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Tsurah Designs patterns now available here!

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Sometimes you love a design so much you wish you’d thought of it yourself. I feel that way about the Tsurah Designs straight skirt. Not only do I own many of my own I use the pattern when I’m teaching sewing too. It’s such a flattering skirt and so easy to make, it just ticks so many boxes on what makes a good design.

The brains behind Tsurah Designs is Rebecca who like myself is a veteran of the Australian Fashion Industry. We got to chatting and I offered to help sell her designs via the Measure Twice Cut Once website and she loved the idea.

All the designs are now available as pdf patterns in the webstore including the maternity patterns.

I hope you enjoy making them all up as much as I do.

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Sewing Adventures: Tsurah Designs Straight Skirt Sparkly edition

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In my head I refer to this skirt as “The Lizzy Made me do it skirt”. After Lizzy had been down for the Shibori Workshop last year (actually the year before last as I’m more than slightly behind in blogging all my makes) we had talked about shapes, proportions and trying new things just to see where they go. On Pinterest I had admired images of sequin skirts worn casually and I always wanted to give it a go.

Spurred on by Lizzy I grabbed some sequins and got to making. I’ve made the Tsurah Designs straight skirt before here and here. So I knew it would be fast to make and I could alter it to fit in the sequins.

The sequin has slightly less stretch than the Ponti and isn’t quite as strong so I wanted the back of the skirt to hold more of the weight of the garment. So I cut it fractionally bigger from hem all the way to just above the hip but kept the waist the same width. Then cut the sequin panel the same.

silver skirt front

This gives it more room which is nice and it doesn’t pull the sequins at the front. I kept the wide waistband as I thought it could add to the look by being worn up for a very long silhouette or folded down which is lovely and comfortable. The hem is twin needled but apart from that the rest was entirely sewn on the overlocker. I did wear my clear lens running glasses while sewing to prevent flying sequins into eyes but honestly it sewed like a dream with no problems at all.

silver skirt back

I find it a surprisingly comfortable piece. I have to be slightly careful as the sequins do like to snag themselves on things and it gets handwashed too. Apart from that it’s very easy wear and always gets compliments! I’ve been wearing this to work for over a year and it’s still going strong, made for a whim it’s certainly become a mainstay of my wardrobe.

silver skirt side

Thanks Lizzy for spurring me on to try something I thought was out of my comfort zone and yet became one of my most worn items!

Oh and I look slightly pinker than usual it’s because I’m sunburnt, I got roasted on Australia day despite wearing a hat, keeping to the shade and  doing all the usual things to avoid the sun. It was a beautiful day out, despite the resulting burn. Here’s the Russian Roulette’s as they came across the Bridge.

Russian Roulettes in Sydney

 

Pattern: Tsurah Designs straight skirt made many times before.

Alterations: Shortened skirt, added width over hips and down side seams to allow for sequins.

Fabric: Stretch Silver purchased at Pitt Trading, Grey Marle Ponti purchased at Cabramatta.

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Sewing Adventures: Girls Japanese knit skirt

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After the fun of making the City Gym Shorts for my niece I decided to make something else for her.

A few weeks ago I won a copy of Cucito on Instagram. I was so excited as it was so unexpected. It arrived in a lovely parcel and I fell in love with this gorgeous knit skirt (and pretty much every other style in the magazine).

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From the stash I grabbed this 2 faced knit. It’s wonderful soft and has spots on one side and stripes on the other, could there be a cooler fabric? The hem and the pocket openings are all bound using cotton bias binding, also from the stash.

bound hem

I traced out the pattern and didn’t make any adjustments from the instructions apart from attached the elastic in a slightly different manner. No big reason I just like doing elastic in a different way.

cucito knit skirt

It looks adorable, I so want it in my size for the summer! Making kids clothes is fun as it’s so speedy and everything looks cute at tiny sizes.

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Sewing Adventures

I did it again, I made another skirt!

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I’ve been enjoying my first Pattern Runway skirt so much that I made another. I actually made this one a few weeks ago but was too embarrassed to admit to making yet another skirt for the 3rd week in a row.

This version is in a lovely cotton I picked up forever ago at The Remnant Warehouse and it has been languishing in my stash ever since. Now I’m not entirely sure what I got it for at the time as I only bought a small amount and it has all together too much orange in it for me to want to use it for a dress, I can only imagine I had it mind as some kind of trim or to pair with something else?

By cutting it on the opposite grain I managed to squeeze it onto the amount I had purchased. I even managed to get the pockets too. The side seam pockets are fantastic, just one small thing. I need to move them up. I had shortened the skirt pattern last time I made it up but as I had omitted the pockets on that one I hadn’t measured their placement in relation to my own arms. This time I just matched the notches and sewed and well they could be slightly higher up for me. I’ve written a note to myself on the pattern for next time, because we all know there is going to be a next time with this pattern.

So it seems that I have finally come around to being a skirt wearing person! I’m now totally open for suggestions on your favourite skirt and top combinations as I’m keen to sew some more.