A tale of two tulip skirts.

I just love the Wiksten Tulip skirt. I think I was looking through the archives on the Wiksten made blog when I came across it. At the time, I was afraid of buttonholes and had only mastered the A-line skirt with the elastic waist and one wrap skirt. I recommend both of these patterns.

So, the tulip skirt was put into the back of my mind until a few weeks ago, when I came across it again. This time I was ready but I was being cheap. The pattern and instructions are only available in the Winter 2008 issue of Stitch magazine. The issue is out of print but is available for digital download. I would also recommend printing out the corrections for the pattern before you start cutting.

I didn't make a muslin as I didn't have enough scrap fabric lying around. Also, I could not justify spending money to buy fabric for a muslin. I wanted to see if I could just tweak it as I went along. So here's my first try:

Not too shabby.

I cut a large and made no alterations except using coordinating fabric for the pockets and waistband facing. Perhaps I should have taken pictures of that. Oh well. I used Alexander Henry's Camellia in Metal. I bought a yard of it a few months ago for stash building. I used brown twill from Joann. I think it was going to be a purse at some point before collecting dust at the bottom of my fabric bin.

I loved the skirt, but it was bit wide in the hips and waist could stand losing an inch. So for my next skirt, I took off a half inch on the waist and hips. Now it fits wonderfully.

Much better this time.

Sorry that it looks wrinkled in the photo. I wore it today. This time around I used navy stretch twill from Hancock Fabrics (only $4.99 a yard). I bought the buttons a while back on Etsy. They're wooden flowers. Very cute.

I added pockets to both skirts. I used the pocket from Vogue 8645. I used Alexander Henry's Poppy Box in Lilac (leftover from another handbag) for the pockets. Again, this is something I should have photographed. Initially, I used this fabric for the waistband facing, but I cut against the grain (I only had a little piece of fabric left). That's a big no-no. The waistband facing would not stretch when I tried to sew it. Big fail. Luckily, I had plenty navy twill left to redo it.

I top-stitched everything on both skirts. The pattern requires a lot of hand sewing but I got lazy. I also lengthen the ties.

Overall, I love both skirts. They're comfortable and the high waist is actually quite flattering. I'd like to make one out of corduroy but Texas only has 10 minutes of winter, therefore it is pointless.