New Spiral Skirt Finished

Finished, she said? It's not hemmed yet. I serged around the edges and wore it to town like that. 

I wanted a really ruffly skirt this time. Phooey on convention, I want ruffles. So I used five gores of skirt 4B, the 6" width (which I don't think is on the site yet but I'll put it up soon, I'm redoing the whole thing)

This was really, really the end on some of those fabrics. For instance, here's how one of the blue gore pieces went together... in slivers! 

Five gores of skirt 4B produced this. Very much what I had in mind! Super ruffly! But too short for me, only 24" long. 

It would be great for a little girl. For a while I put it away, pondering whether I should finish it and list it on ebay for some lucky little girl, or try to pick out the whole thing. 

Secret weapon! Mikey to the rescue. I paid Mike $5 to pick out all those gores for me. I only had him pick the actual seams, then used the rotary cutter to trim the zigzagging off the edges. 

Then I made six more gore sections from Skirt 3, which is a gentler curve, attached those above the others, and sewed the whole thing together again. 
I didn't have enough of some of the fabrics, so I used something just close. It's not too obvious, is it? 

 

And there we are, all done. I like it! 

Latest Crop of Spiral Seam Dresses

From around the net: 

 

The white ones are Oscar de la Renta and Pnina Tornai

http://coolspotters.com/clothing/proenza-schouler-spiral-striped-long-dress

They only used striped fabric cut on the diagonal, not spiral seams  :-) 

http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2012/01/so-loves-vintage-win-100-voucher-to-spend-online.html

This one does use spiral seams but only on top! 

http://dollsoutfits.blogspot.com/2011/05/spiral-dress-for-14-kish-doll.html

And that links to a doll pattern for sale: 

http://www.dolloutfits.com/patterns/robespirale/index.html

http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/blogs/wedding_style_file/archive/2010/10/15/bridal-fashion-week-sneak-peek-vineyard-collection.aspx 

Not sure if I've shared this before.  There's Farrah Fawcett in a white gown that is the ideal spiral shape. 

Here's a spiral seams wedding dress, called "Rae" by Priscilla of Boston

For some really pretty spiral skirts and dresses, check out the brand "Sacred Threads" on ebay. 

I'm Sewing Spirals!

Sudden irresistible urge to make spiral skirts. I have four of them cut out of various color combinations. 

Here's the very cool way one looks going together: 

Does anyone think these things are tricky to sew together?  They are not like sewing two contrary curves together to make a quilt, or put a sleeve into an armscye. These are easy. There's no pinning. You just sew a few inches of curve, then pull the edges together to line up on top of each other, sew a few more inches, until one of the gores ends.  

But I have no idea why I always end up tipping my head to one side while doing it. Why do that? There's no reason. Can't see any better that way. I straighten up and start sewing again, but as soon as I forget about it, the head tips sideways. 

The new spiral skirts in Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls

Was online t'other day looking at the big three websites and noticed some spirals. 

Simplicity 2416 and Butterick 5042 both look really cool! If I hadn't already made up my own I would totally buy one of these.

McCalls 5056 caught my eye but it's not a spiral at all.  They've colored the illustration to look like it is. Isn't that silly?

Found Spirals

I've had a saved search on Ebay for "spiral skirt" for a long time. Besides the Birch Street, there isn't much out there. I guess I'm the only one with a fascination for clothing that makes one look like a barber pole. 

I found these under "square dance", not even tagged with the keyword "spiral"! 

After much hunting, I found the pattern they used! 

Spiral dress 2

http://janelwashere.com/crafts/spirals.html

I made this using the Spiral Dress top, and the skirt pieces of Spiral Skirt 1. So finally Skirt 1 gets tested! It came out pretty much as I expected... which isn't really what I was going for.

 I made it from a floral because that's pretty much all I want to wear! Call me a church lady, it's okay...

Camera in left hand  :-) 

THERE, just so you can see the lowest limits to which I will sink... there is that dress turned inside out with the seams highlighted so you can see them!!  
Because I know, otherwise they'd be quite invisible  :-) 

Testing Spiral 2 again

Made one up with red snowflakes fabric... I was mainly testing Spiral 2 with perfect circles instead of that odd shape I hand-drew at first. This is an inside-out view. From the right side you can't see the seams and it looks like any other skirt!

Spiral 2 finally gets tested

And YES, it makes the classic spiral skirt shape. Yay!

Couple pics of spiral skirt

This is Spiral Skirt 3 :-)

spiral hems

I organized the spiral patterns on a page so I can refer to them by number. Or I ought to give them names, d'ya think? Maybe I will after I finally make a test for Skirt 1.

Anyway I made another Skirt 3. Here it is with the gores all together, and then together with a hem. I only need to make the elastic waist and that's quick.
Karen picked out those fabrics!



I wrestled with the serger yesterday! Felt like an hour, probably not that long. It should have been easy to change the threads, yet everything went haywire. Wrong tension or snapping, one looper mysteriously not threaded... started over from scratch and it was worse! Imagine a machine you need tweezers to thread. But once it finally got working right, it makes hems just like a charm. I serged the edge of Karen's skirt. Took only a few minutes, brrrrrrr around there, and it's done.

I pulled my spiral dress out of the closet, where it's been hanging ever since I made it. Remember that dress? How long's it been? Whenever I've had to sit down for a while, I've worked on hemming it by hand. I've gotten a couple feet of the hem done that way. Oh boy, how exciting...
Well I ripped out the couple feet of handstitched hem and serged around the edge. Five minutes and it's done. FORGET about some more elegant solution, let's wear the blasted thing this year, while I'm still walking around would be nice! It's not like there's going to be a surprise hem inspection! It looks fine enough :-)

Burda spiral skirt

Look, Burda just came out with one! It's definitely better than the Butterick version but not as nice as mine :-)

http://www.burdafashion.com/en/Patterns/Main_Collection/7946_Skirt/1270778-1128998-1002130-1450414.html

I'm still around. Flash class just finished. I'm working on a spiral skirt for Karen, it's all cut out and sewing that today. Someone's asked me for lengths of spiral skirts, how long does it take to grab a tape measure?? Anyway it's on the to-do list! A couple other requests, I'll get to them...