Monday 27 July 2015

Mini City Stroll Wrap Skirt

As I was getting dressed or undressed, I forget which, in one of my City Stroll Wrap Skirts, my daughter was watching me.* She was fascinated by how my skirt unwrapped and became a flat piece of fabric.

"I want a skirt that goes flat like yours Mummy" she declared. And that got me thinking....

* Please assure me there will come a time when I can get dressed or undressed in private again!


The girl needed a Mini City Stroll Wrap Skirt! I had a think about what skirt pattern would be the right base for the alteration. The Sunday Brunch skirt by Oliver + S ticked all the right boxes. Small angled pockets, flat front with elastic back and a narrow A-line shape. Yep, this just might work, I thought, and quickly made the Barbie skirt as a test run.

 
I traced the skirt off again and this time traced the front pattern piece double. On my tracing I marked a vertical line half an inch beyond the point where the pocket meets the waistband. On that line I marked a point about half way down and then drew a curve from there down to the hemline at a point about two inches past the midline.
 
That created the front pattern piece. The back pattern piece is almost identical to the Sunday Brunch  except that I folded the kick pleat bit out of the way and cut the skirt directly on the fold. The only other change was to adapt the pocket pieces a little to turn them into two separate pockets rather than one that crosses the centre midline.
 


The construction was then closest to the City Stroll Wrap Skirt, just minus any darts and with an elasticised back waistband. I added some piping to my pockets.


As well as piping the pockets I used the same thin floral fabric for the facing, which, in hindsight I think I cut way too wide. There was just enough of the pale green lining fabric left over from my plaid City Stroll skirt to line this one too.


The facing was attached with a half inch seam, and since the Sunday Brunch skirt has a one an a half inch hem allowance this skirt is consequently one inch longer than the Sunday Brunch. I hadn't really planned that, but I think the slightly longer length makes it look more like a mini version of my skirt.


The dark blue snaps aren't quite the perfect colour match, but they're close enough and since she can do snaps up herself with ease, they're perfect after all!

This little skirt has gone through all the same rigorous testing as my big version. It's performed very well for bike riding, jumping, skipping about and all manner of four year old girl activities.


If you've got to the end of the blog post and you're thinking: "Where's the link to Oliver + S blog where she shows us exactly how to modify the pattern?"... Well, there isn't one. Seems we weren't the only ones thinking little girls need wrap skirts and there may be a pattern in the future. Which would save you the hassle of altering one you've already got! - and save me having to do it all over again when I need to size up.

16 comments:

  1. You are clever! This style is a good look for little girls. I love the Sunday Brunch skirt but my only issue is that when they sit down, the hemline shoots up because, unlike us, they don't know to yank it down when they sit. How does this pass the sitting down test? The wrap must give some freedom of movement.

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    1. Thanks Katy. It seems to go ok with sitting, obviously not cross legged though!

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  2. I love this idea, and your facing is so pretty!

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    1. Thank you! I thought the floral fabric for the facing might save it from the fate of non-pink clothes! That the exact blue and mint green were in the flowers was most fortuitous.

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  3. What a great idea, Shelley! I love your mini city stroll skirt.

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    1. Thanks Marisa. She thought she was hilarious when she told me she'd "broken her skirt" when it was time to get undressed. "I broke it and now it's all flat. Sorry mummy" with a big grin.

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  4. Adorable! And really pretty details on the inside!

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  5. This is awesome skirt Shelley!! Please tell me the skirt will be this years or I will have to make one just like yours for my daughter as well. She loves this as much a s I do!

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    1. I don't know enough to know that Sharon. Only that it was an idea that should turn into a pattern hence a tutorial wasn't appropriate. I'm sure you could wrangle it from the Sunday Brunch pattern as I did. Go for it.

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  6. She is adorable!!! And yeah, I don't know when I'll get to get dressed in private ... hasn't happened yet!

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    1. My kids get a pretty frequent eyeful of "real woman"! Counters all that Barbie on NetFlix stuff I guess!

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  7. I love this skirt! It is making me want to do whatever it takes to get that Sunday Brunch pattern. (I dislike putting together PDF's and/or taking to Kinko's to be copied for even more $.) This wrap version would be a good skirt for a school uniform, especially with that added one inch. Great Job! Bravo!

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    1. Oh I'm firmly on Team Paper so I hear you. The Oliver + S patterns rend to print so that the minimum pages are required for each pattern piece. Printing the skirt only may just be half a dozen pages...

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  8. So cute!
    Privacy? Snort, what is that?

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    1. I'm counting on a few years between kids moving out and them putting me in a nursing home!

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