All week I've been sharing tribal print inspiration (here and here) and now I have an actual completed DIY to share with you. I gave you a little sneak peek of this skirt on Instagram a few days ago as part of my Me Made May posts. A dear friend of mine gave me this amazing fabric a number of years ago and I've just been saving it. I decided it was time to break this gorgeous print out of the closet.
Years ago, when my friend Katie went to Peace Corps in Tanzania, I asked that she bring me back fabric. This is one of the two pieces that she brought for me. As I recall, she said that people often wore these fabrics wrapped around their body like a skirt. This particular piece had a large border edge that I used for the hem and center front. I really like how it turned out.
For the design, I copied a RTW mini skirt which worked out fairly well. The original skirt had a large elastic waistband, side pockets, gathered waist and a large pleat at the center front. I decided to eliminate the side pockets and center pleat to make construction a little easier and to highlight the fabric design.
The design is basically one long rectangle for the skirt plus another rectangle for the waistband casing. There are no side seams, just the center seam with the border print. The fabric is very lightweight so I also incorporated a lining. It was a little tricky figuring out how to stitch the skirt body, lining and waistband together. The elastic is so tall, I didn't think the usual casing method would work. So, I ended up inserting the elastic loop in the folded over waistband, sandwiching it between the skirt body and skirt lining and then carefully sewing all the way around, adjusting the elastic as I went.
I'd really like to try sewing this design again with the side pockets. I really love this fabric and I still have some left over. Do you have any ideas about what else I can sew with this fabric?
