The crisp fall weather each morning has me wanting to sew up all my French terry fabric to keep warm, but the afternoons are still quite warm (we’re supposed to reach 86*F today, which will be a record high for our area at this time of year) … so I “compromised” with myself and sewed up a new Capsule Skirt from navy and cream striped French terry. This go-round, I added a chevron modfication to jazz up the simple skirt.
To make the stripes meet at an angle in the center front and back, you need to add a seam there. I began by simply folding my main skirt pattern piece in half and then traced it, adding a seam allowance along the folded side (which will be the skirt’s new center seam). If you, like me, need different hemlines for your skirt’s front and back, make sure to trace them both like this. Because of the hem difference from the side seam to the center, I found it helpful to mark on my traced piece which straight edge was the skirt’s center and which was the side seam.
In order to create the chevron angle, I lined up the center front edge of the new pattern piece to meet the stripes at a 45 degree angle. To help me keep the angle and stripe placement right, I like to use my ruler to draw several lines directly on my paper pattern at a 45 degree angle from the center front and then use those drawn lines to match up the stripe placement on the fabric. Don’t forget that the pattern piece we’re working with is now only half of the main skirt, so make sure to cut two mirror images for the front and for the back (four total). To get mirrored images, you can either fold your fabric widthwise (width is selvage to selvage) before cutting or cut one with the pattern words facing you and then flip the pattern piece over so the words face the fabric to cut the second piece. I prefer the latter because it seems to save a little fabric since I can place and cut them closer together and because I can be more precise with the stripes since I don’t always get them matched exactly when I fold. While cutting, go ahead and use the original pattern pieces to cut the waistband and the pocket pieces, if you’re adding pockets.
Take your two front pieces and sew up the center seam with right sides together. Repeat with the two back pieces. Now, your skirt pieces should be the same size as the original Capsule Skirt pattern piece, but with a seam down the center where the stripes meet at a 90 degree angle. Yay! Construct the rest of the skirt by following the pattern instructions.
I love that the stripes on the side all line up so the side seam nearly disappears! This skirt is sure to get lots of wear this fall since the navy and cream will go with several of my tops and can be dressed up for church or dressed down for every day wear. For these pictures, I paired it with my red cowl neck hack Kymy’s Dolman (which I made to matche my French terry Capsule Skirt last fall), my jean jacket, and ballet flats.
If you try out my chevron modification and have any questions or want to show it off, we’d love to see you post in the EYMM Facebook group or on the EYMM Facebook page.
Happy Sewing!! ~ Joelle
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