Let's wrap this up - Wrap Skirts

One of my wardrobe staples these days is the humble wrap skirt. I used to make a lot of them about 10 years ago, and now I have a pattern and I make better ones.

I have a blue wrap skirt that used to be a wrap dress: I cut the top off when the material frayed in the shoulders, but kept the skirt. I used it to trace a pattern, including the location of the hole for the ties to thread through, and have since used it to cut four more skirts.

(Sorry, I don't have a better 'before' pic)

This is my skirt pattern:

I am increasingly frustrated with shop-bought patterns, as they often still won't fit right. The problem, of course, is that no one is the same size 10, 12, 14, 20, 24, etc. There is no perfect answer. And using different fabrics also changes how things fit you. But I find that cutting patterns off things that I know already fit me is a step in the right direction!

So here are my wrap skirts. They use a lot of fabric for two reasons:

• I like below-knee length skirts for work
• I like to have a decent amount of cross-over in the wrap, so that I'm not worried about the skirt gaping.

I cut out the three panels and the two strips for the waist band/ties. All edges are overlocked to seal them. I don't hem the bottom of the skirt until the end, when I am sure that it is all the same length. Then it is just a matter of joining all of the pieces together.

I prefer to thread one tie through the band of the skirt, so that none of the fabric creeps up when you wear it. This means that I leave a gap in the middle of the waist band like this:

Onto some of the skirts!

This skirt started as a collection of fabrics. The front panel is from IKEA, and it has been in my stash for years. It's a nice, sturdy cotton that unfortunately requires ironing so I don't wear it as often as I like. The pocket is an op-shop find for $1.

This crab fabric was a purchase from an Aboriginal Art Fair. It's not my usual colours, but something about it when it was hanging up struck me and I had to get it. I like to think that the blue under-skirt panels are the sea for the crabs. Luckily blue and orange are good opposites!