The first garment I ever sewed was this mini skirt that I reverse engineered from a simple ready-to-wear skirt I’ve had for eons. I was surprised that it turned out when I really had no clue what I was doing.
Four years later, I’ve resurrected that mini skirt to make a few more versions. Sitting on a lot of leftover faux leather from a failed “blazer” and successful leggings gave me a lot of room to experiment. And experiment I did.
I made three tests out of this leather and a fourth out of leftover denim-look scuba. And I have a vision for a faux suede knit version employing a higher waist and half circle skirt silhouette. It may look way better in my head than it will turn out in real life, but I’m finding this mini skirt experimenting is nice for using up leftover fabric in quick sews that have a good chance of being wearable.
Version 1
Started with a simple a-line shape.
Version 2
Refined to widen at the hips and taper back in slightly at the hem.
Version 3
Tapered out at the hem instead of in.
Version 4
Version 4 was a modification of version 2 where I subtracted 2 inches from the bottom hem. I also had to play seam tetris and cut 4 panels for the skirt to make it all fit on the remnant I had.
Version 1 vs. Version 4 Back View
Notes
- So far, version 2 is what I gravitate toward.
- While I successfully pinched out the excess fabric between version 2 and 4, I need to reshape the hemline to avoid that riding-up effect. Probably involves some convex curve instead of a straight hemline. Makes me wonder if that will equate to adding back in what I removed from version 1, though.
- As I said, I want to keep playing with this and try a half-circle, high waistline. Possibly with some decorative buttons on the front. I plan on using the formulas found here.
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