Tutorial: Turn that Odette into a Skirt

Hello Bluegingerdolls, as usual I can't leave well enough alone when it comes to patterns.  After finishing up my Odette dress, the though struck me that it would also make a lovely skirt.  The gored panels create such a beautiful silhouette, keeping waist line tidy while flaring into a full hem sweep. It's the perfect skirt for pairing with cardigans in the Fall/Winter months. All I needed was a waistband to make all my skirt dreams come true.

After giving it some thought, I drafted a simple curved waistband for my Odette skirt. (Tutorial below) To finish it off, the skirt was closed with an invisible zipper at CB.  All insides facings were slip stitched to the seam allowance of the waistband.

If you'd also like to convert your Odette dress into a skirt, there are several waistband options to choose from.

Option one - Use the bodice waistband
The simplest option for converting the Odette dress into a skirt. Great if you don't need anything fancy and have no problems fitting straight waistbands.

Option two - Use one of the Peggy waistbands
If you want a little bit of style in your waistband, then any of the Peggy options can be easily swap in. You can finish the waistband with a button or cut it down for invisible zipper insertion.

Option three - Draft your own curved waistband
This is the option I chose for my Odette skirt because curved waistbands fit my figure much better than straight ones.  Here's how you draft your own....

Step 1 - Select the CF skirt and side front skirt pieces. Draw in the 5/8" seam allowance on the waist area and sides.

Step 2 - Line the two skirt pieces up so that the seam allowance lines are on top of each other. Pin or tape the two pieces into place.

Step 3 - Lay a piece of trace paper of the waistline area of the skirt.

Step 4 - Trace the waist seam line, not the edge of the pattern.

Step 5 - Place a ruler along the CF of the skirt.  Extend that line up into your waistband piece.

Step 6 - Lay the ruler along the side seam and extend that line up for the other side of the waistband.

Step 7 -  Label the CF side with "Fold".

Step 8 - You can make the waistband what ever width you desire. I usually go with a 2" waistband using the width of the clear ruler to trace the top edge of the band.

Step 9 - The angle on the side seam edge of the waistband looked a little too sharp to me. I checked my waist diameter against it and added around 5/8" to the top edge, redrawing the side seam angle.

Step 10 - Add 5/8" seam allowance to all edges except the CF fold and label the waistband as the Front. Cut out the waistband to finish.

Step 11 - For the back waistband follow the same steps, except do not mark the CB as a fold.  Mark it as CB, to avoid confusion, and add seam allowance to that side in the final step.

There you go sewists, chose your own waistband adventure and enjoy some Odette separates. Happy Sewing! - Heather

ODETTE SEW-ALONG #4 - Fabric prep & cutting

Today's sew-along  post we will be ticking off a few final tasks before we dive into sewing our Odette dresses. Prepping your fabric, cutting it out as well as a few other little sewing tips.

You can find all the previous sew-along posts here.

Lets get cracking on these final steps before we sink our teeth into sewing!

PRE-WASHING YOUR FABRIC

Once  you've made all you fit adjustments, tested out a muslin etc you're ready to start sewing.. good times. But first its always a good idea to run through these basics to get you on the right track with that lush fabrics of yours.

Pre-washing and drying  your fancy fabric is always a good idea before you start sewing, i will admit though it sometimes a step that i  miss and every time i do it leads to disappointing results once my project is done. Why? because once  i give it a wash.. it shrinks. So this little tip speaks for itself. Wash and dry your fabric AND give it a good press before you start cutting out your pattern pieces and start sewing. 

SUGGESTED FABRIC LAYOUTS

 

OK so your fabric all washed, dried and pressed and pattern pieces ready to be cut out. There a lot of pattern pieces with the Odette dress so if you need a helping hand with some ideas on how to lay them out on your fabric then take a look at the suggested fabric layouts on page 1 of the instructions. These layouts will give you an idea on how to  lay out your pattern pieces in the most efficient way.

CUTTING OUT YOUR FABRIC & PATTERN INFO

Once you've figured the best layout for your pattern pieces on your fabric then go ahead and cut them all out. Before you remove the pattern pieces away from the fabric make sure to transfer all the pattern info across onto your fabric for example darts and  notches. For the notches on pattern pieces  I simply snip each one,  carefully cutting into the seam allowance roughly about 1/4'' or less.

I mark my darts using waxed tracing paper and a tracing wheel.  For me i find this the easiest and clearest way. It also means i can come back to the pattern pieces later on with them  still clearly marked, pins i find seem to go astray.

HOW MANY SKIRT PIECES?

Odette has a gored skirt with majority of the pattern pieces looking very much the same. So you don't get confused once you start stitching up the skirt  grab a marker and on each skirt piece mark which piece is which within the seam allowance at the waistline  i.e CF( center front), CB ( center back) and so on.

I hope you found some of these little sewing tips helpful for getting your fabric prepped and  cut out and ready to start sewing.

See you tomorrow for the next Odette sew-along post!

Abby

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