August total – and the reveal
Posted: September 2, 2016 Filed under: Dressmaking, Skirts, Stashbusting | Tags: Dressmaking, Skirts, Stashbusting 30 CommentsI was something of a tease in my last post – showing that picture and letting you guess. I have to say that some of the guesses were very inventive! No-one was quite right but Anne McClure was close.
Pleated skirt
A pleated skirt!
Stylist picture I liked
The picture on the left is from a Stylist magazine from ages ago. I (like many of you out there I imagine) have a whole pile of pictures ripped from various magazines and newspapers of looks I think I might like to recreate. Not all of them are ever going to see action but just occasionally a fabric jogs a mental image and I scuttle off to try and find the picture I’m thinking of. Not always easy.
Anyway, when I was in Birmingham with Fairy and Glenda I picked up this polyester taffeta fabric from the Barrys £2 per metre table. I knew I wanted it but wasn’t sure what for. When I got home it started to whisper to me and I ignored it for a while but eventually succumbed.
I sent the panels, which I had already roll hemmed, to Ciment pleating and they made a lovely job. It didn’t take too long to join the panels (if only I had thought of this skirt whilst I was at Barrys I could have bought enough to have had the fabric pleated in one piece – you learn through experience I suppose) and trim to the length I wanted. I did think briefly about an elasticated waist but went with the more attractive waistband. I fitted this late afternoon and there is definitely a bit of wiggle room there – it could probably be a little tighter but I will leave it for now.
I’m not entirely certain that a pleated skirt ‘is me’ at the moment – and certainly not styled with an orange vest! I’m thinking white shirt maybe? It’s so long since I wore skirts on a regular basis it feels odd to be in one, but now that I have seen that I can wear a skirt AND flat shoes I will try more out. I’m currently thinking about a half circle skirt although that may have been something to have done at the start of the summer.
So at the end of August (because this was finished in August, honest) I had made two shirts for The Management, the wonderful Fadanista Sneaky Shrug for me, and now this pleated skirt. The total fabric used in August was 8m – 2 more than I bought this month. Hurrah!
The Material Lady 
OOOOOOH pleating services…nice one missus. I don’t remember this fabric, maybe it looks different with the pleats. Cool!
They are great (not cheap but great) and have all sorts of exciting ways to pleat fabric. I have the trimmings if they are useful to you?
Wow! That’s brilliant! Good idea to buy more fabric do no joins, I go like a good excuse to buy more!! And I’m going to check out that link. I never knew such a service was available! 😃
They are very helpful.
I’ve never made anything pleated, mainly because I thought you had to pleat it yourself and I couldn’t get my head around that! Looks great and I rather like the orange vest. Love your shoes!
I certainly wouldn’t have pleated like this myself. The shoes are Clarks and outrageously comfortable 🙂
Wow, how do they do that? Heat? I will investigate.
Well done on the stash busting and I think you can wear this all kinds of ways: the orange vest works fine. Just wear it, pretty lady!!
Thanks! I know that synthetic cloth is preferred so I assume that heat is involved (in a knowledgeable way!)
Recently read about a pleating service over here, so am glad you’ve got one there, too. Bet this is super comfortable as well as a great look! 😍
Thanks! It is comfortable but I think I might have to tighten the waist if I keep running 😟🏃🏃
Yeah! Good for you!! Am certain they’ve had that request before. 😉
Oh no, that would be a job for me I’m afraid 😢
I’ve got mad for these this year, love these little pleats! I’ve got three, one of them’s metallic silver 🙂
I’m late to the party again – but I think I’m going to enjoy this skirt 😃
Saw a black velvet one yesterday – divine decadence!
What – pleated velvet? Wowsa that sounds good.
Yep. I just stroked it for a while in the shop. Markies.
I love your skirt! Pleats are so classic. You look fabulous!
Thanks!
Lovely. Thanks for the info. I promised to make Helen a pleated skirt using our family tartan. I had an experiment which had some problems. I’m wondering whether I could get graduated pleats from the company you mention – my problem was in part that ladies have waist and hips to fit meaning that the tartan pattern couldn’t be pleated straight and still fit well. Hers was still to big at the waist
I tucked each pleated a tiny bit more at the waist to reduce the circumference. Since I don’t have a massive difference between waist and hip it wasn’t too difficult.
But WOW! How good must it be to have a family tartan!
It sounds so extravagant to ‘have your fabric pleated’ but what a brilliant idea. More skirts KIm and wear them with whatever you like!
It cost significantly more than the fabric but was well worth it 😃
A pleating service?! WOW that’s absolutely amazing. You must have the most wonderful specialised clothing industries where you are 🙂
They take some tracking down but they’re out there! The blogger network helps too 😉
Having the fabric pleated! How wonderful is that? I have always loved pleated skirts, but I haven’t had one in many years, and I’ve never made one with pleats all the way around. This is brilliant!
The pleated skirt has been in the shops for a couple of seasons but I think they are quite hard to wear due to creating fullness over the tummy and hips. I would sew them down to the hip line if it were me. The other thing I found about a pleating place I went to years ago was that they could do starburst pleats, where they start small and widen out to the hem. Very vintage looking. You need quite a bit of synthetic in the fabric for it to hold but a fine wool with some polyester should work well.
My tummy has flattened a bit with running, and I have a very small waist/hip difference so I can get away with this fairly well. This fabric is very synthetic but lovely none the less.
There used to be a pleating service in Perth, but I’m not sure if it still exists. Your skirt is lovely – I am impressed that you thought of doing this.
The fabric told me to do it!