Born from a random “remnant” purchase, this skirt is my first real foray into women’s clothes. The name comes from the facts that A: I’m a dude, so the skirt isn’t for me, and B: the recipient is Lithuanian (and gorgeous): Tavo is Lithuanian for “Your”.

This project took me three evenings and is, I believe, the easiest way to get into women’s fashion, especially as a guy who doesn’t necessarily have a female form from which to constantly gain sizing measurements. This is thusly also a good project by which to gain said female’s confidence and therefore cooperation with future projects.

This project started, as I’d mentioned, with a beautiful piece of painted silk, just over a yard in length. One of the beauties of this design is that the fabric use is minimal, so you can really look around for a neat remnant of an otherwise expensive fabric. Your material needs will be as follows:

* Lower fabric: (Pick a drapy material for this) If your desired length is less than 22″ below the waist band, you can get the front and back panels from the same piece of 48″ fabric, so:
Width = ((Your hip measurement) * 1.5) / 2 so: (37″*1.5 = 55.5″), (55.5″/2) = 27.75″ round this to 28″. So for my skirt I would only need 28″ or 7/8th yard.

* Lining fabric: (a cheap poly lining is sufficient, again something drapy and in a similar color to the Lower fabric.) Buy the same quantity as for the Lower fabric.

* Waist band: (a solid dyed cotton. This should roughly match one of the colors in the Lower fabric’s pattern) *If you ever want her to wear it, make sure this cotton is dense enough to be opaque in only one layer.*

* Elastic thread: (use white unless your waist band fabric is very, very dark) I used less than 1 30yd spool for this skirt. You will need to hand wind your bobbins.

*Thread: One thread to match the main color in the Lower fabric and another that matches the waist band color (both should be big spools, I almost killed an entire small spool with finishing the edges of the lower section.)

Look back later for construction instructions

Thusly, it’s begun. Over the next month and a half, I hope to be adding content at a blistering pace (I will also be holding down a very demanding day job as well as actually doing the projects I’ll be showing on here.)

Regardless, I have many projects to complete before Christmas and I hope to upload those projects as quickly as possible. Most of these projects will be 2 to 4-night adventures, so hopefully I will post in time to let you complete them as presents. (I am a construction project manager, so I know EVERYONE wants to be done by Christmas, whether they start in January or November

Have a wonderful day!