In my adventures in making coasters, I realized that binding the edges takes way too much time relative to the overall process. I thought that there must be a way to simplify this process… Having done no homework whatsoever I devised a method to use an oversized back for binding, and I think it will work well. I have a set assembled and quilted, ready for me to bind, so we’ll know soon how it turns out. I can’t be the first person to have tried this, but I sure hope it works. It will save me a bunch of time/effort/fabric if it does. Stay tuned for the results and some pictures. If it works well I’ll probably do a small tutorial.

…no photos yet, but they’re based on a pattern that Stephanie found from Sandi Henderson (Portabello Pixie). We’re doing a matching top to go with it too. It was my first time cutting fabric from a paper pattern, and I don’t like it much to be honest. I much prefer a set of dimensions and a ruler. They look good so far, and I’ll post some shots when I’m done. 

In other good news, Wednesday’s skirt got a warm welcome Thursday morning, and was worn right away.

I designed and made this skirt tonight in a total of about 3 hours of work. It has 8 panels, with ruffle and trim at the bottom and an elastic waist. I used the french seams I learned for the Bo-peep skirt, hemmed the bottom of the assembled panels, and attached the ruffle & trim. Really it was pretty easy. The best part… this is made of just 5 fat-quarters! (1 fat quarter = ~18″ x ~22″ for those not in the know…)  4 FQ’s make the panels (8″ x 20″ each, for the size I wanted), with scraps used for the ruffle trim, and the fifth makes the ruffle (5 strips of 3.5″ x ~20, roughly 2x the skirt bottom circumference). It actually leaves almost no waste!  Wonderfully simple & highly recommended. A great instant-gratification project. 

So this seems like a big milestone… I’ve made my first article of clothing!  [applause...]  It’s the “Bo-Peep Skirt” designed by Anna Maria Horner in her excellent book Seams to Me. Essentially it consists of 4 full-length panels, with ruffles and trim applied to the side panels. There’s elastic at the top and a rolled hem at the bottom. We used the recommended french seam technique, which is excellent considering we’ve not gotten around to learning how to use our serger yet (shame, I know).

This is a pretty big deal for me since I’ve always wanted to make clothing but have been intimidated by not knowing how to do all the details. Quilting is easy… 1/4″ seams and you’re good to go. And, quilts are flat! Clothing has ruffles and hems and gathers and zippers and buttons and buttonholes and curves and…  you get the idea. Besides, the consequences of non-functional elastic in public are far worse than a torn quilt.   

Anna Maria’s book is great at illustrating a simple way to attack these techniques for the first time, and I can say I’m definitely inspired to do some more clothes. Most importantly, this skirt was worn, and it didn’t fall off. 

Stephanie made a fantastic one at the same time, using a different length and different ruffles to get a completely different look. Keep an eye out for hers on her blog. Also, she gets complete design credit for picking the prints for mine. She has a great eye for color!