I must admit that I’ve never been a big fan of the bubble hem. Nothing against it, it just never appealed to me enough to try out. But you know how you can see something made up in the perfect fabric and you’re suddenly sold? That’s what happened to me. I was entering all the Make it Perfect patterns into the KCW database over the summer, and I stumbled upon the Frothy Skirt. And I became obsessed with making the exact same skirt.
As you can tell, I did not make the exact same skirt. I thought the original was chambray, but I found out from Toni that she used double gauze. My “polka dot double gauze” search turned up this stuff from Drygoods Design, which seemed like a nice choice, but it was sold out when I looked (and wouldn’t ya know it, now available!).
The double gauze would’ve been softer and more bubbly, but I decided to add my own polka dots to some Essex Yarn Dyed Denim. I didn’t use the same method, but the idea came from the Oliver + S blog.
First I tried using a pencil eraser as a stamp, but the paint wouldn’t adhere to the fabric. So instead I punched 1/4 inch holes (standard hole punch size) into strips of freezer paper – I started out with a sort of grid system (one inch apart in all directions) but I got a little lazy, and it’s all very imperfect. It was my first attempt at freezer paper stenciling – are you supposed to reuse your stencils? I couldn’t bear the thought of punching a hole for every single dot, so I reused, which probably explains some of the rough edges – but you wouldn’t notice unless you got up close and personal.
I highly recommend this fabric paint – it’s Jaquard Lumiere in metallic silver, something I purchased immediately after seeing this post form Nested in Stitches back in February. Now and again I’ll visit Robin’s blog just to ogle this coat – I love that star lining so much.
The dots seemed like a good excuse to bust out the silver thread, too, so I used that for all the top stitching. It’s never as noticeable as I hope it’ll be. But I added an extra row of top stitching at the top of the waistband anyway.
The Frothy Skirt is one of the Make it Perfect Creative Cards – it’s available in “little” and “big” sizes, costs less than $3, and includes measurements to make your own pattern pieces (all rectangles) along with detailed, step-by-step directions. It’s a great little pattern. The only change I made was to sew my two rows of gathering stitches separately on each panel instead of in long rows – for some reason I couldn’t get my threads to pull evenly when they spanned the full width of the skirt. Other than that it was smooth sailing, and aside from the whole polka-dotting by hand thing, a very quick and simple skirt to make.
So there you go, I like the bubble hem after all. And now I’ve moved on to obsessing over this version of the skirt. Bubble hem in baby cord is next up.
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I managed to make something last week, something I cut out last fall and then left on my ironing board for eight months. It’s a Make it Perfect Joey Dress, a favorite pattern of mine, and of Lila’s, too. The orange one I made when she was in Kindergarten rivaled that first Geranium dress as her most loved and most often worn garment.
‘Tis the season for monkey bar callouses and backyard raspberries. Happy almost summer!
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