>Quick tip: Pencil skirts and those pesky top of the thigh folds (tilted waist adjustment)…

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Greetings muskrats! I almost skipped posting today – I’m deep into quilt-making and didn’t think all ya’ll would be interested in following down this dark alley… isn’t it weird when your favorite bloggers all of a sudden-like change their focus?? Ho-hum. Not to worry, I will BURY you with quilt pictures when the time is right. Today I thought it’d be nice to at least stick our heads into the garment-making room and say hi. To that point, I’m sharing some BAD photos illustrating a recently discovered trick for getting those pesky pencil skirts to fit better… a tilted waist adjustment (at least, that’s what I’m calling it).

Here’s the problem I’m addressing:

Egad! Those terrible folds under the tummy at the top of the thighs on some skirts. I often have this problem and have tried to compensate by adding more width at the hips, which hasn’t always worked great. I ended up with baggy hips and I STILL had folds highlighting my abdomen and the odd dip at the top of my thighs. Here’s a fix for muskrat shapes like mine.

If you’ve already sewn the skirt together, take it off and unpick the stitches holding the waistband to the skirt front. You can leave the back alone – and if you’re doing a faced waistband you can skip this part (obv).

Cut off a wedge from the skirt front, taking the most from the center front. I know from experience that 1.5” is a good place for me to start on this adjustment. If you’re not sure, you could try pinching out the folds while wearing the skirt to get a sense as to how much extra fabric is there.

Reattach the skirt! I was being lazy, so I just eased the skirt into the waistband. When I trimmed off my wedge that made my skirt front seam slightly longer, so the waistband was a bit too short. I should really have cut a new, slightly longer waistband (which I will work out for future versions of this pattern.) Since this skirt has a waistband that won’t be working with a tucked shirt too often** I figured I could live with a few wrinkles – plus the fabric is 100% wool, so very responsive to steam!!

**seriously, could there BE a worse look for me than the one I’m sporting in this photo? Waistband at the natural waistline with a shirt tucked in? Great Googly Moogly.

Before and after – very effective (for me)! I still have a few wrinkles going on – that’s partially because of how I’m standing, but I probably could have taken off even more in my wedge.

 

That’s it for now muskrat friends! Have a great day, I’ll be obsessively working on my quilt. Almost done – and there’s silk, cotton, wool, leather and embroidery involved. With SILK yarn, you semi-aquatic rodents!