfacing for the pocket bags and zip and pressed very gently with lots of steam.
*I have a hardcore policy of not leaving the house to buy more stuff unless I really have too – hence I used a black invisible zip too!
Abbreviations
SA | seam allowance RS | right side RSU | right side (of fabric/garment) up RST | right sides together CB | centre back CF | centre front WB | waistband
WAISTBAND PATTERN – It is just a straight rectangular pattern piece and once you know the formula for constructing one, you can add or alter waistbands as you like. A straight waistband shouldn’t have a finished width of more than 5cm (2″), if you want a deeper waistband you will need to make a shaped one to curve to your body. (That’s for a different day!)
I made my finished waistband width 2.5cm (1″) as I was using slotted waistband fuse with this finished width and the SA are 1.5cm to match the Barcelona dress SA (BTW: I usually only do 1cm SA, but a bias skirt needs a bigger SA).
LENGTH – finished waistband length (waist measurement + wearing ease) + extension + SA at each end.
76cm actual waist + 2.5cm ease + 2.5cm extension + 1.5cm SA + 1.5cm SA = 84cm pattern length
The finished band length is your waist measurement (e.g. mine is 76cm) + wearing ease (2.5cm) = 78.5cm Divide this by 2 to get the midpoint which is your CF. Wearing ease is so you have enough room to tuck in your top, move, sit, eat and generally feel comfortable. How much is really up to you, I allow 2.5cm (1″) because after doing alterations for 10 years that seemed to be an average comfortable amount for my ladies. I found the younger person likes it tighter with less ease, but the older we get the more we like to breathe easy! I wouldn’t advise doing less than 1.2cm (1/2″) ease. If you have a similar skirt you like the feel of (that SITS ON YOUR WAIST) measure that one.
The extension (or underlap) is the part of the waistband that extends beyond the skirt with the button on it so when you do the skirt up it sits underneath the buttonhole. I’ve gone with 2.5cm (you could go a bit bigger for a wider waistband with a bigger button).
Add notches to your pattern at the CENTRE FRONT, the centre fold, SA and the extension. Draw the grainline so it runs the length of the waistband, parallel to the longest side. Annotate your pattern piece with pattern name, pattern piece, cutting info, size/waist size, and date (helps to keep track of alterations). So, now you have a waistband pattern that fits you, you need to make sure it fits onto the skirt pattern. The skirt can be actually be eased onto the waistband and therefore can be slightly bigger than the waistband. Depending on the fabric you are using this can be about 3-5mm per ¼ skirt.
Cord, however, does not take kindly to too much ease, so you will most likely need to adjust your pattern to make the band and skirt the same measurement.
Mark the 1.5cm SA on the skirt pattern and measure the front & back waist. Multiply by 2 to find the total skirt pattern waist measurement. Compare with your finished waistband measurement to find the difference. If they are the same hurrah, you can sew your waistband on! If not, divide the difference by 4 (think of the skirt body in 4 quarters; left front, right front, left back, right back) as this is how much you will need to adjust each pattern piece. If the skirt pattern is too big for the waistband you’ll need to reduce your skirt pattern at the side seam. At the waist mark how much you need to reduce your pattern piece by. Draw a new stitchline and blend into the hip with a smooth line. Draw your new SA and trim off the excess pattern. If the skirt is too small for the waistband you’ll need to add a bit to your skirt pattern at the side seam to increase the waist measurement.
In these diagrams, the skirt pattern waist has decreased or increased at the side seam by 5mm per ¼ as the skirt was a total of 2cm too big or small for the waistband.
ATTACH THE WAISTBAND
So you join us here with your skirt body made with the zip and pockets done. All the instructions to get you that far are in the pattern. Just ignore any bits that refer to the bodice!
All that’s left to do is add the waistband and finish the hem.
With RST pin waistband to the skirt. Align at CF and make sure you leave the waistband extension, well umm, extended.
Stitch with a 1.5cm SA. Press SA and trim skirt SA to grade, so reducing the bulkiness of the seam. Press SA towards WB.
Go ahead and neaten the long free edge of the waistband with an overlock or zig zag stitch or a Hong Kong binding finish. You can also trim the SA down by 5mm, leaving you with a 1cm SA.
CLOSE EACH END
Extension | Fold the waistband in half with RST. Take a 1.5cm SA and stitch down from the folded edge and pivot across to finish stitching at the CB. Clip the corner and trim the SA.
With the WB folded again, close the other end of the WB with a 1.5cm SA. Clip and trim SA.
Press, turn WB to RS and carefully poke out the corners so they are nice and square.
CURTAIN WAISTBAND | this is a good finish for thicker fabrics like corduroy, as the SA hangs down (like a curtain) so the waist seam has less bulk.
Once the WB has been turned to the RS ‘Stitch in the ditch’ with a tacking row of stitches to hold the WB. At each end fold the SA at an angle away from the zip.
Machine stitch in the ditch from the RS. You will hardly notice any stitching.
Now you just need to finish your waistband with a button and buttonhole. Let your skirt hang overnight before levelling and hemming.
We were alerted yesterday to an error on our lovely French Dart Shift paper pattern. Unfortunately the fabric measurements have not been ported across from the inside of the instructions to the outside of the box properly when we had to change printers and as a result aren’t quite right! We have now corrected the ones we have in stock but if you have purchased a French Dart Shift paper pattern after March this year there is a possibility that yours may be affected. (If you bought a pattern on Sunday from us at The Festival of Quilts yours will be OK!)
We would like to stress that the costings for fabric requirements are correct in the instruction booklets so you can use this without worrying. We apologise for this inconvenience and we are absolutely gutted that this has slipped through our many hours spent proofing and testing, however, we are all only human after all!
A big thank you to the lovely ladies at The Festival of Quilts who still bought a pattern when we pointed out our mistake with a shrug of ‘these things happen’ we were totally humbled but your kindness and understanding.
If you have any questions or would like any help please do not hesitate to get in touch
So here at Maven, we do our in-seam pockets a little differently. You may have noticed our pocket bags have a curvy bit, which has many a function.
“So why a curvy bit, Mrs M? Go on then, talk pockets and garment construction.”
Oh well, if you insist!
That curvy bit acts as a hinge and it gives a bit of support to the pocket bag.
The curvy bit makes it easier to neaten around the edge of the pocket (especially if you are using an overlocker).
Our method of construction sets the pocket back from the seam edge so it is less likely to show.
We don’t have any snipping into seams to make a weak point – pockets are functional and need to be strong!
The pocket bag is overlocked together after construction, again, so it’s stronger.
If you’ve made a Maven Pattern before, this is the same construction method as our other in-seam pockets – The Barcelona just has different seam allowances because of the bias cut skirt.
Stripe matching |
I’ve covered the process of sewing with stripes and stripe matching in another tutorial called rather imaginatively ‘Sewing with stripes’.
I did match the pocket bags to the skirt, just to see if it could be done easily. All I did was lay the pocket pattern piece in position directly on the cut skirt panel as if it was ready to be sewn on and then traced the stripes onto the pattern. You don’t really see it unless you look for it, so most definitely not something to worry over unless your fabric is a little sheer and the stripes show through. In that case, I would avoid the issue altogether and cut them in plain cotton!
METHOD |
Interfacing | your garment is cut, make sure you have cut 2 PAIRS of pocket bags (so you have 4 bags in total). Transfer the marker dot positions to your garment; chalk, fabric marker pen, tailor tacks – whatever works for you. Fuse the strip of interfacing to the pocket mouth on the FRONT body.
look closely – there is a pocket bag there!
Attach the bags | Place the pocket bags to the front and back garment, with right sides of the fabric facing each other, and so the notches on the pocket bags line up with the side seam notches and stitch together with a 1cm seam allowance.
Front skirt | Overlock (or neaten with your usual method) the raw edge of the pocket bag and garment together, starting and finishing about 3cm above and below the pocket bag.
Backskirt | Rather than starting the overlocking just above the pocket bag – start at the underarm and overlock the entire seam right down to the hem.
Press the pocket bags AWAY from the garment and understitch on the front pocket bags.
Side seam | Pin with right sides of fabric facing each other. When matching a style that has a seam that needs to be aligned I usually start by pinning that together first. Then I use all the pins and match all the stripes! Line up the pocket marker dots on the front body with the corresponding ones on the back body.
Take a 1.5cm seam allowance, start at the underarm and stitch down to the first marker dot, PIVOT * and stitch from the dot across the pocket bag until you are back at a 1.5cm seam allowance on the pocket bag. (The stitch line is marked on the pattern piece, so you could transfer the line across with chalk and a ruler if you wanted). Carry on around the pocket bag, and stitch TO the next marker dot, PIVOT again and continue down to the hem.
*TO PIVOT: stitch to the marker dot, leave your machine needle IN your garment, lift your machine foot and turn your work in the direction you want to stitch, drop your foot back down and continue to stitch – makes a nice tidy corner!
Reinforce each of the corners at the pivot point as in-seam pockets can take quite a lot of stress. Set your machine to a smaller stitch length and just stitch a second machine row DIRECTLY ON TOP of your first row of stitching about 3cm either side of each marker dot. Don’t forget to put your stitch length back to your normal setting!
Neaten | Overlock the front side seam from underarm to hem, all the way around the pocket bag – it’s easier because of the curved shape!!!
Press the pocket bags towards the front body. Press the side seams OPEN above and below the pocket bag, as far as you can.
And from the right side…
Just to prove there is actually a pocket there!
Now you get to swish around and smugly say “why yes I did make my dress…it’s got pockets!”
