What We Did This Weekend- Wrap Circle from Simple Simon

Welcome to this week’s “What We Did This Weekend.” In this segment, I showcase a project or recipe that YOU have inspired me to do! Let’s see what you’ve gotten me into this week…

I’ve shared in the past at how I am horrified of sewing clothes. I finally broke down and created a few pieces for my daughter, the Minnie Mouse skirt and a Christmas dress that I’m working on. Although these have worked out great, I was still intimidated at sewing clothes for myself.

Then I saw this tutorial from Simple Simon on sewing a wrap skirt from a circle skirt, and I had to have it! So off to JoAnn’s I went, armed with coupons and the sale circular. I found some cute light blue fabric that I thought would be perfect.

Simple Simon made the instructions so easy. I literally sewed this within 2 nights after my daughter went to bed. The concepts of the skirt were easy, and the sewing skills were ones that I already knew how to do- I just had to apply them to clothing instead of a craft. Voila- A cute skirt tailored to fit me!!

I didn’t take pictures while I was making it, and there’s no reason to detail the instructions since Simple Simon has already done a marvelous job of that. Visit their site to get detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make your own wrap skirt for yourself of a little one. I will share a few things that I ran into just as tidbit pointers for those who are also intimidated at sewing clothes:

• When you get to step 5 where you sandwich the skirt in between the waistband, make sure that the waistband hem stays folded up in the back (the down side where you can’t see while you are sewing). And even though I checked and double-checked prior to the sewing in this step, I still had a few places that came unfolded during sewing. I had to go back and sew over these places. They are barely noticeable, but I know that they are there and are probably the only thing keeping this skirt from being absolutely perfect.
• Practice at sewing a buttonhole on a scrap piece of the actual fabric for your skirt. I did a test buttonhole on another piece of regular cotton quilter’s type of fabric, and it turned out perfectly the first time. I was thrilled! So then I went on to sew it on my actual skirt, and it didn’t turn out so great! I was able to fix it by hand so you would never even know that it wasn’t perfect to being with, but same yourself the hassle and practice on a sample of the actual material first.
• I wish I had made the ties longer. I followed the instructions and tripled the length of the ties, but they still were not long enough for my tastes. I would have liked a side tie but wound up with a back tie. Take that into consideration when doing the measurements for your waist tie.

As you can see, any problems that I had were totally my own and had nothing to do with the great instructions.  I hope I’ve inspired anyone else who is intimidated at sewing their own clothes to give this great project a try!!