Rose Skirt and T-shirt Fabric Roses

Last week I wrote about the lecture I attended at the Textile Museum by Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin.  I made an outfit to wear to the event, a pull on skirt and tee shirt with a fabric flower embellishment.  The skirt pattern is Natalie’s and comes from her Alabama Stitch book.  The pink fabric I used for the top layer is the organic cotton sold in the Alabama Chanin online store.  The green underlayer is a recycled t-shirt and was cut about an inch longer than the pink so it would peek out.  My artist friend Cyane drew the rose design for me which I enlarged and hand cut a stencil from.  The leaves are reverse appliqué and the flower is appliqué with a parallel whip stitch.

This skirt is cut from four gores, and the only thing I did not like about it was the way the center front seam laid along my tummy;  I felt it was not very flattering.  I had an “aha moment” the next day when I was hanging the skirt up.  I rotated the skirt so that one panel was centered at the front and one at the back, leaving the other two as side panels.  I’m much happier with how this skirt hangs now.

The foldover elastic waistband was stitched on by hand (the entire skirt was also constructed with hand stitching).  This zigzag chain stitch is taught in the Alabama Stitch book.  It makes for a very nice, stretchy stitch, with a lovely appearance.

The t-shirt was my second one using Pamela Leggett’s Perfect T-shirt pattern (you can see my first one here).  I used two recycled t-shirts for this project, cutting the sleeves and body from the fabric in a way that utilized the existing hems which saved a lot of time in finishing.  This time I used the square neckline which is available as a template from Pamela in her New Necklines and Sleeves pattern.   I felt the top needed something to pull it together with the skirt so I used some of the leftover pink scraps to make a fabric rose to wear.  The leaf is some of the leftover green fabric and is embroidered using a free-standing leaf design by A Bit of Stitch.

I’ve written a tutorial on making these fabric roses which you can find in my tutorial section.  I like the idea of using a removable embellishment to help tie two pieces together.  It makes the outfit looked coordinated while still allowing the top to be worn with something else if desired.  I’d love to see what you create with these instructions.  Perhaps an entire bed of roses.