Knock Off Velvet Skirt

Silence + Noise Tie Waist Velvet Skirt Knock Off 

Using Simplicity 8653

Last winter I purchased a gorgeous velvet frock from Urban Outfitters. It was almost $100 and probably out of my budget but I had wanted something pretty for family gatherings and dates, so I caved and I bought it. Shortly thereafter, while perusing the UO catalog online, I spotted the "Silence + Noise Tie Waist Velvet Skirt" in a luxurious looking emerald green, but at a whopping $60 CAD it was out of the question, especially after my expensive dress purchase. I waited forever to see it go on sale and it never did! Of course everything else was marked down, including every other colour of my dress, except the one that I had purchased. Go figure.

I was disappointed but determined, I would have that skirt, even if it meant having to make it myself!
I've been dying to use this Simplicity "Grooves" pattern which features 00's fashions, like wide leg pants, crop tops and gathered athletic style skirts (with kangaroo pockets - probably the most adorable sewing terminology you will ever use). This was the only pattern in my collection that I felt matched the Silence + Noise skirt design. It features a gathered, elastic drawstring waistband and an a-line shape, like the skirt in the product photos, but minus the mitered pockets and dolphin shorts hem (another ridiculously adorable sewing term).

I thought that the skirt in the pattern photo looked a little taught in comparison, it didn't have nearly as many gathers, so I drafted an extension onto the front and back skirt pieces. I also drafted the mitered pocket from scratch and I'm in love with how it turned out, I will probably employ this technique thrice over. Unfortunately I didn't make a toile for this project, I just dove right in, and I discovered a few key problems.

1) The dolphin hem was not going to be an easy draft, so rather than overwork myself I simply created a side seam split with a slight hi-lo hem to cover my arse. It works but it's not as visually appealing and I wish I had taken the time to draft a dolphin hem after all.

2)The elasticized drawstring waistband totally tanked! I had drafted a new, wider waistband for the project, sewed on the elastic, stitched buttonhole openings for the drawstring, and threaded the drawstring through the casing. The result? A frumpy, hideous gathered waistband that could not flatter any figure. When looking at my inspiration photo, the waistband is a little frumpy but not nearly as much. It seemed like an excessive amount of material was causing my problem. So I unpicked it, redrafted the waistband and shortened the skirt width, resulting in my having to redraft, sew and recut the pockets and side seams. I must've shaved off ten inches of excess fabric. I tried the waistband in the same manner and what do you know, the same problem happened again. It was still frumpy and unflattering.

At this point I'm wondering, what's going on here? The skirt looks fine gathered before the waistband is assembled. It even looks a little more appealing with ten inches shaved off, yet the waistband looks like crap. The answer? Silence + Noise were clearly using a much cheaper, thinner stretch velvet than I was. My velvet, a moderate thickness, was creating too much bulk in the waistband. I had to rethink it entirely and this is when I lost steam.

I put the skirt on hiatus and left it for a whole year before returning to it.

Now I wouldn't recommend putting all of your projects on one year's hiatus, however, I did return with a much clearer vision in my mind, and with new ideas and techniques that I could employ with this project. I had just finished one red velvet circle skirt with elastic waistband, I knew exactly what I needed to do with this skirt.

Obviously a gathered waistband was out of the question, so instead I needed to serge a wide elastic waistband directly to the skirt. This is accomplished by cutting an elastic to fit your waist, plus seam allowance, then cutting a casing the same length but twice the width of the elastic. I sewed both the elastic and waistband casing seams, and then encased the elastic, therefore creating the waistband. Finally, I used my overlock to serge the waistband to the gathered skirt.

IT'S THAT SIMPLE.

I merely stitched a faux tie onto the front of the skirt to emulate the drawstring effect.

IN REVIEW

A few things to review, for one, the skirt is not as a-line as the pattern depicts. I thought that once it was gathered it would look more flared but it does have a tight, fitted, pencil skirt effect, even with the added fullness. Secondly, there is an undesired fullness between the thighs where it creates a bubble effect, in other words, this is not a skirt that I will be wearing on days that I look and feel bloated. I'm not sure if the gathers were working against this skirt? I had ensured all the gathers were made in the front but not where the pockets are located, in order to show the pockets off more - this is different than in the inspiration photo where the skirt is completely gathered all the way around. This might have caused the bubble issue. I do wish I had created the dolphin hem but it's not something I want to revisit. Overall, I have my skirt! I'm looking forward to wearing it through this chilly winter weather. I consider this a fairly successful knock off.

-Lu