How to sew a one-hour A-line skirt

When I was in grad school in San Francisco, my friend Paige and I had regular painting nights in her studio apartment in the Tenderloin. Paige’s apartment was so tiny that in order to have space to do anything, we had put up her Murphy bed and move all the furniture to one corner. Then we’d put a drop cloth on the floor and spread out all of our art supplies and spend the entire evening making art. We used the same drop cloth every time we had art night and it almost became a record of the art we made.

There were big blue brushstrokes from when Paige cleaned her brush when she was working on a self-portrait. There were chunks of glitter frozen in glue from a collage I made. There were multi-colored paint splatters on pretty much the whole thing. When we moved from San Francisco down to Los Angeles, neither of us could bear to let that drop cloth go. Every once in a while I think about that drop cloth and remember not only all those late nights making art with the sense of creative freedom that I lost when I started making a living selling my work but also of all the art Paige and I both made, most of which neither of us have anymore.

Last week I was in Ventura, California for meetings in preparation for our next Craftcation: Business and Maker’s Conference and I popped into my favorite fabric shop in the area superbuzzy and spotted this amazing Japanese fabric that reminded me of that unforgettable drop cloth. I bought it and knew that I had to do what I should have done with the original drop cloth… turn it into wearable art. I used a simple a-line skirt pattern that I created several years ago. I love this pattern because since it’s based on your measurements so you can adjust it to any size and even use your child’s measurements to make it kid-sized. It’s also SUPER quick. I can make one in about an hour!

For the full tutorial, head over to Bernina’s blog We All Sew.