Happy belated Easter weekend! I’m posting a little later than my usual Sunday post this week after taking the weekend off to spend time enjoying my family, but I’m excited to share with you this morning!
This skirt is a long time coming, guys. Although I don’t log on to Pinterest as much as I used to lately, some of the pins that live on my boards are still such inspiration in my wardrobe. I fell in love with this skirt from Anthropologie when i came across this pin something like 5 years ago. I pinned it knowing full well i would never buy it full price from Anthro, but I loved the look of it and hoped I might run across something similar that fit a little better into my budget. I wasn’t sewing at this time, and ultimately I kind of forgot about it.
Recently, looking for a little spring fashion inspiration, i logged back into my Pinterest and fell right back in love with this skirt. When I saw this fabric from Stylish Fabric, I knew I had to recreate it. It isn’t an exact duplicate, but the inspiration definitely shines through. Though the original skirt only had a concentration of blossoms on the bottom, this double border fabric places the blooms at both the waist and hem. The bright beautiful colors of this fabric make it even more fantastic, in my opinion!
The Anna Dress came to mind immediately when I started thinking up how to turn this garment into my pinspiration skirt. I scoured Instagram and blogs looking to see if anyone had made a skirt version, and I surprisingly could not find one anywhere! Why aren’t more of us using this absolutely gorgeous pattern to make incredible maxi skirts???
The Anna Dress was actually one of the few By Hand London patterns that i didn’t already own, and quite honestly, I’d never been entirely sold on it. I think it looks great on other people, but I wasn’t sure that I loved how either of the bodice options would look on me, despite my love for that gorgeous maxi! I had considered Frankensteining other BHL bodices onto the skirt, but I’d found other hacks that worked well for me… but this was just the excuse I needed to add the Anna to my collection. I mean, come on. This skirt. Would it be ridiculous to have an entire wardrobe of these skirts? (If you’re looking to make your own, all I did was to cut the skirt pieces and add a double sided, interfaced waistband!)
Okay, so let me tell you a little bit more about this fabric. This is a crepe chiffon, and as I mentioned previously, it is a double border print so the dense collection of flowers is on either selvedge edge of the 58” fabric. It is lightweight and floaty, and slightly sheer – I chose not to line the skirt, so it requires either some nude colored spanx or a slip underneath!
I’ve sewn with slightly heavier crepes before, but this was – I believe – my first time sewing with a chiffon fabric. I had to alter the pattern instructions a bit to accommodate the thin, light fabric. Similarly to my pink floral pants I made this spring, the fabric seemed to grow a little and I removed about 1.5 inches from the back center waist before inserting the zipper – I really should’ve gone for 2 inches, as the waist is still large and therefore sits lower than I’d prefer!!
This type of fabric does not hold a press particularly well, so I ended up using a rolled hem foot to hem the edges along the front slit, and the bottom of the skirt was hemmed with the help of heat & bond, both to add a little sturdiness and to assist the fabric in keeping a fold! The fabric is sheer and likely to fray, so I considered french seams along the panels of the skirt, but I ultimately decided to go with serged edges. Although I love the way that a french seam looks, I don’t ever feel 100% confident that the fabric won’t begin to fray from inside of the french seam and then ultimately fray through! The fabric is not sheer enough that the construction method used on the seams is visible from the outside, so I don’t at all mind the serged seams along the insides!
I felt like a dreamy Disney princess swishing around in this skirt when I first had the opportunity to wear it! I love it paired with this simple crop top (a favorite Target find of mine that I will probably want to copy someday to make more of my own!), and I felt like the denim button-up tied at the waist helped to make the skirt totally appropriate for a birthday lunch! It could obviously be dressed up for a fancier occasion with the right top and accessories, as well. I’m excited to have this added to my wardrobe now that warm, springtime weather are moving in with full force!
Skirt: handmade by me
Pattern: By Hand London – Anna Dress (skirt only!)
Fabric: Stylish Fabric – Mint Pink Floral Garden Print Crepe Chiffon Fabric (ps – from today until Friday, April 28th, you can get 15% off this fabric with the code elizabethstylish)
Earrings: The Flying Cactus
Key Ingredients: Rolled Hem Foot / & / Heat n’ Bond Hem Iron-On Adhesive
Though the fabric used in this post was generously provided to me by Stylish Fabric, all opinions expressed are my own, as always!
- XX Elizabeth
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