Both of these skirts are made from Ikea fabric and facings purchased from Hobby Lobby recently. Schmeebot is especially enamored of the white fabric with blue-black (depending on lighting) splotches. Unfortunately I struggled a bit with pattern layout: I wanted both the center of the "swirl" and some of the white space at the edge of the cluster to be on the skirt front, but the skirt pieces weren't big enough to do both. I decided to prioritize the center of the cluster, and once I did that there wasn't really a need to keep the waistband white (which I didn't quite manage anyhow!) Also, at the time I was cutting this, we didn't have much of this fabric and I was trying to be a little thrifty in my layout. n To cut to the chase: if I make another skirt with this fabric I will do it differently! Yesterday I bought another 3.5 yards of it so we are set for more splotchy skirts than we possibly need. :)
The second fabric was my pick -- I can't pass up anything with a bird on it! (Unfortunately I don't see this one on Ikea's site any more.) The pattern layout was more successful here: I cut the back pieces on the cross grain because that worked out better with the print.
Up until now, schmeebot has purchased all the Ikea fabric and mailed it to me. But her local Ikeas were all out of the splotchy fabric, and mine had just gotten it back in stock. So I swung by to pick some up -- I had an appointment that took me nearby anyhow. I hadn't Ikea-ed in a while: nowadays Ikea has a cutting table where you can help yourself to fabric, which is very cool ... except all the scissors are right-handed! Come on Ikea, lots of creative peeps are lefties!
I plan on returning soon with a lame year wrap-up post before the New Year ... I haven't tallied things up but I suspect 2012 will be The Year I Sewed A Few Things Many Times.
You know I love these :-) And I'm really jealous of your Ikea fabric finds - mine never seems to have anything nearly as cool as what you find!
ReplyDeleteThanks! schmeebot actually works quite hard at finding the fabric -- she has traveled over a hundred miles just to hit up Ikea fabric departments! I have no idea why Ikea doesn't just sell the fabric online! We're also buying mostly the home decor fabrics, which are not what many sewists would want, but they work great for these little skirts.
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