Floral Miette Skirt (and Bonus Playsuit Combo!)

Today I've got a fairly simple make to share with you that makes a whole lot of difference to the wearability of my Holly Playsuit which I shared a couple of weeks ago. This project came about for a couple of reasons. After making my first cotton twill Miette Skirt and realising what a speedy and wearable make it was, I knew I wanted to make another in a less crisp fabric to achieve a softer and less obviously a-line look.

Secondly the silhouette of the bodice and shorts combo from the initial design of By Hand London's Holly Jumpsuit  (which just to reiterate is not the bodice variation included in the final pattern now available) gave off a bit of a 1950s pin up vibe to me. My boyfriend said to me while we were taking the pictures that I was pretty much as exposed in Holly as I am in both of my Bombshell Swimsuits so I might as well model them for the blog. It was at that point that an image popped into my head of those stunning 1950s sewing patterns for bathing suits or beachwear that come with an additional wrap skirt to wear over the top. I've always loved the idea of these and thought why not whip up my own, slightly more contemporary version? I realised that the perfect solution for making my playsuit a little more modest already existed in my plan for a second Miette, and the ideal fabric for my second Miette already existed in the generous leftovers of crepe from my playsuit.

The John Kaldor French Crepe I used for Holly is the absolute perfect fabric for the silhouette I wanted to achieve with this skirt, it has a good weight to it but still a beautiful drape which suits the simple silhouette and wrap of this perfectly. The skirt has been worn separately, paired with a simple t-shirt or cami, quite a lot over the summer. It's an easy thing to reach for in the morning on a hot day and suits my fairly active working lifestyle perfectly as it does not crease or wrinkle at all and falls back into place neatly.

The crepe also worked out great for the skirt and playsuit combo. I was worried about things getting a bit too bulky around the waist area with the wrap of the skirt on top of the waistline of the playsuit but it's just light weight enough for this not to be an issue. It feels great as a dress and I think from a distance you can't even tell that it's not! It's got me excited about using this and the two released variations of the Holly bodice as part of a dress.

I don't have much to report on the Miette Skirt pattern from Tilly and the Buttons as I sewed this up exactly as before; cutting between a size 2 and 3 at the waist, grading out to a 3 at the hips and taking a good 4" off the length. I again omitted the waist ties in favour of two buttons fastening each end of the wrap at the back of the waist. I used exactly the same buttons as I did for my first Miette. They are a good size for the waistband and the colour looked great with the gorgeous vivid colours of the print.

With the exception of the ties I followed the throughly detailed and pictured instructions pretty much to the letter and was again incredibly pleased with the tidy finish. The crepe presses beautifully and holds a lovely crisp edge to the wrap. After much deliberation I used white thread throughout with the exception of the buttonholes for which I used purple. The white showed up nicely against the colours as a topstitched line but I felt when used for the dense stitching of a buttonhole and combined with those purple buttons it might have been too bright and jarring. I overlocked all the raw edges with white thread.

We've had a little bit of a muggy wave of heat passing through London over the last week which has meant I've had a surprise extra bit of wear out of these two garments. I've got a feeling we're saying goodbye to summer for now though so I'm already looking forward to the next and any possible trips to the beach so I can wear the outfit complete!