I am so glad I made a goal this year (ooh, good thing I finally started since the year's almost over) to sew more for myself. I feel like it's my "roots" of sewing. When I was a teenager, I think I made pretty much every dress or skirt in my closet. I'm not saying they were all fashionable, I'm just saying I sewed them. Then as I got older, got married, and had kids, I sewed almost exclusively for my sons. Now that my youngest is past the baby stage (am I actually willing to admit that?), I feel like my sewing world has opened up again!
It's been so much fun sewing for myself again.
I made a skirt last week --as if I could have stopped myself after seeing all your Copycat Challenge entries-- inspired by Anthropologie's
Easy Keeper Skirt.
Here's the Anthro skirt, a mere $138:
And here's my version, approximately $20:
I was SO tempted to not give the back of the skirt any layers. I actually didn't even notice them on Anthro's version until I was ready to get started drafting my skirt. I would have left them out, especially since they're not super visible with all the plaid, but knew it would bug me forever if I cheated. So I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a moment and notice that there
are four layers on the bottom back of the skirt, since no one else probably ever will. Thank you :).
I'm not going to lie, this skirt took a lot of drafting to get it just right. I used a basic Simplicity high waisted pencil skirt pattern, and then traced it and drafted all the changes from there. Like the Anthro inspired
dress I made recently, I used the rolled hem on my serger to finish off all the curved edges. I think this skirt may have been a nightmare (and extremely heavy and thick since there's a total of 8 "hems" on the skirt front) if I tried to do the edges differently.
One of my favorite things about the design of Anthro's skirt was that the front of the skirt is cut on the bias, making the plaid go diagonally, and the back of the skirt is cut on the grain. It gives the skirt a little something extra, but you don't even notice why. As expensive as Anthro clothing is, I think there's a reason why they can charge so much. They obviously have awesome designers.
Now the question is what skirt or dress to make next? I have a couple of ideas floating around in my head, but I'd love to hear your suggestions. You know it doesn't take much to change my mind :).
I'll be linking up to a few of my
favorite linky parties!
