Hello! To start, I’ll share this project is with a fun fabric collaboration with Minerva fabric and the designer Melissa Lowry. I love the sketched look of the print along with the orange/ember background color. This is a print on demand option so you can technically select this print on a large list of the POD base options. I’ve enjoyed working with Tencel Twill on another project with Minerva as well, the Nehalem pants by Sew House 7. Tencel has such a nice drape and the Twill offers a little more stability. Combining the two for this fabric base makes for a fun, drapey, versatile fabric to wear.

For the pattern, I wanted to make another Mave skirt. I made another Mave skirt last year in the 3 tier ruffle, maxi length. For this project, I went with a maxi version but I sewed the midi length with one lower ruffle. If you like wearing skirts, I’d highly recommend this sewing pattern as it includes pockets, an optional lining, and 8 skirt variations from mini to maxi lengths, with or without ruffles.

Supplies

2.5m Minerva Exclusive Melissa Lowry Trazos Florales Tencel Lyocell Twill POD Fabric

0.1m Lightweight woven interfacing (optional drawstring button holes)

80/12 Sewing machine needle

Pattern Piece Options:

Size - 10

Length - Midi

Ruffle - Option 1

Pockets - Yes

Lining - No

Drawstring - No

Modifications:

For the pictures, I skipped adding a drawstring. I did include sewing the reinforced button holes as I was sewing the skirt (so I could have the option of adding a drawstring later).

As with any fabric that I’m going to sew into a garment, I washed and dried this fabric a couple of times on warmer temperatures to pre-shrink the fabric.

This was a project that went fast because I’ve made the pattern before and the fabric was easy to work with. Admittedly, this was a project that I fit in right before we left for vacation.

Some aspects of this project that took a bit more time but were worth including are the pockets and the extra waistband seams. Skirts that include pockets are ones that I will always wear first (ahead of skirts that don’t include them).

The waistband calls for a nice, thick elastic band and for sewing multiple seams throughout the waistband to stabilize it. I sewed the parallel waistband seams a little differently than the pattern mentioned.

I serged each of the inside seams, for a nice finish. Although Tencel Twill is a lovely fabric to sew and wear, it does fray if you don’t finish the edges. I love using my serger to finish the inside seams but you could use the zig zag stitch on a standard sewing machine as an alternate way to finish the edge seams.

With only adding one ruffle to this skirt, it has more subtle gathering, which I thought was a fun detail.