Cleo Skirt with Made By Rae

I am so excited to be a part of the Cleo Skirt Blog Tour! I have been eyeing the Cleo Skirt by Made by Rae for a while, and I was so excited to sew it that I made two! If you love gathered skirts, but don’t dig zippers or gathering around the entire waistband, this is the skirt for you. One of the many things I love about this skirt is the flat front waistband. The elastic is only in the back of the skirt and it fits so nicely!

Another favorite thing is that both views of the skirt have pockets!! View A has visible pockets, and view B has inseam pockets. I made both views, so I can assure you that they are both SO great. I haven’t made very many things with pockets since I’ve started sewing, so these skirts pretty much made me giddy with excitement. 😀

I sewed size medium for both and the only alterations were for my height (surprise, surprise). For view A, I added 4 inches to the main front and back pieces, and for view B, I added 2 inches. I added more length to view A because the instructions say that view A hits above the knee, so I added 2 extra inches since I wanted it a bit longer than that. I can’t say enough how much I LOVE this pattern and both of these skirts.

Since I sewed both views, I can say that instructions are AWESOME. I sometimes get really confused on which step is next when all of the view’s instructions are mixed together. But Rae has the two views separate, so there’s no confusion. She also has extra details on sewing techniques on the last pages of the instructions which were super helpful.

The gingham (cotton?) and dark pink fabric (lawn) I bought from Fabric Outlet, which is my favorite fabric store in San Francisco. They have an online shop called Cali Fabrics so that you can buy online if you aren’t in the area. The pink and white vertical striped fabric (from JoAnn’s – I’m guessing it’s a lawn because It’s pretty lightweight) I have have had for probably 3 years now and it felt SO good to finally use it!

I make so many of my clothes with knit fabric that I hardly have anything made in woven fabric. I am really good at buying knit fabric, but when it comes to buying woven fabric, I get stressed out! Anybody else?? I am really trying hard to make more things out of woven fabric because I love working with it, and certain things are actually really comfortable in woven fabric. I currently have three projects in the works that I’m making from wovens, so I’m trying!

Are you good at choosing woven fabrics? Do you have any tips? Fabrics you love?

TIPS: If you’re using a lightweight fabric when you make this skirt, make sure to use a 65/9-75/11 needle. The smallest needle I have is an 80/12 and it left some small holes in my fabric when I removed the basting stitches, so I’m going to invest in some smaller ones for next time. I also noticed that the elastic was twisting when I would put on and take off the pink/white striped skirt, so I added a vertical line of stitching in the middle of the elastic in the back to tack it down.

Don’t forget to check out everyone else’s Cleo Skirts in the blog tour!

July 31

Vicky / @sewvee / sewvee.blogspot.co.uk
Erin / @hungiegungie / hungiegungie.com
Natalie / @sewhungryhippie / hungryhippie sews
Teri / @teridodds1 / fa sew la

August 1

Tori / @thedoingthingsblog / thedoingthingsblog.com
Lindsay / @lindsayinstitches
Meredith / @thefooshe / oliviajanehandcrafted.com/blog
Kate / @kate.english

August 2

Melissa / @ahappystitch / ahappystitch.com
Julie / @nursebean82 / nursebeansews.wordpress.com
Lauren / @laurenddesign / laurendurrdesign.com

August 3

Fleurine / @mariefleurine / sewmariefleur.com
Bettina / @stahlarbeit / stahlarbeit.ch
Allie / @indie_sew / indiesew.com
Darci / @darcialexis / darcisews.com
Emily / @mycraftylittleself / mycraftylittleself.blogspot.com