Weekend Review: Skirt A Day Sewing

Skirt-a-Day Sewing / Nicole Smith 

This is a bit of an older book but I found it in the library! It's an interesting concept and would be a fun one to work through bit by bit. 

The author sets it up with some basic sewing info, then spends time showing you how to draft a custom pattern for yourself, so that you can start altering your skirt block into the 28 designs she's created for this book. 

After that beginning (including the nearly 40 page chapter on drafting, which includes many illustrations to help you out), the book has four further chapters, each taking on one style of skirt, then expanding it into a full week of patterns that you can adapt from the basic design, using your own block. 

The four chapters focus on Wrap Skirts, Straight Skirts, Flared Skirts, and High-Waisted Skirts. The cover image shows off a few of the variety of options included. I like the idea of this book, and think that by creating your block and then taking on some drafting challenges to make some of the variations shared, you could really learn a lot. She is good at explaining things and makes it sound quite achieveable. There are photos of each skirt, and lots of diagrams and clear instructions for every variation, too. 

The skirts show variety and how to change up a plain pattern to incorporate a range of features. Of course you're probably not going to like all of them -- many just aren't my style, but I still read about how they were made from the original pattern. That info was fascinating. And it gives you some knowledge about tweaks you can make to patterns you already own, to add in or adjust features (like pockets, pleats, gores, waistbands, ruffles, etc) that you'd like to have in your garments. If you like skirts, this would be a great book to check out!