Ideas can come in such interesting ways. A little pile of fabric scraps caught my eye yesterday and they way they were laying gave me an idea. I thought it would be cute to have a strip of contrasting fabric going up a skirt seam with a little bow to top it off. I figure the Insa skirt (Farbenmix) would be the perfect fit for my idea and since I was already planning to make one out of Heather's Pop Garden Paisley in the Ivory and Ice colorways I got straight to work.
Here are my skirt pieces all cut out. The red strip on the bottom is 16 inches by 1 inch (keep an eye on it).
I folded the strip under on both edges to make it 1/2 inch wide. I cut 4 pieces from this strip (each 4 inches by 1/2 inch). You'll see what I'm using it for further along.
These are my bows. They are 3.5 by 2 inches (they're shaggy looking because I'm too lazy to cut the fabric so I tore it on the grainline).
Here I folded it in half and stitched the end on two sides (leaving a gap to turn it).
Okay, so here I pressed the seam open and made sure it's in the middle of the (future) bow.
I stitched the ends shut (I know it's sloppy looking but it'll work out).
Then I turned it right side through that little gap I left in the back (I just left the gap unsewn because it's so little and it won't show anyway).
Now here is another strip of fabric that I folded over like the first one (it's about 8 inches long) but I stitched this one up both edges.
I cut it into 4 little strips.
I wrapped the strips around the little bows (I used a running stitch to gather it up a bit since I knew the strip would cover it) and stitched it together on the back part of the bow (where the opening is). Sloppy looking I know but it won't even show in the end!
I sewed one of those 4 x 1/2 inch strips I made at first on each seam from the bottom up.
Then I hand stitched the little bow on the top (I decided to tack down the edges of the bows too just to keep them from flopping around). I did this on every seam (while watching Sense and Sensibility and cursing that stupid Willoughby for being such a snake).
Tada! I really really love this skirt!! Aren't those bows the bees knees?!
Here it is with another one of those sweaters I have. I put together a cute little pin with a crocheted flower (purchased, not made) to tie it together. So that was fun to get an idea and have it work out so nicely!
And now that I got that out of my system, it's going in my store (which is what I intended all along, I just wasn't planning the bows at first). Fun!
