Matchy-Matchy: A Poppy Print Skirt with a Poppy-Embellished Top

Poppies are one of my favorite flowers, so when I found some 100% cotton poppy fabric at a quilt shop, I knew it had to be made into one of my annual circle skirts. I love circle skirts. I love the bias drape where it occurs and the swishy fullness of the hemline. I love 'em short and I love 'em long. And I make at least one a summer.

I also was inspired by a photo in the February 2010 issue of Burdastyle magazine of a Blugirl poppy t-shirt. So to accompany my poppy circle skirt, I embellished a RTW black slinky t-shirt with poly chiffon poppies.

Photos:The light breeze is playing with the hem in this photo.

Fabric closeup: The embellishment on the RTW top:
Flowers closeup:
The inspiration for the embellishment of the RTW top:

Pattern Used:

Top: RTW top with embellishment inspired by BurdaStyle magazine, 2/1010, photo page 37
Skirt: Self-drafted pattern using the formula from this circle skirt website.

Materials:

RTW top embellishment:

• white 4 way stretch swimsuit fabric for stems
• Steam a Seam II Lite to fuse stems to top
• rose and coral poly chiffon for petals
• small glass beads securing the poppy blossoms in place

Skirt:

• Poppy fabric: 100% cotton from quilt shop
• Petersham ribbon for waist facing (no waistband)
• Invisible zipper
• The skirt is unlined.

Thread:

Mettler 100% polyester thread in sewing machine

MaxiLock 100% polyester thread in serger

Machine Needles:

Size 80 Universal

Machines:

Janome 6600 computerized sewing machine

Elna Pro 905 DCX computerized serger

Things I did with this project (that weren't in the pattern instructions):

There were no instructions, since this is a self-drafted project.

Things I learned, or was reminded of in this project:

1. How to make the poppies:
It took some head-scratching to come up with a way to get the flower stems onto the stretchy shirt. First, the color was a problem. I liked the look of the poppies on the white t-shirt in the Blugirl inspiration photo, but a black top looked better with the skirt I made. I tried green narrow ribbon for the stems but did not like the introduction of another color into the ensemble. So I settled on white.

I eliminated the possibility of using ribbon because it would not stretch with the top. So I dug some 4 way stretch swimsuit fabric out of my stash, adhered a 1/2 inch strip of Steam A Seam II Lite to it, cut 1/16 inch wide strips and fused them to the top. It worked well, since the top stretches to fit and there are no ripples around the stems.

The flower petals are made from gently fluted D-shaped layers of poly chiffon, gathered along the long straight edge. I worried about the edges of the petals fraying with wear so I tried Fray Block, which left a noticeable dullness at the edges. Next I tried serging a rolled hem along the edges which detracted from the lightness of the flowers. So I jettisoned off both of those edge treatments and left the cut edges in their natural state. I'm just hoping that since the curved edges are cut along bias lines, perhaps they won't fray too much.

The petals are secured together with threaded seed beads. The flowers are attached to the top with basting stitches so that they can be removed when the top is washed and then basted back into place. Hopefully this treatment will minimize fraying as well.

2. Drafting the skirt

The skirt draft is simple, made from the formula shown on this webpage. The fabric I used has a directional print. Had I made the skirt with two half-circle pieces, the poppies would be standing up at center front and back and lying horizontally at the side seams. To avoid this effect, I made the skirt in 4 quarter-circle pieces, placing the straight of grain in the center of each quarter-circle piece. That way the poppies all "grow" vertically.

The rough graphic below (Fig. 1) illustrates this effect. With two half-circle skirt pieces, the flowers are oriented vertically from waist to hem at the center front and center back. The flowers in the area of the side seams are perpendicular to the side seams and lie horizontally (parallel to the hem) when the skirt hangs in its normal position.

Also with this layout, more of the fullness falls toward the sides of the skirt as it is worn. The straight of grain at center front and center back hangs without much fullness. For body shapes where hip size is a concern, a layout that results in more fullness at the sides of the skirt may not be a flattering look. I did not use this layout.

Fig. 1

I made my poppy skirt in 4 quarters (Fig. 2 below) with right and left side front and side back seams. The straight of the grain and hence the direction of the poppies is oriented from waist to hem in the center of each of the four quarters. This of course means that the zipper is placed in the left side back seam.

A second advantage to this layout is that a centered grainline in each piece evenly drapes the skirt's fullness around the body, a more flattering look for some body types.

Fig. 2

3. Bias methods

Since this is a bias skirt, I used 1 1/2 inch wide seam allowances. Wider seam allowances press better and don't ripple. And if the bias areas of the skirt grow with hanging, the seam allowances can shrink. I allowed the skirt to hang for several days before hemming it with a serged rolled hem. With this densely woven cotton quilting fabric, however, the hem did not sag, so conventional width seams might have been used. Still, it's hard to know how a fabric will behave, so whenever I make bias seams, I use the wider seam allowances.

Things I would do differently, were I to make this project again:

I would still like to try to embellish a t-shirt closer in look to the Blugirl inspiration photo. To do this I would have to use the same rounded neckline as in the photo, since that provides more area to place the larger flowers. The V-neckline of the top I used here reduced the available surface area for embellishment. Plus I like the white background a lot. It just didn't look good with the skirt I made in this project. So for the next attempt I will use:

• white t-shirt
• black stems, either painted on or fused as I did in this project
• poppy flowers made closer to the shape and size shown in the inspiration photo
• poppy flowers made perhaps with tulle instead of the stiffer poly chiffon used in this project