Making a Winter Edwardian Walking Skirt | #HomeForTheHolidays

Hey everyone, I'm Abby. Today we'll be making an Edwardian walking skirt out of tartan cotton flannel that I got on sale at Jo-Ann's. I'm joining my CosTube friends for the hashtag home for the holidays collab. A bunch of us have made holiday videos to get through the isolated holidays at home. There's a growing playlist of all the fun things we've created. Check it out! As a side note, I have new teacups. My friends know me a little too well and unbeknownst to each other, both got me something very similar for Christmas. And now I have two. So now I can double this tea? I mean, two teacups are better than one. Am I right? I mean, there's the red one for like fall and winter and the pink one for spring and summer. I think it works out. Everything my little fairy heart can hope for. For this project, I wanted to make a winter holiday colors type warm Edwardian walking suit. So a skirt and a jacket. But that didn't happen, and since there's no events this year anyways, I extended it to a winter project. I do hope to finish it before it snows so I can get a few fun snow pictures in my backyard. I chose the green and red based tartan flannel because it was seriously on sale and they had about six yards, I think, which is about right for this kind of project. After having used flannel on a couple recent projects, I've concluded that tartan flannel is super hard to use because of the pattern matching and flannel tends to stretch. I would love to be able to use real wool, but let's be real, that stuff's expensive and times are tough, so we work with what we have. So let's get sewing. I started with washing, drying, and ironing the flannel and other lining fabrics I bought for this project. It's best to start with clean and pre-shrunk fabric whenever you can. Plus, you never know what kind of chemicals are on the fabrics for manufacturing. I've learned that the hard way in the past, alerted reactions aren't fun. I'm using Butterick 5970 for the walking skirt. I've used this pattern three times before, so I know that it will be easy to use. I love the train in the back. I'm going to start by cutting out the lining of the skirt, which will be flat lined to the flannel pieces. I'm using polyblend cotton because it was on sale. It breathes well enough. I want to use these historical methods this time for stability of the outer fabric, especially so it won't stretch, and more layers for warmth can't hurt. The flat lining really helps the skirt look just a bit more elevated, even if you're using thin or cheap fabrics. I lay out the pieces according to the grain that the pattern calls for. It has a bias edge next to a straight grain edge, so I'll need this to keep the skirt in line. I cut the front panel on the fold, and the rest are doubled up to create seven panels total. I'm adding three inches to the length of the panels as I go. I'm 5 foot 11 inches. I'll need the extra length. I also cut the placket lining from the scraps. In order to cut out the back panels, I need a bit more space, so I fold it with the full width of the fabric available. The back panel is where I add all the extra fabric for more pleats. I find the Butterick pattern to lack a little of that fullness that makes Edwardian skirts so swishy. So to fix this, I just add three inches on both sides of the panels in the back, along with the three inches at the bottom. It won't change the pattern much at all, and will give me lots of space to add pleats. And Bean and Diana decided that playtime is happening, which is adorable, but destructive. Thankfully, it's fixed with a little tape. I really don't mind. They are very cute. I love when they play with each other. I'm cutting out two lining layers of the waistband so I have lining and flat lining fabric. I tried really hard to line up the pattern of the tartan when I started to cut out my outer fabric. It's really hard because it sticks to itself so much, but I get it laid out eventually. I'm paying attention to the top parts of all the pattern pieces. This is where I'll be pattern matching from. I lay out the side pieces on the wrong grain so I can get the pattern to match up. I've done this before with my modern walking skirt, so I know it works out pretty well. I do the same with the front pattern pieces, making sure the front panel is on the fold. I cut the fashion layer of the waistband too. I chose to wait to cut out the pockets until I knew how much fabric I would need for the jacket. I later figured out that I would need nearly all of it. I switched over to my bright green flannel, which will be used for my six inch interlined hem. The pattern calls for flannel in this case, so I will double up. I cut out all seven panels worth of interlining. I laid out all the pieces to see where we're at. Loving that pattern matching! I knew I didn't have enough of the tartan flannel to create the bias edge binding. At the time, I thought I remembered this part didn't show and was turned to the inside. It is not. It's actually a half inch bias edge trim. I cut this all out in vain because I realized the fabric would make my edge too thick, and it's just too bright. But I also didn't film cutting out the bias fabric I actually use, so we'll just watch me cut out the wrong stuff instead. I decided to create the pockets with the bright green flannel, with a scrap of the tartan on the top, where it would show on the outside. This saves my tartan fabric for the jacket. I created this pocket pattern in my modern walking skirt video, if you're curious how big it is. I made these pockets slightly bigger than the pattern piece, because why not have bigger pockets? I'm pinning the lining to the waistband and placket to prepare to flatline. This is in place of fusible interfacing, and is how they used to interface things back in the Edwardian times. I hand baste using an easy running stitch. Next, I begin the long task of flatlining each of the skirt panels. I hand baste these without pinning because there's just so much area. For the rest of the panels, I think I did a few like this, and then I pinned the rest so that I could hand baste them while sitting and watching TV. I've been watching Bridgerton on Netflix most recently. I love that show! Hand basting the placket. I pin all the tartan pieces to the top of the pockets, then I fold under a quarter inch and pin that in place. I use small whip stitches to attach that to the inside of the pocket. I then cut and fold under the bright green fabric and whip stitch that in place as well. I realized I hadn't added the interlining before I basted the skirt pieces together. Whoops! So I had to remove the basting at the bottom. It didn't take too much more time. I used a hand running backstitch to attach the inner lining at the top. I made sure to catch as little of the main fabric as possible. The red thread I'm using blends in very well. I then pulled the lining back over the interlining and baste the whole thing down again. I pin the back skirt panels together, leaving enough room for the placket at the top. I pin the lining to the placket, finger pressing a quarter inch for folding over. I machine sew the back panels together. At this point, I also pinned and sewed the side panels to the front and back respectively. I just didn't film it. I machine sew the placket up. I trim the placket and turn, and pin the edge in place. I machine topstitch a quarter inch from the edge. Finally, I attach the placket to the top back of the skirt. I measure four inches down on the side panel to place the pocket on each side. I pin both pocket sides onto the respective side panel pieces, and then I pin up the skirt panels themselves. I will sew along the edge of the pocket and then run it into the skirt seam. When I'm sewing, I realize this doesn't work very well, and I have to lift my needle to get around the turn. Sewing up the edge of the pocket beforehand seems like it would be easier. I machine sew both sides of the pocket down first, leaving some space at the top and the bottom. I sew the top four inches of the side skirt panels together, then I sew the pocket sides up. I had to stop and move to the side panel under the pocket like I said earlier. It worked well enough. I serged the edge of the pocket after. I can finally press everything I've finished so far. I press the placket lining down, and then pin it to hide the raw edges. I turn under the other side, press, and pin in place. I then press all the seams of the skirt open. I will be folding under and pinning all raw edges, and hand felling all of them in place. I don't want to create super thick seams, so this will take twice as much time as usual. I press the pockets in the right shape as well. I press the lining of the waistband, and then pin it to the fashion fabric. I machine stitch the waistband together. I remove the basting stitches from the tartan fabric and trim the green and lining fabric down, as that area is super thick and I needed to thin it out. I then fold under all the raw edges on both sides. Using a hand whip stitch and red thread, I hand sew all the skirt seams to finish the edges. The pocket is a little different, but I go through and do the same thing, folding under raw edges and hand sewing in place. I also whip stitch the placket and the other side closed. I lay out my skirt to cut off any extra bits hanging below the lining layer. I also checked to make sure both sides of the skirt are even, which they are, so I don't have to do anything else to prepare the hem for binding. You can see the new maroon fabric for the binding here. I cut a couple lengths of ribbon to anchor my pockets to the waistband. This is to hold the weight of the pockets in the waistband rather than the skirt. I pin those in place. I hand sew the ribbon to the pocket, holding it around the ribbon. Let's throw out this crappy binding and move forward with the good binding. Time to press the waistband. I got the measurements wrong for the pressing line, so I'm fixing that now. I sewed all the length of the bias binding together. I cut about five of the lengths, one more than called for, because I have extra hem at the bottom. I'm pressing all of that now. I attach the bias binding with pins all along the bottom hem. I have the wrong side of the satin fabric toward the right side of the skirt. I wanted the hem to be more matte. I'm machine sewing a half inch from the edge to make the half inch binding. I went back and added a half inch pressed edge to the binding, because I had forgotten to before. We'll need that for finishing. I machine sewed the overlapping pieces together at the end, so I had to press that seam down before pressing the binding around the hem. I pin the binding to the inside to prepare for hand sewing. Using a simple hand whip stitch and red thread, I hand sew the edge of the hem binding in place, catching the lining layer and not the outer layer. I trim the waistband to a quarter inch, flip to the outside, and press. I also trim the lining fold to a quarter inch. I'm drawing a pencil line to show where my 5 eighth inch seam allowance is, so I can hand sew the waistband on. There's going to be too much bulk to get the pleats through the machine. I need to measure the waistband to place it at the right spot. I need 32 inches for my corseted waist, which is very similar to my real waist measurement. So I can actually do this up on my real waist for pictures when needed. I find the center of the waistband and the skirt and mark that with pins. And I place that on the skirt, right sides to right sides. I pin the waistband in flat until I get to the back panel. I need to pleat all of that down into, I think, five inches of waistband. I actually pin the pleats like three or four times before I'm happy with them. I kind of try and measure, but I find eyeballing it to be easier. I make three fairly equal, close together pleats. Once I have the one side, it's easy to just replicate it on the other side. Using a hand single backstitch with doubled thread, I sew the waistband in place. I have to stab stitch along the pleats. There's just so many layers of fabric there. When that's done, I trim all along the waistband to close to a quarter of an inch. I'm binding the edge with a hand overcast stitch. I could use my serger, but I worry about the fabric being too thick, so hand doing it is easy enough. I'm hand whip stitching the waistband lining down. You can see I have a couple inches extra waistband. This will tuck under easily, and if I need to let it out in the future, I can do that without having to cut any waistband. I hand sew the hook and eyes onto my waistband. I need two at the front and one behind that for support, plus six down the placket. I'm using a technique that I've seen from Kathy Hay and Bernadette Banner to make them look more finished and decorative, even though they really don't show much on the outside. I sew it in place with doubled thread with a few stitches on both sides, and then I go back and use a buttonhole stitch around each side. It really makes the hook and eyes look super pretty. I place all six hooks down the placket. I need thread loops on the placket side, as called for in the pattern, so I place two doubled threads, and then I use the buttonhole stitch to go along the threads for stability. It's like the friendship bracelets we made when we were younger, a bunch of knots going along the threads. I anchor that on the inside. I hand topstitch the pocket at the front. It just helps the thick fabric to stay flatter. And there we go! My completed Edwardian walking skirt. I'm not going to add a bell use to this skirt like I did to my green silk one, because this one is made out of cotton and cotton blends. It will be easy to clean. Speaking of my green silk Edwardian skirt, I plan on doing a Getting Ready Edwardian video of that outfit in the future, so keep an eye out! I'll show you the underside of that skirt so you can see what I'm talking about. Thank you for joining me today as I made my tartan flannel Edwardian walking skirt. I've already gotten a good start on the matching jacket, so look for that video coming soon. I'll be able to show the whole outfit at that point. I'm hoping that it will snow this winter so I can get some pretty outdoor shots. I'll get a small video going if that happens. If you liked this video and want to see more historical costumes and sewing videos, remember to subscribe to my channel. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below. Happy sewing! No, no sewing for me. Only pets. What are you doing? Bikini, stop bonking! Stop! Bikini, you're gonna erase my stuff! What the heck? What is going on, little girl?