Crafty Blogger's Club - Emily's Ready to Party Combo with Pintucks and Remnants

Posted by Kim Burley Jones
on January 02, 2022

This months' Crafty Bloggers' Club post is from Emily.  You can find more of her makes on Instagram @mossymakes

I absolutely love looking at remnant sales: it appeals to my need for a bargain and my attempts to become more sustainable in my shopping habits. I had the ‘mosaic sky craft cotton’ in my basket before I began talking to Kim about my blogpost and, when we discussed a sustainability angle for my blog, I knew I wanted to use up this 85cm remnant. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be, but I needed to use it. Added bonus: when it arrived it was sparkly! 

I haven’t made myself many skirts, so I requested the ‘all the cute skirts’ pattern from MHW. It is so versatile! However, with the need to mix fabrics, I went with the tulip skirt from the My Handmade Wardrobe Ready to Party Dress (which I already owned and have used for a previous blog post).  I hacked on a waistband using the skirt’s pattern tutorials. 

The idea of combining fabrics came from my friend Jackie’s idea of a ‘power clash’. I thought I could use a different fabric as the ‘main’ and the remnant as a pop of something different, so I looked through a few options and went with this lovely turquoise spotted cotton. I ordered a metre of it. As most of the ‘all the skirt patterns’ required 1.5m, and the remnant was 85cm, I thought this was a safe bet for my skirt. In the end though I got everything except for one skirt panel out of the mosaic sky cotton. 

 

Crafty Bloggers Club Model wears a Ready To Party Tulip Skirt

 

The question in my house is always ‘could I make a pintuck cami out of it?’ as the first I ever made was done with a small remnant from a destash sale. To get it out of the polka dot fabric I had left (I estimate about 65cm) I had to:

  • Narrow the side seams (so it fell straight rather than billowed) 
  • Shorten it a little 
  • Shorten the facings a little 
  • Cut the back and the back facing on the flat (as two separate pieces, which I sewed together) 
Crafty Blogger's Club model wears a Pintuck Cami

 

To make the skirt I used the pre-cut tulip pattern pieces I had for my Ready to Party dress, deciding that I would keep the polka dots as a flash of colour and have them peek under the sky cotton. The bias binding technique for the tulip skirt was just as lovely this time, and created such a wonderful neat edge. I inserted the invisible zipper at the back (having now learnt the actual difference between a zip insertion and an invisible zip insertion!) with no problems either, following the fantastic tutorial on the MHW blog. 

back view

The tricky bit came when fitting it! Without a bodice to go with it the waist was too big. Sadly, I have no hips, and it just didn’t fall right. I thought about bringing in the darts, but in the end I sewed up the side seams a little tighter, removing the curved shape of them. I also pulled the tulip cross over each other a little more. Rather than having the waistband meet, I added a popper and had the waistband edges overlap the other. 

popper detail on waistband

 

Crafty Bloggers Club Model wears a Ready To Party Tulip Skirt

 

So here I am, wearing the two pieces together as a little faux-dress, and separate for a more casual look! 

Plans for the future:

  • I’ve got just enough fabric left to make myself a matching face covering; unfortunately I foresee them still being fashionable in 2022
  • I love the ‘all the skirts’ pattern bundle, and think I'll make a pencil skirt next with some remnant wool fabric I inherited from my sister-in-law, Madeline.

Happy sewing!

Emily x

 

“Crafty Bloggers' Club Contributors are given products and materials to test from Crafty Sew & So. We hope you enjoy their honest and impartial reviews of the products. All opinions are their own.”