It’s past time for another project post; this is the next in line for documenting my sister’s projects. After we made our blue tiered skirts, the next thing my sister and I wanted to make was a pink pleated skirt. I guess it was kind of always a dream of ours to have a pink pleated skirt, back when we first thought about making our own clothes some day. Sounds kind of silly saying that now, but anyway.
We each made our own pink skirt with box pleats, for some reason out of that same cheap polyester fabric that comes in so many colors and that I’ve come to despise. My pleated skirt had a panel similar to the tiered skirt, while hers had no panel.
The Skirt
The design itself is very simple; just a rectangle that’s folded into pleats that match the waist measurement at the top. Making the pleats was not complicated, but it was a bit of a tedious task for sewing beginners. All the measuring and marking, then cutting, folding, and ironing took all of an afternoon. Not to mention the fabric wasn’t actually long enough to do all the wide pleats in a single piece. Sewing a second piece onto it was an extra step. That seam was “expertly” hidden on the underside of one of the pleats that wasn’t supposed to be visible, so we thought.
After the pleats were all marked and folded, sewing the skirt was easy. She sewed a line of stitching at the top to hold the pleats in place before adding the waistband. The waistband is finished with a line of topstitching, per usual. In the back, a zipper and button serve to fasten the skirt, like the previous ones. She also tried to hide the zipper by placing it on the underside between two pleats in order to keep the design continuity all the way around.
The hem was also finished with a blind hem stitch, as one of the first projects she tried it out on after recently getting our own sewing machine.
From this angle, you can hardly see the zipper at all!
This skirt does look really cute with the pale pink button-down shirt.
The Vest
So after making the skirt, my sister was not quite satisfied. She decided to also make a vest to go with, much like the tiered skirt with its vest.
I think the pattern for this vest might have been redrafted for a little better fit than the blue vest. Besides that, it’s pretty much the same. It has princess seams on the front and back going to the armscyes.
Also different from the blue vest, this one is actually lined. I think the main reason for this was because the fabric is so thin and a little see-through for the lighter colors. You might be able to tell a little bit in these pictures with how the seam allowance on the princess seam is somewhat noticeable from the outside. My sister lined the inside with the same fabric, hiding the seam allowances in between the layers.
It looks like the bottom edge of this vest was also folded up in the same way as the blue vest. Then it was finished with buttons to match the one used for the skirt. I feel like the buttons used to be pinker, and somehow they got a little discolored over time.
For a beginner project, also made without an actual pattern, I think it turned out really well. The whole outfit looks really cute. I don’t have any photos of my sister wearing it, but she wore it a lot. I think she was really proud of it.