I’m back with a quick skirt hack project! This project was inspired by a Lisou London skirt in a beautiful brick orange jacquard. I had spotted a pretty Essentiel Antwerp deadstock print at The Fabric Sales which I thought would be perfect for this.
For my skirt, I used the Kew skirt by Nina Lee London as a base. The Kew dress pattern comes with an option for a midi-length A-line skirt with a fitted waistband and box pleats. The pattern is available in sizes UK 6-20 (US 2-16).
From comparing the pattern to the Lisou skirt I could see that the style was very similar, so I just needed to add a scallop edge to one long edge of the left skirt piece. I wanted to lengthen the skirt pattern and chose to add 5″ for a length just above my ankle. This worked out as approx 30 inches, so I wanted my scallops to be about 2.5″ wide so that I had a completed scallop at the bottom edge of the skirt. I also had to increase the width of the waistband to get a 2.5″ wide scallop to fit on to it, this did make it quite wide, so this is something to bear in mind when deciding your scallop width. I found a scallop facing tutorial on the Megan Nielsen website, which I used as a guide but mostly just winged it! I drew the scallop pattern on the interfaced side of the facing so I could sew the curves accurately.
The fabric was easy to sew with, but it did fray very easily, which made it tricky to turn the scallops and to clip into the seam allowance for a neat curve. I overlocked as many of the edges as possible to prevent the edges fraying to make the skirt last longer. I finished the lower hem and the waistband by hand to give the skirt a neater finish without stitches showing on the front.
The skirt style could easily be made in a simple cotton or linen fabric for a versatile summer skirt or in a suiting for work. I also love the dress variations which would look nice layered with a simple t-shirt.
