Long Fitted Skirt #1 Finished | Notes | (Alabama Chanin remake)

November 04, 2020

Long Fitted Skirt #1 Finished | Notes | (Alabama Chanin remake)

Cutting template = Alabama Chanin long skirt from the long fitted dress. Basically a maxi with a train but really well designed. This shape is a classic; simple well done, eternally elegant.

Changes made to cutting template size M

Change hem to XS to decrease length

Reduce length at waist again by taking off another 5cm (around 10cm total at this point). Reshape waist area to slim down that area by following original size M lines.

This skirt is originally so long and floor sweeping the only place it looks good in Alabama Chanin promotional photos. I have yet to find a single person who actually likes that length in everyday day to day life. Constantly people report tripping hazard, getting it dirty, picking up dust.

Elastic/Waistband variations

Length was reduced another 3.5 cm by folding it over to create space to fit 2cm elastic inside.

Finished length is perfect on me. Wore it outside on flat sandals to pull out bins on wet concrete and the skirt did not touch the ground.

Not a fan of the zig zag stitch finish on ac garments at the waist. Feel like it takes all garments down a notch in terms of beauty. Will work on it. Nevertheless it's never actually seen. When you wear a top over it.

Elastic is 3x pieces of the same elastic, overlapped. Basted it together, put it through the waist casing, pulled out the basting, added a stitch at every seam to anchor the position. This works way better than the ac style of using fold over elastic, I think, although it's uglier.

Mostly better practically because you can tighten the elastic (control its length better), and the elastic is more free (not married / puckered down / sewn heavily to the fabric). In my experience with the ac fold over method, the elastic is controlled by the fabric's stretch, rather than the elastic controlling the fabric. Therefore when the cotton jersey bags outweigh wear, which it does after an hour, the elastic just goes along for the ride. This is a major problem when wearing long heavy garments that hang off the waist. Several have reported this issue, and original successful imitators I think simply make the item very very tight around the hips so that the item keeps hugging the belly and butt after it's done it's loosening up gig. Now, I have one skirt that behaves this way with 100g beads at the hem and I just don't like how much it hugs me there. Thighs, belly and all private shapes around there just get emphasised.

This long skirt went from 76cm (good if it never stretched any further) at waist to 80cm (way too loose for me in jersey if it was ac fold over elastic technique) after I folded down the 3.5cm to create the elastic casing. Meaning, more loose space around belly and thighs. The elastic is simply the 2cm width fold over elastic from eBay China. Cheap in price but not cheap in quality but probably not the greatest either. But very comfortable, and tripling it gives a good sturdiness. It is also bright pink. You can't see it at all in the finished product even though hand sewn.

The elastic sewn in this style (which is really just a more typical, commonly used technique except I've done it by hand) really gives confidence to wear heavy items all day and makes it possible to not need to create a super tight garment which you will need to super stretch each time you put it on, which in turn easily translates to better longevity. Will be reusing this technique over and over, but need to improve the finishing aesthetic of it.

The 3.5 cm folded over fabric wasn't initially intended there the shape didn't exactly match but jersey is jersey, so you have moulding space. And brings me back to the whole thing of does what shape you cut for negative ease areas really matter that much anyway?

More comments

Weight of single layer skirt + appliqué all over = fantastic. Very easy to wear in spring weather. Will use this frequently over leggings in winter.

This fabric is from Joelle's remnant store. I don't know if it's 100% cotton. It was so hard to take in the dye. It might have small % of something else. But feels like cotton for sure, isn't too stretchy and feels around 180gsm. It was very stable at 2x layer. But with all the reverse appliqué cut out it now has a much better flow/drape for this style.

The polycotton corespun thread M36 certainly has a level of stiffness about it. See pics. Knots and tails on outside mean you can really take advantage of every opportunity to not start a knot on the underside ie even fo the hem and seam felling work. Cannot lie that cotton jersey comfort decreases significantly when adding horse-rug-thread. I don't think I could buy an original Alabama Chanin made garment that had knots and tails inside. Even when they are outside you still feel the running stitch. Yes it's still comfortable but just kiss that smooth cotton feel goodbye. I always wonder why their professional garments don't add a third super lightweight inner layer since all that effort went into creating jersey of the highest buttery smooth organic USA seed to shelf etc etc quality. It definitely, definitely doesn't feel that way after embroidery (even with cotton floss); how much more unlike cotton jersey is it after you add horse-rug-equivalent-thread? (Their button craft thread was originally called Button & Carpet thread). Not very romantic sounding is it? So much of marketing, idealisation & "romance" comes down to the names we use to describe things.

Alternatively imagine wearing this fabric with all these tails and knots on your skin; definitely doesn't feel like pj fabric anymore.