Paper or Plastic?

If you've been here long, you know that I love linen! And apparently I did pretty well in the husband department, because mine brought home a meter of olive linen from a port call in Croatia while he was deployed. But that deployment was five years ago, and still nothing had materialized (look at me pun!) from that gift.

I just couldn't bring myself to cut into that gorgeous linen! A meter is not enough for a dress (or even most skirts), but I wanted to make something special with it. This summer my goal has been to use up some of the yardage languishing in my craft closet, and I knew I really should start with this piece. Taking inspiration from some of the skirts on my Pinterest board, I decided on a paper bag style skirt. None of the patterns I saw met my criteria, so I worked out a few details and started cutting. 

I mean, why not take huge risks with a fabric you're terrified of wasting? *wink* 

I knew I wanted a wide sash and a faux opening with buttons up the front. Most of my other decisions were driven by my fabric limitations! Fortunately it was a 60" wide piece and linen doesn't have a definite "direction," so I turned it sideways. 

The top edge is folded down to make the paperbag "ruffle," but I added a muslin strip for the casing (which is not visible) so I could get as much length as possible. I opted for tidy French seams on the inside, and everything went swimmingly. At last, I put the elastic through and tried it on before adding the finishing touches.

It was too big.

Hilariously so, except that the emotion I felt was more akin to desperation! I wanted plenty of "leg room," so I'd cut it out too generously -- I didn't realize that was even possible, considering how little fabric I had to work with. But as someone with a barely-defined waist, the amount of fabric around my hips was atrocious. The wide elastic I used was also curling dreadfully, and looking rather bunchy.

Lots of seam ripping later, I took out several inches from the side seams and then made a double casing with two narrower pieces of elastic. I tried it on again. Much better (and the elastic was perfect), but now there was a distinct "poof" at the center back... I didn't want to make the bottom width any smaller, so I crossed my fingers, uncrossed them so I could wield my seam ripper and shears yet again, and added a sloped seam to the center back (taking fabric out of the waist but not the hem). The problem with all of this was that I had no idea if my alterations worked until I had done a significant amount of re-construction. I really, really did not want to seam rip anything else, and honestly had no clue what to do if this last alteration failed.

Happily, it was a success! I spent another half hour on finishing details (this would have been a one-day project if it hadn't been for the fit issues...grrr). I've been wanting a skirt like this for ages, and I'm so pleased with the color, fit, etc. While a bit narrower than I would have liked, it's short enough that is doesn't restrict normal movement and I think this will be a favorite piece in my wardrobe.