Long Edwardian-inspired bias plaid skirt
November’s Historical Sew Monthly (Fortnightly) theme is Inspiration – taking a look at what other members have made over the past several years and using it as inspiration for our own project. In my initial brainstorming post, I had a number of thoughts about inspiration, but as the deadline got closer and closer (and I’ve missed so many themes this year!) I was drawn to something more practical for every-day…
I loved Åsa Petersson’s 1900s outfit with a brown wool jacket and a long plaid bias-cut skirt. I originally wanted to follow her example more specifically, using wool fabric and an Edwardian high-waisted cut, but I also had a need to use up some of my fabric stash instead of buying new fabric.
I had some very interesting bias-printed plaid knit fabric, which I thought would hang wonderfully in a long full skirt, so thought I’d start there. It’s a poor substitute – but makes up a wonderful long winter skirt.
Jupe Courtisane skirt pattern
I was looking at Petit Echo de la Mode, and noticed this historical French skirt pattern – and saw that the pattern was almost a half-circle skirt. I already had a great circle skirt pattern (that I used to make my skull print circle skirt #1 and #2, and a blue taffeta circle skirt) so since I was in a bit of a rush, decided to just use that for this skirt. I lengthened it considerably, and removed some of the extra ease because this fabric has a lot of stretch and I wanted the smoother line at the waist like Åsa’s skirt.
After letting the skirt hang out for a few nights, I checked to ensure that it didn’t ‘drop out’, (it was fine, the knit was very stable) and I hemmed the skirt with a narrow hem. Normally on such a long skirt I’d do a deeper hem, but circle hems are difficult to do deeper, I didn’t want to lose any length, and the knit is heavy enough to work with a narrow hem. Åsa did a hem facing instead, which would be the more historical option for this type of skirt (as I did with my green silk skirt).
A narrow hem on my plaid circle skirt
So… it’s not a very historically-informed skirt at ALL… but I think it has the LOOK that I was going for – and it will be much more wearable this winter!
Historical Sew Monthly
Long Edwardian-inspired bias plaid skirt
The Challenge: November: HSF Inspiration – One of the best things about the HSF is seeing what everyone else creates, and using it to spark your own creativity. Be inspired by something that has been made for the HSF over the years to make your own fabulous item.
Inspired by Åsa Petersson’s 1900s outfit with a brown wool jacket and a long plaid bias-cut skirt.
Material: bias-printed plaid knit
Pattern: self drafted
Year: 1900s
Notions: Thread, elastic
How historically accurate is it? Not very much at all. I was going for a every-day wearable skirt with the look-and-feel of the inspiration costume.
Hours to complete: 4? Completely machine sewn.
First worn: While out shopping… lol
Total cost: Fabric and elastic were in my stash… the fabric was approximately $9.99/meter. The elastic would have been a few dollars.
Long Edwardian-inspired bias plaid skirt
Dawn's Dress Diary 
[…] a 1950s circle skirt if 1950s falls within the guidelines of HSM (I can’t remember off the top of my head, and […]
[…] Earlier this year I made an Edwardian blouse out of wool shirting (Wool shirting is lovely, but requires some extra care to avoid shrinkage. I learned this the hard way). Next I needed a long skirt to go with it. I considered several options of various difficulty levels when making this skirt: drafting a skirt using instructions from the Keystone Jacket and Dress Cutter, using the Fantail Skirt from Scroop Patterns, or being really simple about it and lengthening the half-circle skirt pattern in Gertie Sews Vintage Casual (Again, I know. I did warn you I would be using these patterns a lot!). In the end I chose the half-circle skirt because it was the easiest option, because I already had the pattern, and also because I like the more modern fit and silhouette of this over the Fantail skirt (plus, it uses less fabric!). The Keystone and Fantail skirts have an extremely Edwardian silhouette, but there is some evidence that skirts in period may have also been cut similarly to our modern half-circle skirts (photo from Petit Echo de la Mode in this blog post). […]