Wow It’s cold here! I mean one degree cold. Ugh. We are headed to warmer temperatures in a few weeks and I am counting down the days. January seemed like an eternity and we are not getting warm weather anytime soon. I don’t know about you but, I feel like I’m in a bit of a rut at the moment. This cold dreary weather has been killing me! All I want to do is hibernate and stay warm, so I’ve been wearing the same rotation of fleece pants and my Uggs for the last few weeks. Needless to say, this bright sparkly sequin skirt is just what I needed to lift my creative spirits.
When came across this fabric from Mood, I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not. Was it ugly and loud or fun and exciting? I couldn’t really decide, but thanks to the wonders of internet algorithms it keep appearing in ads everywhere I looked.
I have a girl’s trip coming up and I need something fancy to wear to dinner one night, so I thought I’d order a sample of the fabric and see what it looked like. After it was delivered I still wasn’t sold. I thought about it for a while and decided, What the hell. If it was really horrible, I could make some sort of dress up/costume for my daughter. She loves anything with sequins, so I ordered 3 yards.
Sewing with Sequins – The Hard Way
Never having sewn with sequins before, I decided to keep the design simple and make a circle skirt. Time consuming was going to be the name of the game with this project, but I didn’t realize just how time consuming it would actually be until i was halfway through.
I read a lot of articles and watched a lot of videos about sewing with sequins, and most of them tell you to remove the sequins in the seam allowance. I thought long and hard about this. The last thing I wanted to do was pull off a million little sequins before I even started to sew. One thing you need to know about me is that I’m not the most patient person, and the idea of removing sequins was miserable, but I thought “ok, if I’m going to do this let’s do it right.”
Sewing with Sequins – The Easy Way
That mentality lasted about 3 hours. After three hours I had barely made a dent in the amount of sequins I needed to remove, and the tips of my fingers hurt from trying to hold on to the tiny freaking sequins to cut them off. Wahhh! Of course I made it more difficult on myself by making a midi length skirt. Couldn’t make a short one…nope, I had to make it long and dramatic just to torture myself.
So I gave up and just started sewing right through the sequins. I have a very sturdy sewing machine. It’s a Bernina 1008. I knew it was strong enough to sew through the fabric, but let me tell you, I broke a lot of needles. I’m talking two trips to the fabric store just to buy more needles!
Now I’m sure more a seasoned seamstresses would tell that is not the correct way to sew with sequins, and that’s okay. However, sometimes you just need to do it the easy way.
The End Result
However, all that nonsense aside, the skirt turned out great! I loved it so much that I made a matching sequin camisole. I’ll tell you all about that in another post. BUT, the skirt looks great and is very fun to wear. Initially I thought “where in the hell and I going to wear this after my girls trip?” Then I realized, I have my birthday coming up so that’s at least that’s 2 times I’ll wear it. Who knows maybe I’ll throw it on to pick the kids up from school just for fun. As long as it’s not 1 degree outside! Can’t wait to see all the sideways looks I’ll get if I do that.
A Sparkly Sequin Skirt Fabric
Above I mentioned that I bought this fabric online from Mood. I live close enough to Manhattan that I can go into the store to buy fabric, but it always ends up being a very expensive trip, so I usually order online if I can. I always order a sample before I buy just to be sure. Unfortunately, Mood doesn’t necessarily carry the same fabric online that they do in the store so, buyer beware. It would really be miserable to haul it into the city just find out they don’t have it.
A Sparkly Sequin Skirt Pattern
I used my Simplicity 1200 pattern for this skirt. It’s such a great pattern. I use it all the time. It’s super easy. There are only two pattern pieces: the skirt and waistband (which is optional) and you don’t need to do any math to figure out your measurements. You can see the other skirts I’ve made below.
Navy and Orange Wool Plaid Skirt
Attaching the waist band was tricky because of the sequins. I stitched together two separate pieces of fabric to make it; one sequin piece and one lining piece. I sewed them together so when I folded over the waistband to attach it, the piece facing inward it wouldn’t be covered in sequins. It would be really uncomfortable if the sequins were facing in, kind of like a porcupine…
Accessories
I made the purse and earrings in this post also. I’ll write up separate posts about both of them later this month. Until then I hope you are all staying as warm as possible. As I type this I am wearing the warmest fleece pants I own, my Uggs and wool sweater. Hurry up Spring, I’m waiting for you!!!
Thanks for reading! Hope you’re off to a good week.
Photos – Chloejane Photo + Film