The Rosie Skirt

I bought the book Design Your Own Clothes by Cal Patch last year. After pouring over it I knew I loved it and wanted to try lots of patterns in this book for myself and my girls. My oldest daughter is now 10 years old and it getting difficult to find age-appropriate sewing patterns for her. There are plenty of patterns for toddlers and teens with curves, but what about this in-between-phase of adolescence?

I don’t have a huge desire to make patterns from scratch but I figure I can alter basic a-line skirts and ‘shell’ blouses to accommodate the styles I saw and loved in this book. And when I saw The Rosie Skirt I new I had to make it for my daughter first, and then maybe for myself. Love the pockets and the side-button closure. Yum.

I used a lightweight 100% cotton denim from Jo-Ann. I love to keep yards and yards of this stuff on hand, washed, and ready to go for sewing projects—skirts, shorts and capris, handbags, you name it.

A few things I learned—I wished I hadn’t skipped the darts. I figured only women with curves needed darts. Well, the darts add shape and it was a mistake to eliminate them. Luckily, my 10-yr old didn’t seem to mind too much.

I bound the pockets with a limey-green polka dot fabric and love how they turned out.

Now what I didn’t love was the bad directions for making the button closure:

The directions for making that overlap are dubious at best. A few steps have gotta be missing. There is no mention of how to finish the front part—the section with those buttonholes. No lining is mentioned, no overlap, no interfacing, nothing. I had to call my brilliant friend Elaine over to help me figure that part out. She agreed that the editor definitely missed something in proof-reading the book. So we basically made another facing for the front button-holed section. Here’s how it looks on the inside:

And I finished it off with this gorgeous feather (or are they ferns?) decorative stitch #110 on the Bernina 830:

I will be making this again and again for my girls. And hopefully one for myself as well.

On a side note………..These are the shorts are made for the girls last year with this same denim. (Actually, I think this denim is a bit darker. Love!) I used designs from the Paisley Pack by OESD. Best purchase ever.