Constructing my Bubble/Balloon skirt – Final Piece

I have previously created a practice toile for a bubble/balloon skirt and wrote about how I constructed in a blog called Constructing my Bubble/Balloon Skirt – Toile.

For my final piece bubble/balloon skirt, I have already cut out my calico fabric and Ice dyed it. I wrote about Ice dyeing the fabric for my final piece in a previous blog called Ice Dyeing Fabric for my Bubble/Balloon Skirt – Final Piece.

Next I turned the stitch length to 5 on the sewing machine.

I then sewed along the top and bottom edge of both of the pieces of fabric for the skirt with a straight stitch length 5. This will allowed me to gather the fabric.

Once I had sewn the lining and the larger outer skirt, I laid the fabric out on the table so I could easily gather the fabrics.

I then began to gather the top of both pieces fabric to approximately 35cm.

I then began to loosely gather the bottom of both pieces of fabric bigger than 35cm.

After I gathered one of the linings and outer skirt panels, I followed the same process above for the second lining and outer skirt fabric.

I then turned the stitch length to 2 for more of a normal stitch length.

Next I pinned the bottom edges of the lining and outer lining together for both of my panels.

I then sewed the bottom edges of both panels using a straight stitch with a stitch length of 2.

Once I had sewn the bottom of the skirt I turned it inside out so that seam was on the inside of the skirt. I then pinned the top edges of the lining and outer lining together of both of my panels.

I then sewed the top edges of both panels using a straight stitch.

This is what the two panels looked like once they had been sewn along the top edge.

Before I could continue constructing my skirt, I needed to sew my Suffolk puffs on which I did and wrote about in a blog called Sewing Suffolk Puffs with Bondaweb and sewing them onto the skirt – Final Piece.

Below is a photo of the Suffolk puffs sewn on the front and back panel of the skirt.

Once the Suffolk puffs had been sewn on, I then laid the outside of the front and back facing each other.

I then pinned together one side of the skirt aligning all 4 pieces of fabric together, leaving a gap at the top to sew in my invisible zip later.

I then sewed down that side.

Once I had sewn one side I moved on to pining the other side , this side had been pinned all the way down one side aligning all 4 pieces of fabric, I then sewed all the way down that side of the skirt.

I then turned the skirt the right way around and tried it on to see if it fitted and it was a bit too big so I made some tucks on the top edge of the skirt to make it smaller.

This is what the skirt looked like once the sides had been sewn and tucks had been added into the top edge.

I then drew and cut my waistband 10cm wide using the measurement of the skirt at the top where the waistband will be attached with an extra 2cm seam allowance around all the edges.

I then pinned the waistband to the top of the skirt before sewing it.

So once sewn it looked like this.

Next, I changed the sewing machine foot from a normal one to a zipper foot, I then tacked the invisible zip in the skirt and waistband with a longer stitch.

I then sewed the zip again as close to the teeth a possible with a normal stitch and stitch length..

I found that tacking the zip to the skirt first, really helpful as when you sew it down with just pins holding it down it usually slides a lot and moves out of place.

This is what the zip looked like when it was sewn and the zip was done up.

I checked the zip at this point, before moving onto the next step to check that I had not sewn on the teeth of the zip otherwise it would not work.

This is what the zip looked like on the inside of the the skirt.

I then sewed the hole at the bottom of the zip closed.

Next I want to fully enclose the zip within the waist band.

I started by folding the top of the zip down to one side before folding down the top of the waistband and pinning it in place.

I then sewed it so I looked like this, I then turned it the right way around so you can see the zip and the seam is on the inside.

I then repeated the process for the other side of the zip.

This is what the skirt looks like with the zip fully enclosed in the waistband.

Then later on a different machine which I am going to use to sew the waistband down and fully finish the skirt.

I then turned the dial pictured below to 6 which is a straight stitch with a small stitch length.

I also threaded my machine with an orange thread that matched the skirt in hope that the stitching won’t be visible.

I had previously considered using bondaweb to hold the waistband down but that did not work.

I then folded the waistband down and pinned it in place before sewing in the gap where the waistband meets the skirt.

You can slightly see the stitching below but it is barely visible in a close up photo.

This is the stitching line on the inside of the skirt.

Below is a photo of the front and back of my fully finished bubble/balloon skirt.

I am very pleased with how my ice dyed bubble/balloon skirt with Suffolk puffs has turned out. I think it looks very effective and I really love the photos of my bodice and skirt I think the two garment go together really well.

I have taken clearer photos of both my bodice and my skirt in a blog called Styling and photographing my final finished garments.