1950’s Denim Skirt

A few months ago, I bought two kinds of denim fabric in hopes of making two denim skirts for me to wear. I didn’t work on them until late August, but I was able to make them very quickly.

The first skirt I made is a light blue colored denim skirt that I made using Simplicity’s pattern number 1166 view B…

The pattern is fairly easy to follow and I really enjoyed working with it. I did make a few adjustments to the back of the skirt because, like with my 1970’s Elsa skirt, I wanted to add elastic to the back of the skirt. In order to have enough fabric to accommodate elastic in the waist band, I left out the darts in the back of the skirt.

Since the waist band is longer than the 1970’s skirt, I added shirring to the back of the waistband instead of one large piece of elastic. This way the elastic can tolerate the weight of the denim, which is heavy because of the fullness of the skirt.

I made the shirring panel by creating a pocket in the back of the skirt. I did this by using scrap fabric that would allow me to sew and insert elastic into the back of the skirt without taking apart the waist band.

This worked well, but I wish I used a thicker elastic. I used thinner elastic (1/4 inch) than I should have, causing the elastic to not give the support I wanted to the back of the skirt. The elastic still functions ok, but the weight of the denim makes it hard on the shirring panel to support the waistband and the skirt. I wish I made larger channels for a larger elastic, such as 3/4 inch or 1 inch, to give the back of the skirt the support it needs. I’m not sure if I want to take the 1/4 inch elastic out and re-sew the channels again, but it is something I’m seriously considering.

Even though I’m disappointed in the way the shirring panel turned out, I’m very pleased with the way the rest of the skirt turned out.

Here’s the front…

And this is a close up of the buttons in the front of the skirt.

When I went to the store to buy buttons, the store had the kind I wanted, but they had 6 buttons and I needed 8. I bought the 6 buttons and, after waiting a few weeks for the button style to be restocked, I gave up waiting and bought the buttons that are on the waist band. Even though the button styles are different, they are the same color so the different styles shouldn’t be too obvious.

I hand sewed the button holes using button thread. It was my first time using it and, even though the button holes could be better, they don’t look as bad as I feared they would turn out like. I think I need to practice sewing button holes more before I will start to like the way they look.

Continuing with photos of the skirt, here is what the side looks like…

Which has pockets!

(The skirt pattern has pockets already in it, which is why I wanted to make the skirt in the first place)

And finally, here is the back…

Here’s a close up of the back…

Like I said, it’s not great, but it functions and keeps the skirt in place.

After taking photos of the skirt, I decided to take two with a top on the dress form. This one is an off the shoulder crop top that I have but never worn because I don’t like crop tops…

And here is an off the shoulder shirt I bought on clearance that I never worn because I need to add a lining to it. (The fabric is way too thin and see through for me to wear comfortably)

Overall, I’m happy with the way the skirt turned out. Of course there are things I’d like to do differently, but I’m very happy with how it looks. Now, all I need is an opportunity to wear it!

That’s all for now and hank you for reading!