Pattern hack alert: meet byevamaria’s Eva and her #Arlette skirt

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Creating unique pieces to share on your blog or Instagram account to inspire others – the sew & social media combo is all the rage. The number of Sewista bloggers is on the rise, and that’s exactly why Fibre Mood regularly features a Sewista who has taken a Fibre Mood pattern and come up with a unique pattern hack. This month we’re introducing Eva from byevamaria and her #Arlette pattern hack. Find out more about her gorgeous creation here!

ByEvaMaria

My name is Eva Goris, but in the sewing and blogging world you may already know me as ‘byevamaria’. I got started sewing around ten years ago after having spent my childhood watching my nan do nothing but sew. Maybe it was way back then that my interest in sewing blossomed...

I sew for myself and my kids, but I do non-clothing-related projects from time to time too. Now that the kids are older, I only sew for them when they ask, which is how I rather accidentally ended up with this Arlette hack. Basically, my 18-year-old daughter wanted a breezy summer skirt with a slit and she wanted to wear it the next day. Yes, you read that right – the next day. It just so happened that I had a length of gorgeous black Tencel by Lotte Martens and black elastic band for the waist. Finding the right sort of pattern seemed trickier... that is, until my daughter saw the Arlette. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough fabric (or time) for the ruffle bit on the original Arlette, so I decided to leave it off.

A guide to my Arlette pattern hack

1.         Place the front of the Arlette on your folded fabric with the straight side as far from the fabric fold as possible (that way you use the full fabric width).

2.         Pay attention to the length! Without the ruffles, the skirt is automatically shorter. The bottom of the pattern piece basically becomes the bottom of your skirt, so you might want to shift the top of the pattern piece a little further away from the top of your fabric.

3.         Cut the fabric without seam allowance and open the fabric out. Use your overlocker to sew a rolled hem that extends the full length of the under and side seams.

4.         Fold the fabric together again (with the wrong sides facing) and overlap the sides by 12 to 15 cm. Sew the overlapped pieces temporarily to the top edge of the fabric and then finish the top edge with overlocking or a zigzag stitch.

5.         Mark the centre front, centre back, and the two sides. When you’re doing this, make sure that the slit doesn't end up in the middle but more to the side.

6.         Cut the elastic band according to the waist measurement and sew the short ends closed. Use straight pins to divide the band into four equal sections.

7.         Sew the elastic to the skirt (using a zigzag stitch) so that the four skirt markings match the four divisions on the elastic band (the seam of the elastic band = the centre back of the skirt). Hold the elastic taut while you sew.

8.         That's it!

 

The skirt was finished in less than an hour, which is how I like it! My daughter and I were both over-the-moon happy with this unexpected and successful pattern hack. Sometimes to whip up something amazing, you've just got to give it a shot and try!

I can’t really say that I do a lot of pattern hacking; however, what I do try is to find ways of speeding up the sewing process. I rarely make things that demand a whole lot of time; I haven’t really got the patience for it. Occasionally that (impatience) ends up in a pattern hack.

Because I started to miss sewing things for little ones, I launched a biannual mini collection of children’s jumpers two years ago. I'm currently knee-deep in the AW20 collection and naturally, that demands a considerable amount of my time. The result is that all other sewing projects are temporarily on hold.

Warm regards,
Eva

Fancy making your own Arlette skirt? Buy the pattern here!

 

 

 

 

 

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