Circle Skirts!!!

Sarah Marie is my gorgeous, talented and elegant sister-in-law.  We cause infinite confusion by sharing the same name.  There was a time when we confused everyone we knew (until they figured out our middle names, or resorted to describing us by our physical characteristics).  That is, until we eliminated all variables but one.

"Sarah H?"

"Yes, the one with red hair."  (We both have red hair.)

"The home schooled one?"  (We were both home schooled.)

"Yes, the ballet dancer?" (Haha!  Aside from my weight gain recently and the fact that I can't imagine dancing right now, there was a time that I was almost as good as my graceful sister in law.)

That brief introduction aside, one other attribute that we share is an almost sickly passion for strange skirts.  The obsession with the circle skirt made from some charmingly unsightly fabric has consumed us for over two years.  It all started when I purchased at JoAnn's a fabulously unsightly print and fashioned from it with nothing but a spool of thread, a 1.5" wide length of grosgrain ribbon and an invisible Coats and Clark zipper, the very first ugly skirt.

We shop for things and find prints and say "isn't it fantastically ugly?!"  We buy each other ugly items, coveting the perfect ugly skirt.

This skirt falls short of being ugly, but I declare proudly that it fits Sarah Marie perfectly.  The fabric is a classic butter crepe in a simple black and white fabric.  Armed with my Singer featherweight and 4-thread Singer Overlock, I pulled this skirt together in under 2 hours.

A recipe for circle skirt success:

• New Look 6149
• 9" Coats and Clark Invisible Zipper - make sure you buy the custom foot attachment.  I adore these zippers, super easy to install, super fast, and delightfully seamless.
• About 2 yards of some fantastically unsightly fabric that noone in their right mind would purchase.  Ensure that it compensates for its ugliness by having a luscious hand.  You cannot skimp here.
• 1.5 yards of 1.5" wide Grosgrain ribbon for a waistband.  Iron it in half, insert waist of garment, pin, and stitch twice close to edge opening.

Normally, I do a French seam on the inside (two straight stitches with my featherweight), but this time I cheated and just serged that puppy.  It came out beautifully if I don't say so myself.

I also normally do a very narrow hem, invisible stitched.  It takes a long time.  This print enabled me to do a simple rolled hem with my serger.  I'm normally not so lucky.  Being a perfectionist, I would ordinarily spend an hour and a half invisible stitching a stupid hem closed.  Yeah.  Neurotic behavior runs in my family.

As a closing remark, I must say that Sarah Marie makes a zipper, ribbon and yard and a half of semi-ugly fabric look good.  My disclaimer is that she chose that particular fabric, and that if I had selected it, it would have been significantly uglier.  It's not hard to sew for such a gorgeous model.