Nostalgic flowered jeanskirt
25 November 2009, 19:53I’ve had this flowered black and red denim I’ve since I was 13 or 14 years old. I remember being so inspired by the “sewing machine driver’s test” we took in Home Ec class that I got my mom to buy me this at JoAnn’s Fabrics and I made a really simple tote bag out of this using her old pea-green Kenmore sewing machine. The bag fell apart soon after (let’s just say I wasn’t big on following any “rules”), but I just attached the straps back on with some safety pins and continued to use it as my school bag for the rest of the year.
I honestly had no idea this fabric even still existed, but my mom found it lurking somewhere in my old room at their house and brought it with her this summer. I looked through my pattern magazine archive (made so much simpler by scanning each of the index pages into an online album) and #113 from the July 2008 Burda WOF magazine jumped out as the prime contender.
There wasn’t much fabric left, but it was plenty enough to make this skirt. I’d definitely keep this one in mind if you’ve got a metre or so of heavyweight fabric you want to make use of! The front and back are both cut on the fold, too, so it’s perfect for large or busy prints like this denim, where seams would interrupt the design.
You can just get the tiniest peek of the bright red fabric I used to line the pockets here:
Since I’d just finished sewing my designer jeans and I wanted to make this more like a jeanskirt, I reused the back pocket pattern from that Knipmode jeans pattern and added them to the back:
Here’s a good shot of those scoop pockets and the two front pleats:
This was a super simple skirt to throw together, and the wide waistband is always a flattering choice in skirts. The pockets are a good size, and it’s a really great basic pattern to have in your arsenal, whether you make it up in summery or wintry fabrics. This one’s going to bypass my normal stack where traced patterns go to be stored and is getting hung up on my pattern rack with the handful of patterns I sew over and over again!
So now that I’ve confessed to using a fabric of fabric I’ve had for over 16 years, I’d love to know if anyone has anything in their stash they’ve held on to for longer?
tags: bwof, jeans, skirt
Melissa you look stunning here . I love the last photo the background is stunning . You look very vibrant in red . Thanks for this post because I could use a skirt pattern like this and weirdly I have this is issue of BWOF and completly bypassed it.
— Lisa Nov 25, 08:22 PM #
I JUST sold some wool crepe that I had in my stash since 1985 to make a slinky Ralph Lauren dress. Dress was never made and the fabric just keep mocking me. It had to go!
— lsaspacey Nov 25, 09:34 PM #
Very cute(especially with the red)! I was just thinking about making this skirt after having seen it on couturedetails.blogspot.com, but now that I have seen yours, I am officially making it as my very next project!
I have just finished sewing a blouse from a fabric that someone gifted to my grandma in the 1950s, with the purpose of having a dress made for my Mom when she was a little girl. So, although this was not technically in my stash for more than a couple of years, it’s been in “the family” longer than I have! (And, it appears that I have inherited the stash-aholic genes.)
— Olga Nov 25, 09:40 PM #
OK, how about this: it’s been 11 years that I’ve been looking at some fabric I inherited from my mother, and I know she’d had it at least since 1964? Good enough :-)? I’m sure I could come up with some excuses too, like it’d be sacrilegious to make something out of it if she didn’t. Ahem.
Did I mention I lvoe your skirt? It’s good to see you already were fabulous so young.
— Marie-Christine Nov 25, 10:04 PM #
Never knew this old fabric would look so good. Glad I found it and brought it along. I love the effect of the whole outfit. It’s very becoming!
— Mom Nov 25, 10:42 PM #
Love your skirt! I made it up when the issue came out, and I have to agree, it’s a wonderfully drafted, easy to make with a little bit of fabric, kind of skirt! My oldest fabric is a blue mid-weight cotton I’ve had since about 1990, when I worked at Joann’s during high school. Royal blue with a texture I can’t describe, and I don’t know when I’ll really use it!
— Kristine Nov 26, 12:54 AM #
Very cute skirt. Even cuter matching hairdo!
— Digs Nov 26, 01:51 AM #
I’m pretty sure my mom’s (very small) stash still contains the rememnants from a trousers and button-down shirt combo I made about 16 years ago (both violently synthetic, so I would never use them again). I like skirt by the way, and I think I own the same kind of tights, and use them to brighten up darker outfits.
— lauriana Nov 26, 06:41 AM #
Super cute skirt! I love it with the red tights and hair!
— senaSews Nov 26, 08:21 AM #
Red’s so good on you! I’ll have to look out that skirt pattern now, it’s great – pockets too! I’ve just made a skirt from some turquoise wool tweed that my mum gave to me that she had never used. Must have come from the 60’s. It even came with enough matching yarn to knit a cardi or something! That will probably take me about another 10 years to get around to…
— racheljm Nov 26, 10:02 AM #
Confession time eh?
I have indeed sinned and have fabric given to me by my mum when my daughter was born (in 1983) to make ‘a nice dress’ which is still waiting. I am also holding an unreasonable amount of Linton Tweed fabric (they make some of Chanels fabrics and I have been buying this since 1984!) which has been hugged and dreamed with but not actually converted into something I can wear.
I really should stop buying more fabric and make this lot up. Perhaps that could be my penance.
P.S.The skirt looks fabulous so that should give me some incentive to get busy!
— Kim Hood Nov 26, 11:14 AM #
Awesome skirt; I love that the fabric is your junior-high choice! I’m currently working on a quilt using fabric scraps left over from my mom sewing clothes for us when we were kids in the 70s and 80s. Plus, she sewed them on the same pea-green Kenmore machine!
— Nadia Nov 26, 11:24 AM #
That is a cute skirt. Did you have some turkey today? Happy Thanksgiving in merry old England. I’ve been watching Life on Mars from Netflix. Really Good
— Karen M Nov 26, 02:26 PM #