Outcome

Intention

My reason for taking this course was to be able to learn some fundamentals of manipulating fabrics in order to make something practical that I could use and would hold up. I watch a lot of Project Runway and was inspired by the designers to try and make my own garment. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to sew a skirt. :( Hopefully, later on I will be able to make it!
I really like the look of a pencil skirt, but I wanted to give it an exciting feature, something to make it stand out. Right now tigers are in fashion, and the image I chose reflected the way the tiger would be arranged on the skirt without being front and center. To keep it "classy", I kept the skirt a navy blue, with a black-bordered waistband and black-bordered hem.  

Overall Concept & Digital Sketch

A digital sketch of a navy pencil skirt with a Chinese tiger motif.

The navy pencil skirt gets sewn using a pattern, while the tiger gets digitally printed on iron-on fabric, and then ironed on the skirt. 

Materials & Techniques

Materials include:

• 1 yard of navy blue cotton fabric
  
• Sewing machine with navy blue thread
• Standard sewing supplies (scissors, marking tools, pins, etc.)
• Zipper
• Tape measure
  
• Iron-on fabric
• Digital Cutting Plotter
• Iron

Some broad techniques for the pencil skirt include:

• Take measurements of my waist, hip, leg circumference, and total length
  
• Add seam allowance to measurements
  
• Divide measurements, and outline skirt on paper to make sewing pattern 
• Add a vent extension
• Cut out fabric following the pattern measurements
• Sew the fabric pieces together using a zigzag stitch (allow enough fabric for the seam allowance and leave enough space for a zipper)
• Hem the vent and edges 
• Add the zipper
• Check fit and hem skirt
• Create waistband

Reflection

Wikihow proved to be a helpful resource, as well as another site I found. With sewing garments I thought there would be a step-by-step instructions on making anything, whereas I found that while there are some steps one can take to have a nice looking garment, it is more about mixing up the steps depending on what you need... a.k.a. there are a variety of ways of getting to the same finished product. 

While I would like to have a finished product, designing it was fun too! I got to use my creativity to fine-tune my vision for this particular piece. Later on, I might try a make something more complicated that can go with the skirt.