No Sew Scallop Skirt

The No Sew Scallop Skirt

Friends of mine got me the Martha Stewart Sewing Encyclopedia for my birthday and I  would highly recommend it. It has a great section at the front for self taught sewers like myself which explains a lot about various hand stitches, fabric types and the various tools of the trade. These pages can be seen in the amazon look inside which is handy!

It then goes on to explain how to make a variety of things such as tote bags, cushions, curtains and clothing. There's a disc at the back of the book which has patterns for some of the things in the book which you just print on to A4 paper and join together at the relevant markings. 

I had a length of fabric I'd bought from the rack in Mandors that hangs beside the til - great place for good offcuts! It was a metre long and I had no idea what to do with it. I bought it because I loved the pattern on it with the black and white picture print style combined with the red and green of the Italian flag, but I wasn't sure how I could wear it until I came across the no sew scalloped skirt. 

Now Martha Stewart recommends a suede style fabric which makes sense. It a good quality heavy fabric which will hold the shape of the skirt and won't fray round the edges you cut. My fabric was calico, which so does fray around the scallops but I think this adds to the character of the skirt and the roughness of the frayed edges suit the pattern on the fabric. It gives it a worn look which I like!

This is a really simple skirt to make as the words "no sew" in the title would have you believe. The most time consuming part was sticking together the A4 print outs for the pattern template and even that was easy to do. 

Once you have cut your skirt from the template, you wrap it round yourself to find the best location for the button. There is obviously a bit of sewing to put the button on, but it is minimal. You could use a machine for the button hole, but I hand sewed this. I doubled the fabric over at the point for the button hole which gives more definition to the front of the skirt with the plain reversible of the fabric showing. 

This was super simple to make and really comfortable to wear. After wearing it once I made a small adjustment which was to add a hook and eye to the inside. I found that as I walked the fabric which was wrapped on the inside began to fall and I would fidget a lot with my skirt being paranoid that it was going to open in the middle. Adding that hook and eye means that now I hook the skirt together on my left hip on the inside of the skirt before fully securing it at the front with the button. 

I've not tried any of the other patterns in the book yet but will do soon. I'd say it's well worth buying when you see the variety of patterns on the disc and think of the cost of buying individual patterns. Yes you have a print cost and the time to stick it together but you also get a really good sewing instruction book with it!