Stripe-y Scuba Skirt

When I used to make things for my sister or cousin or best friend for Christmas or their birthdays or whatever, I would just make a wild guess at what pattern they might like, then guess what fabric they might want it in and their size, etc.  That, my friends, was a lot of guess work.  This girl hates guessing.  So to eliminate all the guesswork on my part AND make sure my dear ones are 100% satisfied with their gifts I just emailed them all a link to my sewing board on pinterest and had them pick out the exact pattern they wanted, plus we get to talk fabric choices and all that good stuff.  Fun for me because I dont have to guess.. fun for them because they pretty much get to design their own gift!

I tell you all this because my new gift system resulted in this adorable striped scuba skirt this Christmas.  You see my dear sewing friends.. when you have your favorite girls pick out handmade gifts from your personal pinterest board of all the patterns you love… and when said favorite girls are pretty much the same size as you… you just cut two!  Bingo!  Kill two birds with one project – make your friend a gift, make yourself one because you’ve wanted to get to that pattern FOREVER anyway. I know, I know, I’m a gift-giving sewing-project handmade-wardrobe genius.

But enough back-story… lets talk about the skirt.  This adorably flippy skirt was first created by Geneva from A Pair and a Spare (if you don’t know about Geneva and her beautiful blog you should seriously check it out right now!  Her projects are so easy yet so classy and fashionable – especially great for beginners!).  Anywho – Geneva made this skirt out of some sweet pink neoprene, and my bff Jess ordered up a striped one (coincidentally so did my sister – thats three of these babies out in the world!)

The pattern is super simple, its one shape that you down load to your computer, scale up to size, and print. You then cut this same shape out about six times, sew them all together, and voila! A super quick project and you get this fun skirt thats perfect for summer. I finished my inside edges with a serger but even that is not necessary because this fabric won’t fray.

Some things I did differently… Jessica thought the skirt would be cute in stripes (isn’t it though!?).  Unfortunately I couldn’t find any striped neoprene, though I did find this nice bold stripe in a scuba knit.  If you are unfamiliar, scuba knit is a little thinner and doesn’t have quite as much stretch as neoprene, so I had to add a zipper in the waist so we could fit the skirt over our tushies (we all three have some junk in the trunk).  If you are able to find a neoprene you like that has good stretch, Geneva’s version is made without a zipper.

Pattern:  DIY Scuba from a Pair and a Spare
Fabric: Striped scuba knit from fabric.com (no longer available)
Notions:  7″ invisible zipper
Difficulty: SUPER EASY
Adjustments: added zipper, shortened a bit
Finishes: optional serger finished seams
Time: 1 hr – cutting, sewing, everything!  Seriously the quickest skirt you will ever make!
Sew it again? For this one, I’m going to say no.  Only because a girl only needs one super short flippy neoprene skirt in her wardrobe…and I really dont even wear super short flippy skirts that much (mostly because I’m clumsy and will inevitably flash someone)

 

Yeay for fast & easy projects!
Happy sewing y’all!