Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Doctor Who Shirt & Color Block Skirt

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Last year, my friend Janine asked me if I would  make a shirt for her husband Ron. She'd already made a skirt for herself out of some TARDIS and Dalek fabric that she had bought from Spoonflower, and she figured there was probably a shirt's worth of material left. There was-- just barely! I gave Ron the shirt when I saw him at Christmas, and all was well, by which I mean my mom was kind of horrified by it, but Ron loved it. They wore their matching outfits to StellarCon in North Carolina (ADORABLE!):

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I looked at the pile of scraps I had left, and I thought, "I bet if I pieced these, I could make a skirt for their daughter. Then they would ALL match!" And then, because my mind seizes up when I try to design something original, I scoured the internet for pictures of colorblocked and patchwork skirts, and I drew sketch after sketch until I was finally satisfied it wouldn't look terrible. I really didn't have that much of the Who fabric left, so I picked up some coordinating solid cottons at Jo-Ann. And so-- skirt!

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It's a basic quarter-circle skirt, dead simple to draft, although turning the single pattern piece into the five stripe pieces was a bit time-consuming-- lots of careful measuring and drawing and cutting. The trickiest part was piecing the TARDIS and Dalek blocks, because my scraps were tall, not wide. I couldn't make things line up perfectly, but I did my best. Here's an example:

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The skirt is fully lined-- white underneath the lighter upper blocks, with a dark stripe around the hem so it blends with the bottom of the skirt. It has a grosgrain waistband and closes with an invisible zipper on the side.

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I think she might like it. Just a little.

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I was pretty pleased too, if we're being honest. :)

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I still have some tiny scraps left...wonder what I could do with them?

4 comments:

  1. Tiny scraps= buttons! For a solid-color blouse to coordinate with the skirt? or maybe a hairbow or headband? Looks like she's got great hair to show off something like that.

    The clothes all look fabulous, you are so very talented. You remind me of my mamau; she could piece together scraps and make it look like it was on purpose, a "design element." When I work with bitty pieces of fabric it never works out as well as it did here!

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  2. Missi, you're a genius! I could totally do a hairbow/hairband or buttons! And she loves hair accessories too. :D Thank you!

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  3. How wonderful! Inspiring, as I am just learning how to sew.

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    1. Thanks so much! Best of luck with your projects. :)

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