Plaid Brumby Skirt

Sooooo, I’m supposed to be working on my Christmas dress, but so far I haven’t been motivated to start tracing my pattern and working on the muslin. (It could have something to do with the hundreds of Lego blocks that are littering my dining room table/work surface). We had our annual family pictures last Saturday and I wanted to wear something festive. Nothing in my closet was grabbing me… so obviously I needed to make something new.

I’d purchased this black plaid fabric last year intending to make it into a shirt. It’s a twill weave plaid and I’ve just come off cutting 3 shirts out of other twill weave plaid fabrics. These fabrics drive me nuts. Because of the diagonal weave the lines of the plaid are never perfect 90 degree angles. It takes a whole lot of manipulating to get the plaids straight for cutting. I decided to reassign the fabric to become my new skirt since there wouldn’t be as many pieces to cut.

I decided to go with the Brumby skirt because I knew it would be quick to sew (and I didn’t start sewing until 5:00 the night before our 9:30am appointment!) I almost went with the no pockets view to make cutting as easy as possible but in the end I couldn’t leave them off. They are just such a fun detail and it was worth the extra time matching plaids and manipulating the fabric to be straight. I made version 1, as I did with my first Brumby, but with the front piece cut on the fold.

Both times I’ve made this skirt I’ve followed this tutorial for the exposed zipper and both times the zipper has ended up too far down. I had to sew the upper waistband and facing together with a 1″ seam so that the zipper would come all the way to the top of the waistband. Next time I make this skirt I need to draw the lines about 1/2″ shorter (so 9.5″ instead of 10″) if I want the waistband to be the full height it’s supposed to be.

The zipper issue was my only hiccup and I think my skirt turned out great! I wore this exact outfit for out family photos but I think the skirt will look really cute with my black Astoria top. I love the red exposed zipper and I’m so glad I had this on hand for my super last minute sewing project.

I have another plaid skirt cut out and ready to sew. I’m hoping I can get it done tomorrow to wear to Luke and Andrew’s school Christmas program. And then it will be on to the Christmas dress! Is anyone else procrastinating Christmas sewing?

~Teri