Self Drafted Wrap Skirt with Ruffle

Skirt prices of RTW (ready to wear) drive me batty. So much money for something that is relatively easy to create at home. All you really need to draft a skirt pattern is a ruler, pencil, and a piece of paper. A little knowledge is useful too, although more often dangerous. 😉

For this reason, I created a class to teach folks how to sew skirts. It ran for two months with a maximum of 6 students, and I made 4 skirts for examples. This wrap skirt is a self-drafted design, modelled here for me by the gorgeous Jaslyn Ivy!

It has a full wrap going almost entirely from one hip, right around the body and across to the other hip. I hate wrap skirts that are so skimpy in fabric that any time the wind blows your unmentionables are mentionable!

The skirt portion is drafted as an A-line, rather than a circle skirt, so that it falls and drapes neatly around the body. This makes it more flattering on a wider range of body styles.

The tie is designed for a side knot, so you would need to choose which side you want it on. One tie is shorter than the other deliberately, reducing bulk.

The ruffle goes from the front side tie, down around the body, and across to the flat portion of the under-wrap. It doesn't climb up the under-wrapped side, which would add poofiness and bulk to that section of the skirt. Another reason why this skirt is one-sided! LOL

Overall, the design was successful, although I think the ruffle should have been a little deeper in this cotton. With a softer drape, a shorter ruffle would have been fine, but for fabrics with a stiffer hand, you definitely need a wider ruffle. Jaslyn looks terrific in it, though, so all good! My thanks to her for the fabulous photos.

What do you think of my design?