Panel Skirt and Matching Top in our Exclusive EcoVero Viscose Fabric By Sam

When I saw the new exclusive collection released by Sew Me Sunshine I knew I could not resist the green one. As someone who sets themselves a colour palette, twice a year, to sew from I knew this would work perfectly for my spring/summer fabric choices.

I find that having a palette of colours helps guide my shopping, reduces the chance of having ‘wardrobe orphans’ that go with nothing else and also means I can buy without necessarily a project in mind but knowing it will work with the other pieces.

Green is a great colour to compliment the others in my spring/summer choice of colours and it works well with all of them.

As soon as the fabric arrived I just knew it needed to be a skirt. It has the perfect balance of softness, drape and weight to flow. I had long wanted to create a skirt that my mum once made me when I was  in my teens. As someone who has always wanted to express their own style I had persuaded my mum to sew me a long swishy grey school skirt. It had multiple panels and no one else had what I did. I still remember stomping around in it at the age of 15 with my black school boots.

Step 1 of the process involved a very technical drawing! On a post-it note.

After a bit of maths working out how many panel pieces I needed to go around my body including some gathering and seam allowances. I drew myself a pattern piece using some of our wrapping paper that lives behind the sofa.

I cut out 10 identical pieces and overlooked the edges of each one.

Step three involved joining pairs of long edges together and then those to each other until they were a continuous circle.

I personally prefer a separate waistband rather than a grown on one so I created myself a waistband that was the same length as the top of the skirt, plus seam allowance and doubled the width of it to make sure I had enough to fold on to the inside and did my usual waistband technique of attaching it and then when stitching the inside leaving a gap to thread the elastic through. You might have your own personal preferred method that you do for attaching a waistband and elastic.

Obviously my final steps were putting in the elastic and adjusting it to the size that I like. I change that every time I put an elastic waistband in because I always want each item of clothing to not feel too tight on my tummy and then I hemmed the bottom of the skirt.

However, my love for this fabric did not end here on a recent trip to Sew Mei Sunshine to celebrate the Sew Yellow for Endo challenge that the wonderful Jess of So What If I Sew created? I saw the bolt of fabric and immediately in my head I knew I needed a second piece that I could make into a coordinating top. This meant that I could wear it together and it would look like a dress plus also get the extra benefits of them as separates with other items.

I always love a challenge and one of my wonderful viewers on YouTube had challenged me to turn a set-in sleeve top into a dropped shoulder sleeve. So started with the patina blouse. If you'd like to see more detail about how I did that, I'll put the link here and I am delighted with how it turned out.  https://youtu.be/7sc15ab3764?si=UmUtTD99eFk4Be2_

Because of the fabulous weight and drape of this fabric, the drop shoulder flows really nicely. I'll tell you all a little secret. The buttons don't have actual button holes on the front. The top easily goes over my head and whilst I love a button to add a bit of color and detail to the front at the top, I have no desire to fight with my sewing machine unnecessarily to create button holes. You wouldn't have noticed unless I told you. 

I recently wore this outfit with the skirt and the top to work and was complimented multiple times by people on my ‘dress’! I have to say I felt fantastic in it. The skirt has just that right amount of swoosh that you feel fancy without feeling beyond the everyday. I chose this length because it is great with a boot popping out or in the warmer weather a sandal. The softness of the fabric also makes it perfect for being able to throw a jumper over to keep me warm at this time of year when the weather's still a bit changeable.