What can I do with a yard of fabric?

Don’t dismiss the lowly yard of fabric! I routinely let my finger wander through the remnants section of fabric stores. These are the bolts that customers bought first so I welcome the opportunity to use the remnant. Check out this lovely plaid which I was able to convert into a wrap skirt. It sits demurely at the top of my knee and I can adjust the fold in the front to either sit at the waist or be more interesting by lowering below the waist by 3″.

To begin the piece of fabric was 1 yard long and lucky for me the plaid was 58″ wide. My next step was to cut along the fold so I had a 29″ width but if I sewed the ends together, I now have a 2 yard long piece of fabric. I especially liked the selvage, it was a lovely blend of grey/white/black and created an interest I could definitely use along the hem of the wrap skirt. I wrapped the fabric around me to see how much of a overlap I would need. I pinned the overlap and then I went and sat down in the skirt. As you know sitting down adds a few inches to the overlap (if you want to be comfortable!) It’s the same principal I use when I make pants using my muslin pattern. The way we stand and the way we sit, means your fluid body is shifting and changing shape. I cut off the excess length and trimmed the waist and the wrap ends. Next I turned the skirt inside out and put it back on. Using pins I fit 4 darts into the skirt so I now had the rectangular piece of fabric contoured into my much smaller waist.

Once I sewed the darts I then decided about how would I close the skirt? I wanted flexibility so I could wrap at the natural waist or asymmetrically, the best bet are decorative pins. I love to take those large safety pins and wind beads into them.

Now my lowly yard of fabric was my new plaid wrap skirt!