I got a few new books during the last months, which means y’all will be inundated with book reviews. The first one is Sew What! Skirts by Francesca Denhartog and Carole Ann Camp.

The premise of the book is that you can create your own funky designs with their instructions and a few basic sewing skills. The 16 different styles featured in the book are variations on two patterns: the straight skirt and the A-line skirt. The writers provide straight forward instructions on how to measure and draw the necessary patterns. In addition, they explain how to finish edges, make darts, sew hems, add different kinds of waistlines, and insert zippers.

Exhibit A, my Memorial Day project, is a fairly simple A-line skirt. It’s based on the East Meets West skirt in the book except I changed the zipper around, added a lining and used bias tape for the hem.

I love this hem. It was super fast and looks very neat.

It took me about an evening to make the pattern and cut out the skirt and three hours to put the whole thing together. The waist ended up being about 1.5″ too wide. Next time I would make the pattern smaller, and the A-shape less wide, and maybe try darts for the waist.

What I like about the book is that it gives you a solid basic footing to go forth and experiment with whatever look, fabric, trim, etc. you want to work with. A Flickr search renders 530 pictures. Below is just a small selection of what I found. If you do end up getting this book, make sure to go to the publisher’s website for the errata page. There are a couple of mistakes in the book that you would want to correct before you start cutting up your fabric.

I think Storey redid its website because the errata page I downloaded two days ago disappeared. (Thank you to Meredith for noticing this.) For anyone who has an early uncorrected edition, the corrections on the pdf were as follows:

Page 65 Half Circle Wrap:
All you need is 1 length of 42″–45″ fabric (about 2 1⁄2 yards for the average person), plus 1⁄8 yard for the waistband and ties. If you are larger than average, or prefer a fuller skirt, it’s better to use fabric that is 58″–60″ wide (about 3 1⁄2 yards, plus waistband yardage).
. . .
You will need to add to the W measurement to allow
for fabric overlap in the back of the skirt. To do this, measure where your waistline will be, then add 12″ to 14″ (or the amount you want it to overlap). Divide by 3 and round up to the nearest 1⁄2″. Then make your string compass as instructed.

Page 117 Nature’s Child:
under Stuff You Need it should read:
2 lengths* of 42″–45″ fabric
3⁄4–1 yard of complementary fabric