What I Made // Elastic-Back Half-Circle Skirt

Goodness! Two “What I Made’s” in a row! We did intend to put up the last part of the Q&A 2014 series up yesterday, but we had some technical difficulties, so you all will have to wait… hopefully it will be worth it! Anyways, I am super-duper excited to share with you all today’s make because guess what? On Monday (Lord willing) I’ll be sharing the tutorial on how I adjusted the pattern to make it! Whoop whoop!

I’ve had this striped non-stretchy (I guess it would be called stable? Anyone know the proper term?) knit in my stash ever since last summer when I picked it up at an estate sale.  It wasn’t really enough to make a dress out of, so I wasn’t quite sure what to make out of it… until now! I had just finished this pink 1/2 circle skirt, and since I loved it so much I figured why not make one out of my striped knit? Only I wanted to try something new… an elastic back waistband with no zipper, snap, or any sort of closure. So after reviewing a tutorial that I had pinned a while back, I set myself to figuring out how to adapt the idea to my hand drafted 1/2 circle skirt pattern. And I’ll be sharing the result of those figurings with you all on Monday hopefully!


Just the Details

Pattern: Self-drafted, and adjusted, with a tutorial on those adjustments to be posted SOON!

Any alterations? Adding several inches at the back waistband to add an elastic back.

Fabric: About a yard and a half of some sort of synthetic vintage jersey from an estate sale. $2.00

Notions: Gutermann Thread, Elastic. $0.50

The inside details: I didn’t finish the seams or the hem on this one at all! Which is totally odd for me these days. I love how stable jerseys like this don’t ravel! It’s awesome. The elastic is stretched and stitched down to the raw edge of the fabric, then folded over and stitched again. Next time I think I will do a casing instead, since the elastic stretched out a bit too much.

Issues with the fabric or construction? Because this was completely self drafted, I did have to do some figuring and further adjustments after I had drafted the pattern. The fabric was simple to work with. The only issue was the elastic… but don’t worry! Everything that I learned from making this skirt will be included in the tutorial on Monday.

First Worn: The day after I finished it. Which was a few weeks ago, I think…

Wear again? Yes! I’m wearing it right now!

Make again? That depends… I probably will, just to try it out with my final figurings that I made during the construction.


So, like I said there were a few issues. While I was sewing down the elastic ( I think I’ll be putting it in a casing next time) it stretched out, so I had to go back, unpick the seam and extend the elastic out to the side seams. I also made a belt and some belt carriers just in case I wanted to make the waist a bit tighter. Overall I love this skirt, and how comfy it turned out to be! I think 1/2 circle skirts are my favorite skirt to make since they are so easy and graceful! Not to mention twirl-able!