Wrap Skirt

This Wrap Skirt is a simple design with modifications for shaping to the body and transforming its form.

Considerations
The length of the cloth you buy is approximately the length of the finished skirt. The width of the cloth determines the amount the garment wraps around the hips. Ensure the width of the cloth can encircle your hips plus enough overlap to ensure modesty (if that is your thing).

Recommendations
The drape or stiffness of the cloth will alter dramatically the final look of the garment. For a fluid drapey look, go for a chiffon, crepe de chine, or other soft fabric, for something more formal choose a more ridged cloth.
The Wrap Skirt shown in the photo is made of Screen printed Hand spun and loomed heavy weight cotton by Josi Faye. All the edges are pre-finished using digital embroidery, all joins are machine stitched with an decorative stitch and the form is modified through vertical shaping and waist darts. The skirt in the photo uses 75cm of 115cm wide heavy cotton weave. The model is a NZ size 10

 

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Making the Wrap Skirt

There are three methods of using the Make/Use system - Pattern, Print or Template:

Pattern
Simple line diagram to print onto paper at full scale – the closest to using a traditional dressmaking pattern. Good if you have fabric at the exact width or know how to use software to change the pattern to fit. Available as ai file (Adobe illustrator/Inkscape for modifications), or pdf. Print tiled and stick together, or take to a large format printer.

Print
Screen printing or digital printing files to put the patterns directly onto fabric. Good if you want a printed garment, some of the guide for making the garments are embedded in the print file to enable an easier understanding of the making process. Can be expensive.

 

Templates
Lasercut templates printed onto rigid paper or card that allow a maker to draw required patterns onto fabric. This is a modular system that enables a Make/Use garment to be made from any width fabric. Low cost if using printed method, great for students of all ages and home sewers.

Making the Wrap Skirt with a pattern

You will need: 75cm long of ~112cm wide cloth, a pattern printed at 100%

You can print the file as is from the pdf and set your printer settings to 'tile' or 'poster', and 100%, tape your pieces together and you have a full scale pattern. You can also open and modify the pattern in Illustrator, Inkscape or any similar vector based program to fit the width of fabric you want to use. If you do that, be careful to not select the darts before stretching/shrinking it to fit the new width.
This pattern can be made from any width cloth, remembering that the width of the cloth determines the circumference and overlap of the skirt assuming you don’t make any additional modifications to the design such as pleats/gathers etc.
Find a fabric you like the look and feel of, make sure it is something you can sew based on your abilities and equipment, and away you go!

Making the Wrap Skirt from a print

You will need: 75cm long of ~127cm wide cloth. Access to screen print facilities

The attached files were designed for Screen Printing (though its possible to use them for digital printing). The print will fit on a single standard size repeat screen. The fabric chosen for printing on will determine the overall look of the garment. The Long Tshirt shown in the images was printed on Silk Organza.
If you like you could modify the print to suit a different width fabric in Photoshop, or take it as a starting point to have a play with other possible prints inspired by the beaituful work done for this project by Greta Menzies. Enjoy!

 

Making the Wrap Skirt using templates

You will need: 75cm long of fabric of your choice. A4/A3 printer or Lasercutter, Paper or card.

Each Make/Use garment made in this method is unique to both the fabric and the user.  The length of a Make/Use Wrap Skirt can be altered to suit an individual's height or taste; a favourite fabric can be used to make the Skirt and alter its appearance; new iterations can be created by combining templates in ways dreamt up by the maker/user. The possibilities are literally endless.

  • Using the Wrap Skirt Grid file as a guide, mark half way between edges of fabric for Fabric Centre Line 
  • Measure on your hip circumference and divide by 4 to get A. Mark either side of Fabric Centre Line.
  • Mark on your fabric the width of the waistband and measure from here down to the hem for finished length (B)
  • Mark horizontal and vertical lines with tailors chalk.
  • The intersections of 1/4 hip circumference and Waist are key anchors for placing the templates.
  • Body Rotation template can be placed any where between Waist and hem of garment. Body rotation template can be used to create the vertical shaping seen in the grid

Print: Print out using a standard printer the files only A4 and/or A3 paper or card and cut out the dotted fill. Follow the instructions on the pages
Lasercut: Download files and have laser cut on 2mm card according to lasercutter specifications.

  • Line up desired templates with grid and follow instructions printed on them. 

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