Tag Archives: sewing

November 19, 2023 · 1:47 pm

Most favorite ever skirt pattern-The Coquelicot

I bought the Coquelicot Skirt and Apron patterns last summer after seeing several youtube posts and blog posts about how much people were loving this skirt.

They are designed by a Canadian designer, Melanie Boivin (a genius). Her website is: LINK

To be honest, I found the pattern daunting at first, so decided to make a ‘trial’ skirt before I committed to more expensive fabric. BUT! The instructions are beautifully written, and walk you through the making of the skirt step by step, so my concerns vanished as I was sewing the first iteration. In fact, I can now ‘whip up’ a Coquelicot skirt in a snap. Love love love that!

For ‘trial skirt #1: I made it from a thrift shop find- a queen size 100% cotton knit sheet. I wasn’t sure if the knit would be okay or not, but oh my, I love it!

I wore it non stop all summer and decided that I wanted to make skirt #2 in a combination of fabrics that I had set aside for it in a good place. (LOL, of course I can’t find the ‘good place’ where the fabrics are waiting).

I made a couple of changes to the skirt: I like long skirts, so I lengthened it – but I should have copied the knee length pattern first for the apron before I lengthened it for the skirt. Oops.

I am not a fan of using bias tape to bind pocket edges, so instead, I used fabric from a sheet that our little dog dug a hole in when she was being oddly enthusiastic about the joys of digging on our bed. Sigh.

I laid the upcycled lining fabric (cut from the doggied sheet) onto the pocket, stitched on the stitching lines,

turned it right sides out, pressed and topstitched the pocket opening

And made the pockets as shown in the pattern.

I found that the ‘D’ ring closure was uncomfortable, so I changed over to using gross grain ribbon for the ties for the back of the skirt (which are tied in front before the front is tied with self fabric ties)

Before the pandemic, I made a dress from all kinds of upcycled fabric scraps and and a blouse that I bought in a thrift shop because the fabric looked just like origami fabric.

I was no longer wearing the dress, so I wanted to upcycle it again, and decided that the apron would be a great way to do that. When I cut the dress up, I saved the pocket and sewed it onto the apron.

I found some awesome vintage closures that were supposed to be used on tablecloths, but I think of them as suspender clasps. Anyhow, I love how they make the straps super adjustable for adapting to however many layers I am wearing under the apron.

I LOVE the apron! I will make it again, but with fabric that is less ‘precious’ so that I don’t feel guilty about wiping my hands on it!

Knowing that I know that I absolutely love the Coquelicot skirt and find it incredibly comfortable gave me the confidence to go ahead and use some gorgeous wool fabric that I had been given to make another skirt. I practically live in this skirt now. So comfortable, and the hidden, well supported extra generous pockets are THE BEST!

Then I made another one to wear to the wedding of dear friends- also in gorgeous wool suiting that I had been given and have been holding onto until the perfect project came along. This is the perfect project!

I LOVE this skirt sooooooo much! For summer skirts, I am planning on using floral cotton and also linen from curtains that we no longer have on our windows, And, oh yes…. when that elusive black and white fabric re-appears- well! I will grab it and get sewing before it can get away from me again!

Do I recommend this pattern? You betcha! I am enjoying the skirts that I have made from the skirt pattern so much! And once I make the apron in a more ‘get down and dirty and don’t worry about it’ fabric, I will wear it all the time, too. I love aprons and this one is beautifully designed.

Well done, Melanie!

Video tutorial-How to shape fabric by pulling the warp strands

Yesterday, I posted a blog entry about a shrug that I sewed from my handwoven fabric. (LINK)

And, then, was asked- ‘Yes, but what does it mean when you say: Pull warp strands?’

So, I have made a video tutorial, showing how to pull warp strands to shape ruffles, like the lower edge of the shrug,

or the upper edge of the ‘Woven Woman: Butterfly Transformation” LINK (to see the full piece)

Or, you can pull and ease the warp strands into a more graduated curve, like the yoke of this tunic:

Here’s a closer look:

And here’s the video:

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Filed under inkle, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tutorial & how to, weaving & handwoven, Woven Women tapestries and woven works

Tagged as Accessories, band weaving, dress, dressmaking, fabric link, fiber art, hand weaving, hand woven, handwoven fabric, how to shape handwoven fabric by pulling warp strands, inkle weaving, narrow bands, prayer link, sewing, video tutorial, warp, warp strands, weaves, weaving technique, youtube

September 11, 2011 · 9:59 pm

Upcycled jeans become denim dress

Whoosh! Summer raced by, with renovations on our house, and helping out on renovations at our daughter and son-in-law’s house and weaving, weaving, weaving, weaving, weaving!

I’ve been working HARD on new books and am hunkering in and am ~FINALLY~ getting them closer to completion and releasing- oh my!

I took a little break from my looms the other evening to indulge in a little bit of upcycling.

My daughter in law gave me some of her torn blue jeans a few months ago.

Suddenly, the other evening, I felt the urge to take the scissors to them:

I have a couple of dress patterns that I am besotted with these days, and find myself making them over and over in various configurations.

In my previous blog post, (link to post) I showed how I used my fave dress pattern with fabric that I had woven on various narrow looms.

Snipping up the bluejeans to fit the pattern pieces was a touch tricky, and forced me to bend a few ‘good seamstressing’ rules, but what the heck, why not?

I am fanatical about pinning the living daylights out of the sections of garments when I am stitching them together, but I don’t pin my pattern pieces to the fabric when cutting out.

I like my rock collection that I have gathered up over the years. 🙂 They hold things in place without damaging the pattern tissues.

And, of course, I HAD to save and re-use the bum pockets!

I also saved a little pocket from the inside of one pair for a cellphone or glasses mini-pocket, too.

Unfortunately, when I picked the pockets off the backside of the jeans, there were 2 dark blue pocket shapes. Drat!

I thought about attempting to bleach them out, but then thought: Ah, why not consider them to be ‘design elements’? 😀

I am tickled pink with my upcycled denim dress, and am so happy that a couple of pairs of torn jeans have come back to life as a fun and comfy tunic that I am going to enjoy enormously! Whee!

I really should show you the dress that I made from a garage sale tablecloth… it’s great! I wove the neckband…. okay… must take pictures and get back into the habit of blogging again!

And, by the way…. Happy September!