Vintage skirt transformation!

Vintage skirt transformation!

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• 2.20.2012

I actually feel kinda bad about this one, folks... you loved this skirt in this post where I wore it with the lace tank I created from and old tee and a lacy top.  It was super fun!  I loved that outfit, too!

I said in the post I had thought about cutting it off to make it shorter, and maybe it would be more wearable that way.  So many of you said no, don't do it!  But, I actually felt really self-conscious about it because, as you can see in this pic, it's, um, not symmetrical.

Yes, somehow either the years of weight on a circle and in places bias-cut skirt have unevenly stretched this knit wool skirt out, or it was never even because it was cheaply manufactured to begin with (which I'm pretty sure it was).  See?

Booo.

So I did want to shorten it, and actually now I kind of regret what I did... oooops!  (You were right, it would have been cuter longer!)

On the bright side, by reading this you'll learn how to shorten a circle skirt (kind of a pain to hem it evenly, as the manufacturers of the skirt found out when they made it in the factory!).  This one's only a partial circle skirt, but the rules are the same!

Basically I had to try it on and have my mom sketch the length I wanted, every few inches, as if radiating from the waistband.  We walked around me with a tape measure measuring the same length all around, every few inches, because think about it like a donut laying flat, with a point in the center--if you don't measure all the lines from the exact center point, the line you create with the tape measure will be on a different path--does that make sense?

Then I cut at the chalk lines, and put in a small machine hem.  Putting the actual hem seam in on a circle skirt is no picnic, either, because the grain is slightly different every millimeter, actually!  So I was very slow and methodical... and eventually, here it is!

Now it's a flippy, mini-length, fun with tights for winter when I want just a pop of brightness.  I like it this way, too, although now looking back, the longer length was quite lady-like and pretty!  Maybe I'll make myself another skirt of that length (and actually cut it and hem it evenly!)!

Which side of the length controversy are you on?  Don't be too mad at me! ;)