Easy to sew: skirt Charlotte by La Maison Victor

This charming easy to sew Charlotte skirt by La maison Victor (5/2021) is a ‘one size fits all’ zero waste skirt.

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The fabric is 100% viscose, has a nice drape and is ideal for this flowy skirt. I was lucky enough to make the skirt a little earlier and I’ve worn it a lot: it went with me on vacation and it already turned out to be ideal for work. The print of this fabric is beautiful. The floral print is black with turquoise on a mustard base. Ideal to combine with the already sewn items in my wardrobe.

The pattern

The pattern consists of three rectangles. The skirt part (A), the skirt strip (B) and the waistband (C).

Zero waste patroon

Before I dared to cut in this beautiful fabric, I made a test version. Just to see if the skirt would fit well. I know that gathered fabric at the height of my hips doesn’t always flatter me and I wanted to test this first. With the test version put together, my hunch was correct. There was a bit too much fabric for my curves, so the skirt stands out further than I like.

Patroon aanpassing

The solution was to remove some centimetres from all parts. Twenty centimetres went of the skirt part and the skirt strip and for the waist band this was ten centimetres (this piece is placed on the fabric fold). So a total of 40 cm went off the circumference.

Luckily there still was more than enough room to move and to get the skirt on easily.

Overlocker

Before you attach the skirt strip to the skirt part, first work the top edge of the skirt strip and the bottom edge of the skirt part with the overlock machine. With the bernette 64 AIRLOCK this is easy.

bernette 64 AIRLOCK

The overlocker with an air threader to automatically thread the loopers. It‘s never been so easy to get started. The b64 AIRLOCK has even more to offer: the freearm makes it easy to sew sleeves and cuffs.

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Then gather the skirt strip so that it becomes the same width as the skirt part. When you have finished both skirt pieces, close the side seams. Then the waistband can be attached.

Rijgen met een ‘old school’ veiligheidsspeld

First you also attach the side seams of the waistband. Make sure that you keep a piece of one side seam open, so that you can thread the elastic in it. I attached the waistband with the overlock machine: Stitch 1 with 4 overlock threads.

Rolled hem

The last step is to finish the hem. I used the rolled edge option of the overlocker. The threads I had selected online for that was not exactly the colour I’d anticipated. This is in contrast to the stitching thread that I was able to pick out with the help of a folder with samples.

Let’s try what I like best first. The options (from top to bottom):

Combination of lock thread and stitching thread (both Mettler) – nice colour, the stitch a bit ‘wobbly’
All Seraflock overlock thread (Mettler) – a bit too light in colour, nice soft rolled hem
All black overlock thread (from the market) – nice colour, fits best (if you know what I mean 😉 )

As far as I’m concerned, the bottom option was best. What would you have chosen?

This zero waste skirt is really an easy to sew skirt. With the adjustment I made I still have some cutting loss….which for me is never a real loss. It will certainly come back in a ‘scrap busting’ project as a scrunchie or together with other viscose fabrics in a skirt for example. As I did before (click here to go to that blog).