Altering a 1950s Reversible Circle Skirt

Along with the 1930s tea dress and the gothic garden dress, I also bought a 1950s circle skirt from Bus Stop Vintage. I've never had much luck finding 1950s skirts. The ones I like on eBay are more expensive than dresses of the same condition and not a price I can justify for effectively half an outfit compared to a dress. The ones I saw in my local vintage shops were either too big or too small.

As I bought three items, the lovely seller at Bus Stop Vintage gave me a pretty good discount, putting this skirt back into my price range.

Look, it's reversible! The colours are actually a bright sunflower yellow, post box red and forest green but it was a dull day when I took these photos.

After alterations

After alterations

 The swirls have been appliqued by hand. They're a bit discoloured due to age but the stitching is really impressive.

Cute price tag

I was really impressed how well made the skirt was in general. The stiff linen means it can be worn without a petticoat. All raw edges are enclosed within the dress making it truly reversible. The tab covering the waist opening can be tucked either way depending on which side of the dress is worn.

It was also an inch too small and the skirt almost reached my ankles. I decided I would shorten the skirt from the waist (as shortening from the hem would result in the pattern sitting too close to the hem) and use the shortened fabric to make a new, larger waistband. Due to the reversible nature of the skirt, I knew I'd have to take almost all of it apart and remake it. Like a piece of origami, the seams have to be sewn in a certain order whilst the skirt is inside out so that all raw edges can be enclosed and the skirt can be turned back the right way again.

Firstly, I unpicked the skirt from the waistband and unpicked the gathers in the skirt.

This created a small mountain of thread.

I ironed all of the pieces and pinned the two layers of linen together at the top of the skirt. I measured the width of the original waistband - 5cm - and measured this plus 2cm for seam allowance from the top of the skirt. With the two layers of linen pinned together on each side of the cut line, I cut off the 7cm length of fabric I'd need to form the new waistband. I then marked 1cm around the new top of the skirt to mark the space where I'd be sewing to gather the fabric.

I cut the waistband to my waist measurement plus 2cm for seam allowance. I sewed the two pieces of waistband together along one of the long edges. I used white thread as per the original construction rather than favour red or yellow. I regathered both layers of the skirt separately to fit the new waistband and distributed the gathers evenly. I then machined the other long edge of the waistband to the skirt.

I did this for the red side first.

And then to the yellow side.

I tend to hand gather skirts rather than machine gather as I find it's easy and quicker.

While I had access to the reverse side of the fabric, I darned holes and tears in the ribbon.

 

I reattached the tab.

And resewed the hooks and eyes whilst sewing up the sides of the waistband and skirt.

Originally, the seam opposite the one with the tab was left unsewn. This was the gap used to turn the skirt inside out and the right way after inside-out sewing all of the seams. I decided to neatly handstitch it closed. While I used yellow thread here, it barely shows on the red side.

It now looks like this.