Sheer madness (Leopard sheer skirt refashion)

June 7, 2013

This season’s skirt trends are undecided. Do they want to be revealing? Or modest? Short? Or Long? In addition to the “high-low” mullet skirts (high in the front, low in the back), there are also the “sheer overlay” skirts (short underskirt with a longer, sheer top layer). This look is all over the runways and the red carpet. I suppose it’s a nice compromise when you can’t decide between a long skirt and shorter, more revealing number. But some of these outfits really push the envelope (or “under-lope”). Just check out this sheer-skirted dress on Rihanna…

The "granny-panty" look takes it too far, methinks. — Some celebs seem to forget the “skirt” part of their skirts. From
WonderWall’s Trend Report

And she’s not the only one wearing this look. Ladies of all ages—from Kristen Stewart (23) to Kylie Minogue (45)—are suddenly showing off their granny panties.

Anyhoo, there are other versions of the sheer skirt made for the rest of us non-red-carpet-walking-non-granny-panty-showing-non-celebrities. Here’s one I saw at H&M the other day.

H&M's skirt with sheer leopard overlay — H&M’s skirt with sheer leopard overlay

And it reminded me of this skirt, which I had purchased for 50 cents at a flea market in Germany about a month ago.

Obviously, the skirt was too big on me—hanging below my natural waist—and it was a maxi skirt with none of the sheer sexy styling…YET. I decided to refashion it. The first thing I did was chop off some of the length. (But not enough so you can see my Granny panties. 🙂 )

Here's where I cut the skirt — Here’s where I cut the skirt

I didn’t hem it yet. First, I took in the side seam. I only took it in on one side because the zipper was on the other side. Admittedly, that isn’t optimal. Ideally, you’d like to take in a skirt in the same amount on both sides. However, in this case, it didn’t matter so much because it came out fairly evenly.

I had to take the skirt in about 3 cm — I took in the inner lining of the skirt about 3 cm (ca. 1 1/4 in.)

As you can see from the picture above, the seam of the lining was made facing towards the outside of the skirt, which it shouldn’t have been. And I followed the existing seam. As a result, I had to do a bunch of things that are not pictured (because I got so involved doing them that I forgot to take pictures). I cut the waistband and made a seam on the inside, which, because of the weird side seam involved quite a bit of manipulation of the entire skirt. After the waistband was done, I hemmed the bottom, and, finally, I took a seam in the sheer outer layer to taper it to the new inner lining.

In retrospect, I probably should have just cut open the skirt from top to bottom and made two entirely new, clean seams in the side of the lining and top layer. Learning by doing!