Restyling Patricia

Over the last few months I have made a few Patricia Skirts (Tina Givens - who else?!).  The pattern is for a dropped yoke with a gathered skirt attached and then the hem is pulled in and sewn to a band.  It has a very funky balloon or pegged (thank-you Lorie for the description!) look.

So far, so good.  Well, not really.  The skirts have been sitting in the back of my wardrobe - feeling a little unloved, so I set about determining what the issue is and fixing it.

It turns out that there are two issues - one is that I clearly walk like an Amazon with big ground-covering strides, and the hem band is rather restrictive.  I found this especially so when getting in and out of the car, stepping over lounging dogs - you get the picture!  Also, the skirt has no pockets.  Well, my version doesn't.  I changed the pattern a little to make the yoke one piece with an elasticated waist, so no side seams.  One of the joys of making my own clothes is to add pockets, usually inseam.  To everything. Well. Almost!

To fix the first issue, I made a couple of the skirts with an elasticated hemline - thereby keeping the shape of the skirt, and yet making it more 'walkable'.

This is a lovely Royal Stewart Tartan in brushed cotton and is lovely to wear.

In order for this to work - I need to have gathered the bottom skirt onto the yoke.  However, what about the skirts that I had pleated onto the yoke?  I find this a lot quicker and easier than gathering, so I needed another solution.  I noticed that another designer, Krista Larson has a similar RTW design with an unrestricted hemline - so that was the way to go. I cut off the original hem treatment and a simple single fold bias binding attached with a triple stitch zigzig was all that was needed:

This is the first skirt that I changed, and as I did not have any of the chocolate linen/rayon, I dug around and found some co-ordinating linen with a stripe pattern.  The hem looked a little strange being in a different colour, but when a scrap was added down the side over part of the ruffle, and a patch pocket was sewn to the yoke it looked much better - and solved my second issue!

Sorry about the colour variation, the middle of these three photos is closest to the correct colours.  I had to piece the pocket together, but I think it looks rather good.  It is 6" wide and this is about 6-7" in depth - enough for some lip salve, a tissue etc!  And it is double thickness with some interfacing ironed on near the top.

And then I did some other skirts . . . . 

This is a lovely 100% wool with browns/dusky pink/greys that I got for a steal from Fabric Mart or Fabric.com a few years ago before the Canadian Dollar tanked against the US Dollar.  Is is very soft and washes well.  I cut this pocket on the bias, and left the seam that made this double layered on the front so that it can gently fray.  My 'design feature'!  The other bonus with this skirt was that the hemline was quite bulky before and wasn't quite 'right'.  But now - it is lighter, and to my mind, more attractive!

I also updated a plain black 'Patricia' with a strip of lace along the ruffle and on the pocket - you will need to use your imagination for that one though as the photos came out terribly.  And finally, the Royal Stewart skirt has this pocket:

Again, cut on the bias with a scrap of lace 'just for fun'!

Due to the type of tops I wear with my skirts, the pockets will likely be covered, but just knowing that they are there makes me smile.

I am really pleased with this simple makeover.  My skirts are now a lot more wearable and still retain the boho/Lagenlook style that I love.