How many times have we gone into a project with high expectations, only for the final product not what we intended? This was most definitely one of those projects. I planned on making a new skirt for the new school year for my daughter. She picked out fabric and the Manhattan Skirt by New Horizon Designs. She is not a fan of woven anything be it ready to wear or mom made, so while the Manhattan is a pattern for woven I thought trasferring it into knit would not be that difficult.
I have often been told when using knit for a design intended for woven you should size down to account for the stretch. The problem is before doing that, I needed to actually grade the pattern up before taking it down because my daughter fit outside the size range. This would be my first time ever completely resizing an entire pattern. With the help of this tutorial, I was able to create the pattern pieces in her size. I took into account what size she normally wears in the girls New Horizon's collection, and also measured everything countless times. Short story long I ended up creating a skirt that fit me in the end. Thankfully my daughter was not as disappointed as I assumed she would be, and instead was proud that I had a skirt for me with fabric she picked out, that crisis was averted.
My daughter chose the galaxy print knit by Doodles found at Joann's. Worried it might be too much of a print for the whole skirt, I challanged myself to add a black stripe to the front breaking up the rather busy fabric. Thankfully I remembered to account for the seam allowance last minute or the entire front of the skirt would have been off.
I followed the clearly written instructions with one other alteration to the pattern pieces. Instead of cutting two back pieces, I chose to cut on the fold, also adjusting for the seam allowance for the center back seam that was no longer needed. I have a horrible habbit of cutting backwards, which I did with this skirt so my front diagnol is going the opposite direction. It worked out though because I even cut the solid black backwards too. Before piecing the skirt as directed I did attach the black stripe first. Since this skirt was intended for my daughter, I chose her favorite yoga waistband by simply using her measurements and adding it as you would any waistband. I did leave off the tabs and buttons in the end solely because this ended up a skirt for me, but had this fit her better they were cut and ready to add as well.
Once her Manhattan was all stitched up, she tried it on. To our surprise it was just a tad too big. I was afraid she would be crushed, but then she exclaimed, "Yeah, you don't get to take my picture." I guess she just was not feeling being my adorable little model she usually is (those with children know they don't always want to cooperate). She suggested I try it on and again surprised, it fit perfectly and once again was thrilled because she picked out the fabric for the skirt that I could now wear. I forgot to grab a photo, but it also doubles as a strapless top too.
Looking back, I learned a little on this adventure. I should have tried the largest size 10 in the knit vs. resizing the whole pattern. Had I made a muslin first I could have avoided any fit issues for my daughter. This was a first for me, as far as adding sizes and I should have known better. I will head back to the drawing board though and work on another so we can have matching skirts soon.
The Manhattan Skirt is a girls size pattern created for woven fabrics. It starts at infant size 0-6 months up to a size 10. Now is a great time to grab a copy while the back to school sale is going on until 8/7/2017 on the site. The instructions are detailed and easy to follow, even for beginners. While designed for woven it is cut on the bias allowing for movement. If you decide to try this in knit I highly suggest a muslin to avoid the sizing issue I had, but if using woven the sizing tutorial mentioned above will help get a larger size if needed for your beautiful little angel. All around I would absolutely recommend this skirt for its ease and style. Happy Sewing!
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